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Publishers, Editors and Artists in the Marketing of News in the Dutch Republic circa 1700: The Case of Jan Goeree and the Europische Mercurius

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Books in Motion in Early Modern Europe

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Abstract

This chapter examines the interaction between publishers, editors and artists involved in the preparation of news publications in the Dutch Republic around 1700. A case study of the business partnership between the artist Jan Goeree and the publisher Andries van Damme in producing the Amsterdam news digest Europische Mercurius furnishes the backbone of the chapter. The chapter explores informal agreements about assignments, deadlines and remuneration, the gathering of information about material and suitable candidates for specific tasks, decisions about formats, layout and other activities related to the publication and distribution of news. It focuses on the use of engraved frontispieces and other marketing strategies such as newspaper advertising to increase the sale of news and examines the social spaces of informal communication between the various parties involved.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The term frontispiece has several meanings. In this case it concerns the original meaning as defined in Bibliopolis (<URL: http://www.bibliopolis.nl/index/index/lang/en [glossary]> [11 February 2016]): ‘engraved print preceding the printed title page; depicts one or more scenes related to the content of the work or offers an emblematic image.’ However, a frontispiece could also be published directly on or opposite the title page.

  2. 2.

    J.W. Koopmans, ‘De presentatie van het nieuws in de Europische Mercurius (1690–1756)’, Mededelingen van de Stichting Jacob Campo Weyerman, 23 (2000), 117–133; idem, ‘Storehouses of news: The meaning of early modern news periodicals in Western Europe’, in Not Dead Things: The Dissemination of Popular Print in England and Wales, Italy, and the Low Countries, 1500–1820, ed. R. Harms, J. Raymond and J. Salman (Leiden, 2013), 253–273, at 262–264.

  3. 3.

    J. Goeree, Mengel poëzy, bestaande in huwelykszangen, verjaardichten, lyk- en grafdichten, heldendichten en zegezangen, mengelgedichten, en gezangen, part 2 (Amsterdam, 1734), 147. This book was published by ‘Johannes Pauli and de Janssoons van Waesberge’, who were relatives on Jan Goeree’s mother’s side. In 1758 Albert van der Kroe published a second edition in Amsterdam. The warning’s text in Dutch: ‘Waarschouwing aan den beschouwer/Beschouwer, zie dees Tytel aan,/Als een, pas drie quart afgedaan;/En vraagt gy, hoe komt dat zo vies?/Door ’t ongeduld van Anderies [Andries van Damme];/Die wou, die zou, die moest de Plaat,/Dus ziet gy die in dezen staat;/’k Hadt anders, Vrinden, u ontvouwt,/Wat dat het oog hier al beschouwt:/Nu zal het best zyn, en niet kwaad,/Dat gy wat naar den inhoud raadt;/En kunt gy niet? zo bidde ik wek/Merkuur, opdat die ’t u ontdek.’ The 1726 volume also includes a map of floods in the Dutch Republic designed by Jan Goeree (see part 1, next to page 92).

  4. 4.

    See, e.g., A. Pettegree, The Invention of News: How the World Came to Know About Itself (New Haven, 2014), and the discussed literature about serial news publications in D. Bellingradt, ‘Forschungsbericht: Periodische Presse im deutschen Sprachraum der Frühen Neuzeit/Research report: Early modern periodical press in German speaking Europe’, Archiv für Geschichte des Buchwesens, 69 (2014), 235–248.

  5. 5.

    G. Verhoeven and P. Verkruijsse, ‘Verbeelding op bestelling. De boekillustratie’, in Romeyn de Hooghe: de verbeelding van de late Gouden Eeuw, ed. H. van Nierop et al. (Zwolle, 2008), 146–169, at 147–149, 151.

  6. 6.

    Cf. G. Genette, Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation (Cambridge, 1997), 7, who includes illustrations in the broad spectrum of paratexts that could be published together with the main text of a publication.

  7. 7.

    ‘Titelprent’, Algemeen Letterkundig Lexicon, <URL: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/dela012alge01_01/dela012alge01_01_01963.php> [15 March 2014].

  8. 8.

    The Europische Mercurius has title pages with ‘bezyden de Beurs’ (next to the Stock Exchange) and ‘bezuyden de Beurs’ (south of the Stock Exchange).

  9. 9.

    W. Goeree, Inleydinge tot de Alghemeene Teycken-Konst. Een kritische geannoteerde editie, ed. M. Kwakkelstein (Leiden, 1998), 17–27.

  10. 10.

    See this volume’s introduction concerning the different meanings of ‘spatiality’ and ‘sociality’, concepts that converge here.

  11. 11.

    See their addresses in volumes 3 and 4 of I.H. van Eeghen, De Amsterdamse Boekhandel, 1680–1725 (Amsterdam, 1965–1967).

  12. 12.

    Jan Goeree praised Gerard de Lairesse in a few poems. See his Mengel poëzy, part 2, 54–58.

  13. 13.

    See, e.g., the collection of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum (<URL: http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/ < Jan Goeree> [1 October 2014]).

  14. 14.

    In this project Goeree cooperated with Simon Schijnvoet. R.-J. te Rijdt, ‘Getekende ontwerpen voor beeldhouwers: Nicolaas Verkolje en Jan Goeree’, in Kunst op papier in de achttiende eeuw: liber amicorum aangeboden aan Charles Dumas ter gelegenheid van zijn 65ste verjaardag, ed. E. Buijsen et al. (Zoetermeer, 2014), 168–181, at 176.

  15. 15.

    The main title in Dutch: Historische gedenk-penningen van Lodewyk den XIV. P.G. Witsen Geysbeek, Biographisch anthologisch en critisch woordenboek der Nederduitsche dichters, part 2 (Amsterdam, 1822), 390–394.

  16. 16.

    More details in J.W. Koopmans, ‘Jan Goeree en zijn ontbrekende titelgedichten in de Europische Mercurius (1713, 1718, 1719 and 1727)’, Mededelingen van de Stichting Jacob Campo Weyerman, 26 (2003), 73–90.

  17. 17.

    Before 1705 only the 1693 volume of the Europische Mercurius was provided with a title rhyme, written by Thomas Arendsz, a poem that was also posthumously published – with a few spelling and other variances – in his Mengel poëzy, ed. M. Brouërius van Nidek (Amsterdam, 1724), 93–95 (thanks to Anna de Haas for her reference). The 1705 frontispiece was made by the engraver Pieter Sluyter, Goeree’s predecessor who had worked for the Europische Mercurius since 1702, leaving Amsterdam in 1711. Goeree and Sluyter were acquaintances and cooperated during these years. See, e.g., the poem that Goeree wrote for Sluyter, Mengel poëzy, part 2, 182–183.

  18. 18.

    D. Geuke, ‘Laurens Arminius en zijn “bijzonderheden”’, Mededelingen van de Stichting Jacob Campo Weyerman, 15 (1992), 113–119, at 115.

  19. 19.

    Its location was the Amsterdam Oudezijds Voorburgwal, which was not far from Dam Square. G. Schelvis and K. van der Vloed, Jenever en wind: Leven, werk en wereld van Robert Hennebo (1686–1737) (Hilversum, 2008), 30, 97; I. Leemans and G.J. Johannes, Worm en donder: Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse literatuur 1700–1800: de Republiek (Amsterdam, 2013), 266.

  20. 20.

    Quotes in Dutch: ‘het bits Merkuur-Schryvertje’; ‘Den geweezen Zoons Zoon van den Groten Armyn, (…) schreef beter in de Latynsche als in zyn Moeders taal. Zyn Europische Merkurius bewaarheyt myn stelling (…).’; ‘(…) gy doet zien dat gy een echte zoons zoon zyt van den beruchten Armyn, want die maakte een scheuring in de Duytsche kerk, en gy steekt de trompet van oproer in een Fransche kroeg.’ J.C. Weyerman, De zeldzaame leevens-byzonderheden van Laurens Arminius, Jakob Campo Weyerman, Robert Hennebo, Jakob Veenhuyzen, En veele andere beruchte persoonaadgien etc. (Amsterdam, 1738), voorreden (unpaged, [6]), 22–23, 33.

  21. 21.

    Goeree, Mengel poëzy, part 1, 216.

  22. 22.

    Text in Dutch: ‘twee vliegen/met eene klap/of/lyk-grap,/Op het verdwynen/Der twee voornaamste Figuuren/Uyt de Europische Merkuuren.’ Goeree, Mengel poëzy, part 1, 217–221. Goeree gives the impression that Van Damme could speak Malay (in Dutch: ‘En gij Andreas [Andries van Damme]! zo volleerd/In het Mal-leyds, hoe is’t verkeerd’), while this could be expected from Arminius who had been in the Netherlands East Indies between 1703 and 1705. Therefore, it is more logical that Goeree meant the local dialect of Leyden, as this was the city where Van Damme had grown up.

  23. 23.

    H. van Goinga, ‘Schaduwbeelden: Vrouwen in het boekenvak in de vroegmoderne tijd: een nieuw terrein van onderzoek’, Jaarboek voor Nederlandse boekgeschiedenis, 12 (2005), 13–28 (with further bibliography on England, France and Germany).

  24. 24.

    H. Smith, Grossly Material Things: Women and Book Production in Early Modern England (Oxford, 2012), particularly ch. 3, 87–134 (thanks to Andrew Pettegree for this reference).

  25. 25.

    This volume’s title page, however, suggested that Andries van Damme was still alive.

  26. 26.

    Koopmans, ‘De presentatie van het nieuws’, 120.

  27. 27.

    Onderzoek over de Nederduitsche tooneelpoëzie (Amsterdam, 1724): G. Kamphuis, ‘De ondergang van de rei in het Nederlandsche treurspel’, De Nieuwe Taalgids, 40 (1947), 8–13, at 11.

  28. 28.

    The text in Dutch: ‘Beschouwers die hier staat, en ziet./En vat deez’ Tytels inhoud niet,/Zo luystert toe, ik zalze ontleeden./De twee Scherminkels hier beneden,/Ter wederzyds het Tytel-schild,/Verbeelden hier, indienje wilt,/d’Autheur en Drukker der Merkuuren,/Die beyde zyn haar piek gaan schuuren/Naar ’t akelig Elizeesche Veld,/Daar d’een aan d’ander nu vertelt/Hoe zy ’t op hun verscheiden lieten/Op d’Aard’, die hen scheen te verdrieten.’

  29. 29.

    Leydse Courant [‘Leiden Newspaper’], 1 March 1728. All dates in this article concern the Gregorian calendar.

  30. 30.

    Hendri(c)k Jansz van Damme’s mother was Catharina Engelgraaf. When she was a sister of Judith Engelgraaf, Hendrik was also Judith Engelgraaf’s nephew. Andries van Damme and Judith Engelgraaf were witnesses at Hendrik’s baptism. Erfgoed Leiden en omstreken: Doop-, trouw- en begraafboeken Leiden, archive 1004, inventory number 245 (2 September 1704). So far, I have not found evidence of any children of Andries van Damme and Judith Engelgraaf, which makes succession by a nephew comprehensible.

  31. 31.

    Johannes Ratelband was born in 1672.

  32. 32.

    This volume’s announcement in the Amsterdamse Courant [‘Amsterdam Newspaper’] of 31 August 1730 also speaks about the ‘widow of J. Ratelband’. Gerrevink’s name did not appear on the news periodical’s title pages before 1747, when he became a member of the Amsterdam printing guild. After he passed away in 1748 Maria L(e)ijbrechts returned to the title pages as ‘widow Gerrevink’. She probably ended her business in 1750. Koopmans, ‘De presentatie van het nieuws’, 119.

  33. 33.

    Koopmans, ‘Storehouses of news’, 259–260; G. Verhoeven and S. van der Veen, De Hollandse Mercurius: Een Haarlems jaarboek uit de zeventiende eeuw (Haarlem, 2011), 22–31, 78–80. Abraham Casteleyn’s continuation of the project was announced in the Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant [‘Sincere Haarlem Newspaper’] on 3 and 10 April 1677.

  34. 34.

    Verhoeven and van der Veen, De Hollandse Mercurius, 62–63; see also the volume Romeyn de Hooghe, particularly Verhoeven and Verkruijsse, ‘Verbeelding op bestelling’, 157–158. The only volume not to include one of De Hooghe’s engravings is that of 1677.

  35. 35.

    The 1696 frontispiece was made by Jan Luyken’s son, Casper Luyken. He may have assisted his father with other title page engravings for the Europische Mercurius, although this is difficult to demonstrate considering the great similarities in their styles. P. van Eeghen, Het werk van Jan en Casper Luyken, 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1905), vol. 1, 200–205 and vol. 2, 791–792.

  36. 36.

    H. van ’t Veld, Beminde broeder die ik vand op ’s werelts pelgrims wegen: Jan Luyken (1649–1712) als illustrator en medereiziger van John Bunyan (1628–1688) (Utrecht, 2000), 88, 93, 473.

  37. 37.

    F. Peeters, ‘Timotheus ten Hoorn, uitgever van de Europische Mercurius’, Mededelingen van de Stichting Jacob Campo Weyerman, 24 (2001), 43–45. See also Amsterdamse Courant, 1 July 1702. The bookseller Van den Dalen, working in Amsterdam until 1699 and thereafter in Leiden, was involved in the project until 1715.

  38. 38.

    N. Klaversma and K. Hannema, Jan en Casper Luyken te boek gesteld: Catalogus van de boekencollectie Van Eeghen in het Amsterdams Historisch Museum (Hilversum, 1999); on Sluyter and his activities see M.G. Wildeman, ‘De groote kaart van Delfland van 1712’, Oud Holland. Nieuwe bijdragen voor de geschiedenis der Nederlandsche kunst, letterkunde, nijverheid, enz., 18 (1900), 233–244, at 235, 237, 243.

  39. 39.

    See Andreas Golob’s contribution to this volume.

  40. 40.

    E.g., Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, 11 May 1675: the previous 25 volumes of the Hollandse Mercurius, ‘met hare Platen’ (with their prints); 8 February 1676: the previous 26 volumes of the same periodical, ‘met veel kopere Platen verciert’ (illustrated with many sheet-coppers); 10 June 1683 and 16 May 1686: successively volume 33 and 36 of the Hollandse Mercurius, ‘met Kopere Platen’ (with sheet-coppers); 21 September 1700: volume 11 part 1 of the Europische Mercurius, also ‘met Kopere Platen’; 4 May 1702, volume 12 part 2, also ‘met Kopere Platen’. These advertisements have been retrieved from the digital database of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library) in The Hague: <URL: http://www.delpher.nl> [11 February 2016] (keywords ‘mercurius’ and ‘mercurii’). Although this database includes thousands of copies of early modern newspapers, many seventeenth- and eighteenth-century copies have been lost, and not all available copies have been digitized. Furthermore, the OCR technique is far from perfect, which means that search actions with keywords will not retrieve all possible results.

  41. 41.

    Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, 5 April 1701. An example of a very extensive content description of a new Europische Mercurius volume can be found in Leydse Courant, 12 August 1748.

  42. 42.

    Amsterdamse Courant, 8 and 18 March 1735. See also, e.g., Leydse Courant, 26 February, 20 August and 8 September 1734, 18 March 1735, 7 September 1739, 14 August 1743, 7 March 1744, 23 February and 8 August 1746; Amsterdamse Courant, 16 August, 6 September 1736, 22 July 1741, 11 February 1744; Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, 11 and 13 August 1739, 3 August 1743, 13 August 1746.

  43. 43.

    Leydse Courant, 24 December 1732.

  44. 44.

    Europische Mercurius, 43 (1732), part 1, 297–308 (print next page 297).

  45. 45.

    J.W. Koopmans, ‘The Early 1730s Shipworm Disaster in Dutch News Media’, Dutch Crossing: Journal of Low Countries Studies, 40.2 (2016), 139–150, at 145–147.

  46. 46.

    The Dutch text: ‘NB. De Europische Mercurius van de 6 eerste Maenden deses Jaers is nu oock uytgekomen.’ Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, 2 September 1717.

  47. 47.

    Text in Dutch: ‘Dit werk de liefhebberen der historien en staatkunde genoeg bekend zynde, en dus onnodig daarvan eenige aanpryzing te maken (…).’ Leydse Courant, 8 May 1752.

  48. 48.

    Text in Dutch: ‘By F.H. Scheurleer, boekverkoper in ’s Gravenhage, is gedrukt en word aan de boekverkopers in deze en andere steden en provincien verzonden, het Nederlands Gedenk-boek, of Europische Mercurius voor de zes laatste Maanden van het jaar 1754 (…).’ Leydse Courant, 23 December 1754 and 1 January 1755. This volume was ready at a very early stage. Scheurleer had purchased the Europische Mercurius from Maria Lijbrechts in 1749, as announced in the Amsterdamse Courant of 5 August 1749, in which Lijbrechts is mentioned as his Amsterdam selling address.

  49. 49.

    Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, 2 February and 2 March 1690. The advertisement in Dutch: ‘Abraham Casteleyn, genegen, eenige Compleete Hollantse Mercurii, beginnende met den Jare 1650 en eyndigende met den Jare 1688 incluys, voor een seer Civile Prijs te verkopen, praesenteert deselve in de naeste Maenden van February, Maert en April, 1690, voor seventien Guldens contant ongebonden; en also omtrent een derdepart minder, als sy tot nog toe gekost hebben. Ymant, een of meer begerende, kan sulckx ’t Gelt daer by sendende, binnen dien tijt aen hem laten weten. Ondertussen continueert hy ’t drucken van ’t Vervolg op deselve Mercurius.’ See also, e.g., Leydse Courant, 6 July 1731 (series of Europische Mercurius 1690–1730).

  50. 50.

    Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, 5 and 7 April (together with the announcement of volume 41, which was the last), and 5 July 1691; Verhoeven and van der Veen, De Hollandse Mercurius, 87–88. In 1699 Timotheus ten Hoorn offered the Europische Mercurius volumes of 1690–1699 for 20 guilders. Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, 7 April 1699. In 1740 Heirs of J. Ratelband and Company offered the whole Europische Mercurius series from 1690 onwards (50 volumes) for 100 guilders. Amsterdamse Courant, 6 August 1740 and Leydse Courant, 8 August 1740. In 1752 the Europische Mercurius series from 1735 until 1751 was offered temporarily for the price of 36 guilders, after which it would become again 51 guilders. Leydse Courant, 8 May 1752.

  51. 51.

    See, e.g., Amsterdamse Courant, 24 February 1705; Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, 8 March and 13 August 1718.

  52. 52.

    Leydse Courant, 10 August 1744; Amsterdamse Courant, 13 August 1744.

  53. 53.

    Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, 23 and 25 February 1745.

  54. 54.

    Text in Dutch: ‘zijn mede te bekomen tot Amsterdam by Pieter Arentsz, Hendrick en Dirck Boom en andere Boeckverkopers.’ Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, 3 May 1678. Thanks for this advertisement to Hannie van Goinga, who browsed several newspapers in their original form.

  55. 55.

    Amsterdamse Courant, 11 February 1744. In Dutch: ‘en zal met open water alom verzonden werden (…).’

  56. 56.

    ’s Gravenhaegse Courant [‘The Hague Newspaper’], 30 March 1744; Oprechte Haerlemsche Courant, 31 March and 2 April 1744.

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  1. University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

    Joop W. Koopmans

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Correspondence to Joop W. Koopmans .

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  1. Institute for the Study of the Book, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany

    Daniel Bellingradt

  2. Carleton University , Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Paul Nelles

  3. University of Utrecht , Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Jeroen Salman

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Koopmans, J.W. (2017). Publishers, Editors and Artists in the Marketing of News in the Dutch Republic circa 1700: The Case of Jan Goeree and the Europische Mercurius . In: Bellingradt, D., Nelles, P., Salman, J. (eds) Books in Motion in Early Modern Europe. New Directions in Book History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53366-7_7

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