Dutch Crossing

Journal of Low Countries Studies

ISSN: 0309-6564 (Print) 1759-7854 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ydtc20

Ego-Documents in the Netherlands 1500–1814

Rudolf M. Dekker

To cite this article: Rudolf M. Dekker (1989) Ego-Documents in the Netherlands 1500–1814,
Dutch Crossing, 13:39, 61-71, DOI: 10.1080/03096564.1989.11783923

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/03096564.1989.11783923

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 EGO-DOCUMENTS IN THE NETHERLANDS 1500-1814

RUDOLF M. DEKKER

Dutchmen are not much interested in each other. This, at any rate, is the only
explanation I can offer for the scarcity of biographical writing in the
Netherlands. What is even worse, Dutchmen seem to be even less interested
in themselves. This explains the lack of autobiographical writing. The first
lacuna can quite easily be dealt with, by writing biographies; in fact the last
few years have seen a growing production by Dutch historians. The second
lacuna is the real problem. We cannot ask Prince Maurice, Johannes Vermeer
or Johan Derk van der Capellen to write their autobiographies, nor can we ask
for a Dutch Cellini, a Dutch Pepys or a Dutch Menetra to stand up.

Nevertheless there is in Holland a growing interest not only in biographical

literature, but also in autobiographical literature. Some thirty years ago, the
Dutch historian Jacob Presser even enriched the Dutch language with a special
word for such texts: 'egodocument'. 1 With this term he referred to texts in
which the author tells us something about his or her personal life and feelings.
This neologism proved to be useful. It covered a wide range of records, such
as autobiographies, memoirs, diaries, travel journals and personal letters. It can
be compared with the English expression 'personal document', which is,
however, much broader, and can include, for instance, housekeeping books and
other records which reveal only indirectly something about the author. The
acceptance of the word 'egodocument' in Dutch indicates that it fulfills a need;
it might be a practical word in English too.

Aie we sure that Prince Maurice, Johannes Vermeer, and Van der Cappellen
did not write any egodocuments? And are we sure that there is no Dutch
Cellini? We are not. Dutch archives, and especially the manuscript collections
of libraries and museums are goldmines in this respect. Unfortunately, these
goldmines are closed. Much of their content is hidden on illegible index cards,
if it is described at all. Egodocuments are never catalogued as such. To change
this situation, a research project was conceived at the Erasmus University some
years ago, aimed at searching through all Dutch archives, libraries and
museums to discover egodocuments. 2 Before I describe in more detail some of
the results, I want to make a few remarks about the relationship between
history, literature and egodocuments.

Egodocuments are used in various disciplines, but history and literary history
are the most irnponant. 3 The interest in egodocuments in both fields has
developed in completely opposite ways. For historians until the middle of the

61
nineteenth century, egodocuments were the most important primary sources. The
idea was generally held that the historical actors were closest to historical
reality, and therefore their diaries and memoirs were the most trustworthy
sources. Later historians became more sceptical. Ranke - who else? - was the
first to warn that many memoirs are frauds. In his German eyes, the French
were particularly prone to such forgery. In our own, post-Freudian age,
historians became aware that egodocuments, even if they were not forged,
seldom contain the plain truth. Psychological mechanisms, like repression,
always influence the content of a text, even without the author being aware of
it. Thus, historians grew more and more hesitant to use egodocuments. Their
perceived value as historical sources strongly diminished.

Literary critics and historians of literature, on the contrary, originally paid little
attention to egodocuments. In the nineteenth century they were of the same
opinion as the historians: egodocuments describe reality. Therefore they cannot
be regarded as fiction, let alone as literature. After around 1900, literary critics,
like the historians, became aware that egodocuments could be at least partly
fictitious. Furthermore, in the first half of the twentieth century more and more
writers used the autobiography or diary as a vehicle for literature, or they wrote
novels that were clearly autobiographical. In other words, the dividing line
between literature and egodocument became blurred. After the middle of the
present century literary critics enthusiastically entered what they called 'the dark
continent of literature'. Especially critics influenced by French structuralist
thought are currently very productive - which is not surprising considering the
emphasis they put on the impossibility of distinguishing between fiction and
reality.

In short: while historians value egodocuments less and less, literary cnt1cs
have become more and more enthusiastic. In addition, the way both disciplines
look at egodocuments differs widGly. Fortunately, this gap can be bridged - to
some extent. There is a renewed interest among historians for this type of
source. Egodocuments have become attractive again, as sources for social
history and the 'histoire des mentalites'. Even if the authors were not always
telling the truth, such sources can still inform us about, for instance, social
conventions of the time. The autobiography of the Frenchman Louis Menetra,
for instance, which has recently received much attention, is probably partly the
product of its author's imagination, but nevertheless gives us a unique insight
in the world of the labouring classes of the Ancien Regime.

Although Jacob Presser was successful in coining the word egodocument, he

was less successful in stimulating historical research in this field. Interest in
egodocuments in the Netherlands is still small compared, for instance, to
England. There are few text editions. And it is surprising to see that most of
the texts which have appeared in print, such as the diaries of Constantijn
Huygens, have not been used by social historians. And until now it has been
unclear how many manuscripts have been preserved in archives and libraries.

62
The egodocument project was conceived in an optmusuc mood, even in a
megalomaniac mood. It aimed at visiting all archives and libraries in the
Netherlands, researching all manuscript collections and all family archives. The
project has been carried out by the historians Ruud Lindemans, Yvonne Scherf
and myself. We have looked for autobiographies, memoirs, diaries and travel
journals. Only personal letters were excluded. The project was restricted in time
to the period before 1814. This meant that diaries or autobiographies with a
starting date before 1814 are included - even if they extend well into the
nineteenth century. All egodocuments found in these collections were described
according to a fixed set of questions about the author, and the purpose and
content of the text. This tour through the Netherlands finished last year, and
has brought to light some 1200 documents. We have also made a bibliography
of published egodocuments, and literature about egodocuments, which contains
around 400 items. The repenory with descriptions will be published in due
course. Some of the most interesting fmdings will appear in a new series of
text editions, started last year by the publisher Verloren. The first text is the
autobiobiography of Maria van Antwerpen who in the middle of the eighteenth
century lived for years as a soldier. 4

Although the fmal list of descriptions still has to be compiled, it is possible to

draw some conclusions, or at least to give some impressions on individual
aspects.

DEVELOPMENT

It will not come as a surprise that the number of egodocuments increased over
time. This increase was gradual, but at times very sudden. During political
crises and wars, many more egodocuments were produced than in normal times.
Such events were obviously an imp_9nant impulse for starting to write a diary.
Several diaries begin with an introduction in which the author explains that
what he is now experiencing will be an historical event, which must be noted
down for his children or for posterity in general. Sometimes the author added
that political matters were so complicated that his diary or chronicle would be
necessary to understand them, or to distinguish rumour from fact. During each
major crisis more diaries can be found, especially around 1672, 1747, the years
of the Patriot revolution, 1784-1787, during the first years after the
establishment of the Batavian Republic in 1795, and fmally during in the
years 1813 and 1814, which inspired many authors, especially those who were
forced into military service in Napoleon's armies. These boom periods occur
against a background of continuous growth. In the last quarter of the eighteenth
century this 'normal' growth accelerated. In this period the writing of
egodocuments had become a fashion, and the texts show more and more traces
of Romanticism. During the period 1780-1814 perhaps a third of all
egodocuments were written. This may be a distonion, because these later
documents cenainly had better chances of survival, but their number remains
impressive.

63
GEOGRAPHY

The Dutch Republic consisted of seven provinces, each with its own character.
This is reflected in the writing of egodocuments. Most documents were written
in the coastal provinces of Holland, Zeeland and Friesland. Friesland seems to
have had a literate culture of its own. As has recently been argued by Wiebe
Bergsma in his study about Abel Eppens, literacy was already widespread in
the sixteenth century, even among farmers. 5 The autobiography of the Frisian
nobleman Jancko Douwama, dating from the early sixteenth century, can be
reckoned among the oldest Dutch autobiographies, and the diary of the farmer
Dirck Jans is among the first diaries. 6 In other parts of the country, the East
and South, very few egodocuments have come to light. And what we have
found were isolated records written by local noble families. In South Brabant
and Limburg the lack of such documents must partly be explained by a general
lack of education, and by the political status of these regions. Governed by the
States General, they had no political elite of their own. Also, most of the
authors lived in cities. There were a few writing farmers, but they are
exceptions. Most authors in a rural milieu were noblemen and 'regenten' living
in their castles or country houses, and in some cases parsons ('predikanten ')
or people who had some other function which was not agrarian in itself.

FORM AND GENRE

Egodocuments are the despair of literary historians. They have no well-defmed

form, they seem to obey no rules at all. Indeed the documents have all kinds
of forms, both material and in terms of content. Some texts are very short, and
for practical reasons we have excluded texts shorter than three pages. There is
an enormous collection of very short autobiographies written by Hemhutters,
which were written according to the custom of their belief not long before an
expected death. Other documents· are extremely long. The diaries of Rijklof
Michael van Goens run to some 5000 pages, and the diaries of Lieuwe van
Aitzema to even more. 7

Some manuscripts are clearly and even beautifully written, some were
obviously intended to appear in print. In some cases the documents are
preserved together with their drafts. Some texts were written on scraps of
paper. Sometimes paper was so scarce that the same sheet was used twice,
fust from left to right, and then from top to bottom; and this on both sides,
of course. Some documents have survived only as copies. Of some documents
we found several copies in various archives and libraries. These were partly
documents in which historians, writing before the invention of the xerox
machine, were interested. Also a number of religious egodocuments were
copied in pietistic circles in the eighteenth century, maybe even more widely
than the surviving copies suggest. 8

To divide egodocuments into types or genres is a risky undertaking. There are,

64
for instance, diaries in the form of letters (which, by the way, may never have
been sent). Without discussing these problems in detail, some broad lines are
clear. The majority of the documents we have found are travel journals. Some
were extended journals of a grand tour through large pans of Europe over the
period of a year or more. 9 Other documents - and their number grows in the
eighteenth century - are short texts about holiday trips of no more than two or
three weeks to places like Spa or Cleves. The German city of Cleves was a
favorite destination for Dutch tourists in the eighteenth century. The history of
tourism could well be reconstructed from these travel journals. Diaries and
autobiographies each take no more than around 20 to 30 percent of the total
number of texts. There is an incredible variation in style. Some autobiographies
were written in rhyme. In the seventeenth century this was done by members
of the elite, with the autobiography of Jacob Cats as printed example. 10 In the
eighteenth century only middle-class authors would relate their lives in rhyme,
like the schoolteacher of the Amsterdam Burgerweeshuis (the city's
orphanage). 11 Especially the authors of autobiographies and travel journals were
at pains to write well and fluently. In diaries notation is often so short that the
reader has difficulty in understanding what is being described. Constantijn
Huygens in his diary, for instance, constantly omits essential syntactical
information, and the result is that we often do not know what was said or done
by and to whom. 12

AUTHORS

Most authors come from the upper classes. This is no surprise, although they
may be over-represented, because their texts may have survived better. They
sat for centuries in family archives, safely kept in castles until they were
transferred to public archives. The products of more humble authors may easily
have been thrown away by descendants moving from place to place. The
nobility and the 'regentenpaoiciaat certainly are best represented as authors.
Another well represented group consists of clergymen, lawyers, university
professors, in short, persons who were used to writing and had permanent
access to pen, ink and paper. A number of authors belong to the middle and
lower middle classes. Among these are farmers, schoolteachers, booksellers, a
shipwright. All the social groups which did receive at least some education are
represented among the authors, although not very evenly.

MOTIVES

Those authors who began to write in times of crisis often staned their diaries
with a remark that what was happening during their lifetime was worth
recording, for their own memory or for posterity. Most travel journals were
written for personal reasons, and mainly for enjoying the voyage again at
home. The painter Gerard van Nijmegen who travelled to Germany in 1788
opened his journal with the remark that he wanted to read his own journal
again when he and his wife had reached old age, seated at the frreplace in their

65
armchairs, 'interrupted by coughing, and bouts of rheumatism'. This may sound
droll, but the contents of this particular travel journal are especially interesting
for art historians because of the visits to fellow painters.n

Religion was also a motive for writing. Some family histories included an
autobiographical part, and were written to convince the children that they
should stay with the belief of their forefathers. This type of record is mainly
found among minority groups like Jews, Remonstrants and Huguenots. There
are also a few Catholic examples. Among the Reformed Protestants the
religious diary or autobiography became important as an expression of pietism
only during the eighteenth century and in the early nineteenth century. The link
between the writing of egodocuments and pietism in the Netherlands is now
being thoroughly explored by Fred van Lieburg. 14 Nonetheless the number of
mainly or purely religious egodocuments is surprisingly small. Of course, many
of the other documents demonstrate the religious minds of their authors, even
if religion was not a primary motivating force for writing. Some
autobiographies are defence pleas, political or otherwise. One of the earliest
memoirs can serve as an example, those of Jancko Douwama, a Frisian
nobleman who around 1500 was involved in the Frisian civil war, and who
ended his life as a prisoner of Charles V. The same is true of the memoirs
written by Patriots and some Orangists who were involved in the conflicts of
the late eighteenth century.

But the most important motive, certainly for writing an autobiography, was
familial: the author wanted to pass personal and family information on to his
descendants. The writing of egodocuments was often a custom within a family.
The Huygens family is good example, but there are many more. The German
immigrant E.H. Krelage, for example, wrote an autobiography in German for
his son Heinrich 'dass derselbe wissen soli, wo seins Vaters Stammhaus und
sein Stamm, herkommen .. .' It is an extensive document of some 200 pages.ll
In 1798 the Orangist politician Ocker Repelaer wrote a much shorter
autobiography. He had less time. He was prisoner during the Batavian Republic
and was condemned to death, and wrote his autobiography as a farewell letter
to his family. This is maybe the only egodocument of this period which can
be compared with the many last letters written in revolutionary France around
the same time. Repelaer, however, survived, as did his autobiography and his
prison diary. 16

INTROSPECTION

Repelaer brings us to the problem of introspection as a motivation. In his

autobiography he also confessed his sins. He obviously wished to have a last
look at himself. Such introspection is generally seen as a primary force behind
the writing of egodocuments. The Dutch material in general, however, does not
confirm this hypothesis. Most egodocuments are rather factual. Especially in the
travel journals the authors only occasionally reveal something of their own

66
opinions and feelings. Even autobiographies and diaries are often nothing more
than a rather dull form of account keeping. There are however exceptions, such
as the autobiography, written in Latin, of Uriel da Costa. 17 Though of
questionable authenticity this is at least a very moving document. The only
extensive introspective diary of the eighteenth century is written by a woman
named Magdalena van Schinne. In her diary-in-letters she constantly analyses
her own feelings. 11 However, she is writing in French, and somehow I have the
impression that she must be seen not in a Dutch literary tradition, but as part
of a more general, French-influenced, European culture, like Belle van Zuylen.

The purely religious diaries and autobiographies constitute a genre in itself.

Here we flnd a great deal of introspection, sometimes to the extent that daily
life hardly figures in them. Religion is so central to these texts that they can
with good reason be seen as religious treatises, rather than egodocuments. The
relative insignificance of introspection in Dutch egodocuments is surprising.
Self-analysis is held to have developed in bourgeois circles and to be favoured
by Protestantism. The more than one hundred self portraits by Rembrandt are
often seen as an indication for this development in the Netherlands. This
interpretation may have to be abandoned, and maybe the real question is why
the Dutch did not, under such favourable conditions, develop an
autobiographical tradition.

AUDIENCE

It would be wrong to think that as a rule egodocuments are written for the
eyes of the author only. This is in fact the exception. Most documents were
written with an audience in mind. This is obviously the case with travel
journals and autobiographies. Children and young travellers on a Grand Tour
usually kept journals for their parents, and, as we have seen, autobiographies
were often written for descendant~. Travel journals were often meant for the
family and acquaintances who stayed at home, and the same is true of diaries.
Especially diaries with religious overtones were shown to others with whom the
author shared his religious beliefs. Sometimes we know this from the diaries
themselves. Some manuscripts served only as notebooks for later publications.
An example is the travel journal of Rutger Meetelerkamp, which contains some
1500 pages. He travelled through Europe to collect material for his book 'De
toestand van Nederland in vergelijking gebragt met die van enige andere
Ianden', published in 1804. 19 A minority of the texts were purely private.
Constantijn Huygens, for instance, noted in one of his later diaries with some
shock that a few pages of his diary were missing. He also sometimes used
cipher for passages for which a greater degree of secrecy was needed. And he
was not the only one who used such tricks. Some wrote in Greek (real Greek
or Dutch in Greek letters) or Hebrew now and then, for the same reasons.

67
LAN"GUAGE

About 10 to 20 percent of all manuscripts are in languages other than Dutch.

In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Latin is used by scholars and
clergymen, and in some cases it was used in travel journals kept during a
Grand Tour. Later on Latin is used less, with the exception of Catholic clerics
and an occasional Latin teacher. In some cases the language used in one text
varies, especially in diaries. Italian and French were languages especially
appropriate to relate amorous affairs, like the Utrecht professor Aemout van
Buchell did. 20 Some authors switch from one language to another like maniacs.
Lieuwe van Aitzema wrote his diary in Dutch, Spanish, Latin, French and
English. Such ostentatious display was especially popular in the first half of the
seventeenth century. An interesting case is also Baron van Overschie, who
wrote Italian in Italy, Spanish in Spain, and French everywhere else. 21 The
element of education is often apparent in the use of foreign travel journals. The
famous Balthasar Bekker wrote a hitherto unknown journal about a journey to
France and England in Dutch. He was a learned man and did not need to
practise his languages. He even knew them well enough to be appointed
'master of the language' by his fellow travellers, which meant that he decided
which language the group would speak. 22

In the eighteenth century French comes more and more into vogue. For many
Dutch regents, like Gijbert Karel van Hogendorp, the use of French in diaries
and autobiographies is something quite natural. This may reflect the use of
French in daily life. There is an interesting diary by an Irishwoman married to
a Dutchman dating from around 1800, who writes in English and gives
dialogues in French. 23 German and English are used very seldom only. The
autobiography written by Michael Rijklof van Goens in the late eighteenth
century is the only example of an autobiography in English, and it might be
no coincidence that it is the first in which humour can be found, and even self-
mockery. After an illness he writes: 'I smelled like an apothecary shop'. 24

Why were languages other than Dutch used so often? The Dutch language was
probably a less important part of someone's personal identity than nowadays.
And even within the Dutch texts many differences can be detected, for there
was no standard language. The diary of a woman from the Zaan-region, Aafje
Gijsen, therefore, is very useful as a source of the local dialect, to mention
only one example. 25

POSSffiiLITIES FOR HISTORIAN"S

What can historians do with these manuscripts? The most important point, in
my view, is that these texts now can easily be located. Reading such
documents is instructive and often enjoyable, even without making a real study
of each text. The document can serve as a source for the history of literature,
and also of the reception of literature, because the authors sometimes reflect

68
on what they have read. Magdalena van Schinne, for example, even writes with
which fictional heroines she identifies herself. But they are also good sources
for the history of mentalities, and social history in general. Not much work has
been done so far, compared to France and England, where historians like Alan
Macfarlane and Linda Pollock have written exemplary studies. For Holland I
should mention the study by Herman Roodenburg on the autobiography of
Isabella de Moerlooze. 26 The Dutch material is rich enough to write a study
like that by Linda Pollock on the relationship between parents and children.
The Dutch egodocuments give many examples of emotional relationships,
varying from the sixteenth-century Frisian farmer Dirck Jans who had to bury
each one of his eight children a few weeks after their birth, to the eighteenth-
century army officer J. de Bretonne, who wrote his autobiography for his son,
expressing the hope 'that his son would regain his mental capacities after these
were lost because of a childhood disease, and that he may one day read what
his father has written'. 27

CONCLUSION

In this article I can only sketch out the results of our project. I realize that I
have been unable to give many hard facts. I am aware also that it is difficult
to provide a broad perspective on the development of Dutch egodocuments.
There is one excuse that I want to mention. A popular saying among historians
is that the sum is more than its constituent parts. Insignificant little facts put
together can build up a wide perspective. In the case of egodocuments, the
reverse is true. The egodocuments are each far more fascinating, while this
survey can only give a scant impression of their real interest and - sometimes -
beauty.

This brings me, fmally, to the fact which has suprised me most: the
nonchalance with which egodocuments were - and are - treated. So many are
languishing in archives and libraries. And among these are so many interesting
ones. Take for instance the diary of Liewe van Aitzema. Much has been
written about this controversial figure, but until now, as far as I know, nobody
has looked into his diaries. This is understandable, because not only are they
written in several languages, besides- cipher, but Aitzema's handwriting is a
problem in itself. Or take the diaries of Van Goens, one of the most intruiging
figures of the second half of the eighteenth century, and also a figure about
whom much has been written. Again nobody has looked into his diaries.
Fortunately, more and more historians are beginning to realize the wealth
hidden in Dutch egodocuments.

Erasmus University,
Rotterdam

69
NOTES

1. J. Presser, 'Memoires als geschiedbron ', in: Id., Uit her werk van J. Presser
(Amsterdam 1966), 277-282 (first ed. 1958).

2. R.M. Dekker, R. Lindeman and Y. Scherf, 'Verstopte bronnen:

egodocumenten van Noord-Nederlanders uit de 16de tot 18de eeuw',
Nederlands Archieven Blad 86 (1982), 266-235.

3. For an overview: Rudolf M. Dekker, 'Egodocumenten: Een

literatuuroverzicht', Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 101 (1988), 161-189.

4. F.L. Kersteman, De Bredasche Heldinne, ed. R.M. Dekker, G.J. Johannes

and L.C. van de Pol (Hilversum 1988).

5. Wiebe Bergsma, De wereld volgens Abel Eppens, een Ommelander boer

uir de zestiende eeuw (Groningen 1988).

6. Jancko Douwama's geschriften (Leeuwarden 1849); P. Gerbenzon, ed., Het

aantekeningenboek van Dirck Jans (Grins 1960). A new edition is in
preparation.

7. Van Goens's diary: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, ms 130 g 3-11;

Aitzema's diary: Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague.

8. See for instance: De hand des Heeren. Eenige bekeeringsverhalen en andere

geschiedenissen opnieuw uitgegeven door de redactie van 'De vriend van oud
en jong' (Leiden s.a.).

9. Anna Frank van Westrienell, De Groote Tour. Tekeningen van de

educatiereis der Nederlanders in de zeventiende eeuw (Amsterdam 1983).

10. Jacob Cats, 'Twee en tachtig-jarig !even van zijn geboone af tot zijn dood
toe', in AiLe de werken van den heere Jacob Cats (2 vols., Amsterdam 1726)
II, 289-319.

11. Gerardus de Jong, Een historisch verhaal der voomaamste lotgevallen en

bijzondere ontmoetingen raakende de persoon Gerardus de Jong,
Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, Ltk 414.

12. Constantijn Huygens de Zoon, Journalen (2 vols., Utrecht 1876-1877).

13. Gerard van Nijmegen, travel journal, Gemeente Archief, Rotterdam.

14. See for instance: F.A. van Lieburg, De Nadere Reformatie in Utrecht ten
tijde van Voetius, Sporen in de gereformeerde kerkeraadsacta (Rotterdam

70
1989).

15. Gemeente Archief Haarlem.

16. Algemeen Rijksarchief, The Hague.

17. A new Dutch translation from the Latin original text is being prepared by
Tirtsah Levy.

18. A text edition is being prepared by Anje Dik.

19. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, ms 73 f 17.

20. G. Brom and L.A. Langeraad ed., Diarium van Aernout van Buchell
(Utrecht 1907).

21. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, ms 71 h 5.

22. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, ms 131 g 29.

23. The diary of Elizabeth Richards. A text edition is being prepared by Ingrid
Bruning.

24. Brieven van Michael Rijklof van Goens, Vol. II (Utrecht 1884).

25. J.W. van Sante ed., Dagverhaal van Aafje Gijsen (Wonnerveer 1986); Jo
Daan, 'De taal van Aafje Gijsen als bron van het achttiende-eeuws', Anno
1961. Zaans Cultureel-historisch Tijdschrift nr. 106 (May 1988).

26. Hennan W. Roodenburg, 'Tht! autobiography of Isabella de Moerloose.

Sex, Childrearing and Popular Belief in Seventeenth-Century Holland', Journal
of Social History 18 (1985}, 518-539.

27. Koninklijke Bibliotheek, The Hague, ms 129 f 7.

71