Background Andries Schoemaker (1660-1735) was an Amsterdam merchant whose passion was collecting historical and visual information on the towns and villages, churches and castles and other topographical features of his native country. Especially in the period 1725-1735 he devoted himself to assembling material on the history of the various localities. Consulting different sources, which he usually cited in the margins of his manuscript, he wrote a historical description of each place that he illustrated with drawings, many in remarkably handsome color, that he either made himself or had made for him by contemporary artists, such as Cornelis Pronk (1691-1759) and his student Abraham de Haen (1707-1748) with whom he made summer voyages throughout the Dutch republic in order to set as much of the topography as possible down on paper. At times he also made use of published prints, many from sources now lost, which showed the topographical situation in previous periods. These he cut out and pasted into his own large-format notebooks or redrew himself in color. Now and then he also sketched his own maps and city plans or made use of exisiting ones. Other illustrations incorporated into his manuscripts by Schoemaker included family- and town coats-of-arms and other heraldic devices, coins, seals, medallions and costumes. In this fashion he created a multivolume work consisting of some 9,000 pages with more than 2,600 pages of color illustrations. It covers all the provinces of the country existing at the time and is arranged alphabetically by locality within each province. After his death this “atlas”, as such a work was known in the eighteenth century, passed to his son Gerrit, who had assisted his father in the endeavor. When he died shortly after his father, however, the collection was broken up, a few volumes were lost and the others scattered. Fortunately the surviving volumes eventually found their way into the collections of various Dutch museums, libraries and archives. The Royal Dutch Antiquarian Society (Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap = KOG), housed in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, for example, holds 10 volumes describing the provinces of North and South Holland and the city of Amsterdam. The Hague: Mauritshuis Alkmaar:Townhall and Church 1727 Amsterdam: The old Antonispoort Cover Illustrations: Lisse: Huis Dever 1725. Portrait of Andries Schoemaker by Cornelis Ploos van Amstel. Gemeentearchief Amsterdam.
Transcript
BackgroundAndries Schoemaker (1660-1735) was an Amsterdam
merchant whose passion was collecting historical and
visual information on the towns and villages, churches
and castles and other topographical features of his native
country. Especially in the period 1725-1735 he devoted
himself to assembling material on the history of the
various localities. Consulting different sources, which he
usually cited in the margins of his manuscript, he wrote a
historical description of each place that he illustrated with
drawings, many in remarkably handsome color, that he
either made himself or had made for him by contemporary
artists, such as Cornelis Pronk (1691-1759) and his student
Abraham de Haen (1707-1748) with whom he made summer
voyages throughout the Dutch republic in order to set as
much of the topography as possible down on paper.
At times he also made use of published prints, many
from sources now lost, which showed the topographical
situation in previous periods. These he cut out and pasted
into his own large-format notebooks or redrew himself in
color. Now and then he also sketched his own maps and
city plans or made use of exisiting ones. Other illustrations
incorporated into his manuscripts by Schoemaker included
family- and town coats-of-arms and other heraldic devices,
coins, seals, medallions and costumes.
In this fashion he created a multivolume work consisting
of some 9,000 pages with more than 2,600 pages of color
illustrations.
It covers all the provinces of the country existing at the
time and is arranged alphabetically by locality within each
province.
After his death this “atlas”, as such a work was known in
the eighteenth century, passed to his son Gerrit, who had
assisted his father in the endeavor. When he died shortly
after his father, however, the collection was broken up, a
few volumes were lost and the others scattered.
Fortunately the surviving volumes eventually found their
way into the collections of various Dutch museums,
libraries and archives. The Royal Dutch Antiquarian
Society (Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap = KOG),
housed in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, for example,
holds 10 volumes describing the provinces of North and
South Holland and the city of Amsterdam.
The Hague: Mauritshuis
Alkmaar:Townhall and Church 1727
Amsterdam:The old Antonispoort
Cover Illustrations: Lisse: Huis Dever 1725.Portrait of Andries Schoemaker by Cornelis Ploos van Amstel.Gemeentearchief Amsterdam.
Importance for researchThe Schoemaker atlas provides fascinating source
material for those working in:
• historical topography
• local, regional and national history of the Netherlands
• art history
• genealogy and heraldry
• numismatics
• Dutch folklore and local customs
• history of historiography
• architecture and town planning
Editions on microfiche and CD-ROMSurviving only in manuscript and scattered as it is over
various repositories this source has not been exploited as
fully as it deserves by scholars. Now in cooperation with
the KOG, the library of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and
other Dutch institutions, MMF has brought the surviving
volumes of the Schoemaker atlas together and made
them available for research in a black/white edition on
microfiche and an edition on 6 CD-ROMs with full-color
reproduction of the illustrations and advanced searching
possibilities. Both editions are complete.
Why microfiche?The microfiche edition guarantees the long-term
preservation of the material on the only recognized
archival medium.
Why CD-ROM?The CD-ROM edition captures the color and allows for
greatly increased accessibility through its powerful
retrieval software and indexing.
The interface of the CD-ROM is in both English and
Dutch. The manuscript itself and the captions of the
illustrations are in Dutch.
The CD-ROMs can be searched by • province
• place
• artist
• keywords contained in the transcriptions of the captions
of the color drawings
• keywords added by the publisher
• combinations of the above
Drowning of the prince of Friesland 1711
Zaandam: Steer’s cruelty to master and wife 1647
Haarlem: Heroine of the siege of 1572
Additional features of the CD-ROM
• bookmarks for saving search results
• two 18th-century maps and a modern map of the
Netherlands for orientation
• history list
• historical introduction in English and Dutch
with bibliography
• complete help file in English and Dutch
A special combined price for both editions has been set.
