This study deals with the Franeker University Library, which existed from 1585 until 1843. Now the contents of this Library form part of the collection of the Tresoar, a centre for cultural heritage in Leeuwarden. The term âUniversity of Franekerâ is an anachronism, which I use as a compound term for the two phases of its history. During the first phase of the history of the University, it was usually referred to as Academia in Latin, which was the academic language par excellence. The word universiteit was also used in Dutch texts, starting from about the year 1700, but the Latin equivalent was hardly used before 1800. The Franeker Academy was closed in 1811, and after a short interval reopened as an Athenaeum in 1815, marking the second phase of the history of the university, before it was finally shut down in 1843. However, âUniversityâ as the name for an institution for academic training is the more common term since the nineteenth century, and I use this term consequently for the whole period including the two phases as Academy and Athenaeum. Furthermore I consequently use capitals for Academy, Athenaeum, and Library when referring to the Franeker institutions.
The history of the Library of the Franeker University over its entire period of existence of more than 250 years has never been written. Until now, research has mainly focussed on the first century of its existence, until about the year 1700. It is mainly due to the research of M.H.H. (Martin) Engels that so much is known about this period, thanks to his studies and published transcriptions of major sources. Most of his research has been made available on-line via his website MpaginaE. The next pivotal source of information was a book by Dr L.S. (Lydia) Wierda, in which the original library catalogue from 1691 was examined in detail.1 In addition, a volume of essays was published, in which each contribution gave a further exploration of the results of Dr Wierda from a particular point of view.2 A second addition was a similar analysis of the oldest catalogue stemming from 1601.3
As far as I know, the Franeker Library is unique in the high number of printed catalogues that were produced throughout its history, eleven in all. No other early modern library published so many catalogues during a similar period. So the development of the collection can be followed in detail according to ten chronological stages, and all this information could be collected into a spreadsheet file.4 Together with the surviving collection of books, this data enables us to make a step-by-step expedition through the history of the Franeker Library and to examine many interesting details. Next, I encouraged myself by studying previous literature, albeit in a direction out of the ordinary. Often a historiography of a library is presented as an isolated case, that is, with a view restricted to that library only. In such a case little attention is paid to the university of which the library is part of, and with little attention to what happened elsewhere in similar libraries. In this book I wanted to avoid such an omission of the context for my research about the Franeker Library.
This book consists of two parts. The first part deals with the context of the Franeker Library in five chapters. The Library was established as part of the Franeker Academy. So far, no overview of the history of the Franeker University has been written in the English language, reason enough to give it a lot of attention here. The first three chapters describe a comprehensive history of Franeker University, its four faculties and professors, and the procedures concerning the courses given and the use of Latin. The next two chapters deal with the context of other libraries. Around the year 1600 a resurgence of libraries can be discerned, with many new libraries being founded. All these libraries had a similar design (public access, with a division according to faculties), but they diverged in use and growth. The comparison with other libraries gives more relief to the specific identity of the Franeker University Library. Chapter 4 offers a general overview on the history of libraries, chapter 5 deals with the history of other libraries specifically in North-Western Europe. Initially it was my intention to broaden the context even further to the rise and the developments of the modern sciences in the period described. However, this stratagem was too ambitious and it would exceed my personal skills. For information to the reader, I report my experience as researcher: I have previously published about the history of theology and philosophy, and about the history of the Franeker Library. My knowledge of, for example, the history of natural sciences and law is modest. Nevertheless, I have tried to capture some of the scientific developments in the course of the story.
At the foundation of the Academy in 1585, humanism was used as the basic point of departure for all scientific inquiry. Humanism as it is used in this study is a historical movement, to be associated with the Renaissance and the Early Modern Age in particular, that based any kind of knowledge on the literature and culture of classical antiquity.5 It determined the method and the starting point of the education offered. Another similar description of humanism is as follows:
Humanism is that concern with the legacy of antiquityâand in particular, but not exclusively, with its literary legacyâwhich characterizes the work of scholars from at least the ninth century onwards. It involves above all the rediscovery and study of ancient Greek and Roman texts, the restoration and interpretation of them and the assimilation of the ideas and values that they contain.6
In Franekerâs curriculum, this meant that a text-oriented study was offered, choosing texts ad fontes: the Bible for the theologians, Roman Law for legal education, Galen for medicine, Euclid for mathematics, Aristotle for philosophy and physics.7 Parts of these primary texts were dissected and commented on, with a method borrowed from scholasticism. New developments slowly seeped through, such as Cartesianism in the seventeenth century (philosophy, medicine) and the concept of ânatureâ in the eighteenth century (natural theology, natural law). In Franeker such developments were more or less fluidly incorporated in the original framework of humanism. A quarrel as a local variant of the Ancients versus Moderns debate did not take place here, experimental physics hardly belonged to the financial possibilities and a clinic for medical education beside the sickbed was never set up.8 Franeker was a small university, which until its final dissolution in 1843 stuck to the old humanist structure, most visible in the persistent use of Latin as the academic language and the retention of traditional academic hierarchies.
The second part of this book deals with the history of the Franeker University Library, described in eight chapters according to chronological order. The printed catalogues that have been handed down to us offer the opportunity to visualize the growth of the collection of the library in numbers and in detail. The books, as mentioned in the eleven catalogues, were counted according to a fixed method of classification and presented in tables, representing the four faculties and their fields of subjects. This procedure will be explained in detail in chapter 4. As a result, this book presents a lot of numbers and tables, which support the story numerically. This quantitative substantiation of the steady growth is unique, sad to say, as comparable figures from other historical libraries over a long period of time are lacking. But perhaps it is its small scale that makes it possible to study the Franeker University Library in detail and in context. Conversely, the history of the Library can shed some light on how the Franeker University functioned. The final chapter formulates a conclusion about the relevance of this particular Library in comparison with other libraries and in the context of Franeker University.
Lydia Wierda, Armamentarium totius sapientiaeâEen arsenaal van alle wetenschap. De Franeker academiebibliotheek in de zeventiende eeuw (Leeuwarden / Ljouwert: Fryske Akademy, 2005) = shortly Armamentarium.
Jos. M.M. Hermans, Goffe Jensma, Jacob van Sluis and Lydia Wierda (eds.), De Franeker universiteitsbibliotheek in de zeventiende eeuw. Beleid en belang van een academiebibliotheek (Hilversum: Verloren, 2007).
Jacob van Sluis, De academiebibliotheek te Franeker anno 1601. De oudste catalogus ingeleid en opnieuw uitgegeven (Franeker: Van Wijnen, 2011).
Not eleven stages, but only ten, for the catalogues of 1842 and 1854 are complementary and have to be joined together. Digital available
In contrast to humanism in a broader sense to be defined as a philosophy or life stance which recognizes the value or dignity of man as central theme.
Nicholas Mann, âThe Origins of Humanismâ, in Jill Kraye (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 1â19, esp. p. 2.
Walter Rüegg, âThemesâ, in Hilde de Ridder-Symoens (ed.), A History of the University in Europe. Vol. II, Universities in Early Modern Europe (1500â1800) (Cambridge [etc.]: Cambridge University Press, 1996), pp. 3â42, esp. pp. 33â41.
Ruegg, âThemesâ, pp. 40â41.