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Witsen's World: Nicolaas Witsen (1641–1717) between the Dutch East India Company and the Republic of Letters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2010

P.J.A.N. Rietbergen
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Extract

In a collection of essays concerning the inevitably diverse vicissitudes of the representatives of that phenomenon collectively known as ‘the Company's servants,’ the inclusion of Nicolaas Witsen may come as a surprise. In our democratic age, he undoubtedly would have termed himself a ‘servant’ of the Dutch East India Company; in his own, more hierarchical times, he will have considered himself one of the Company's masters, as indeed he was. Whatever the powers of the Heren XVII may actually have been, Witsen for many years was one of the directors of the Amsterdam Chamber, the Company's most powerful division, and one of Amsterdam representatives to the bi-annual assembly which actually directed the Company's affairs at home, and tried to do so abroad, in its far-flung commercial empire, where other servants often held far greater, and less controlable power.

Type
Articles
Information
Itinerario , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , July 1985 , pp. 121 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1985

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References

Notes

1. Gebhard, J.F., Het leven van mr. Nicolaas Cornelisz. Witsen (1641–1717), 2 vols., Utrecht 1881–1882.Google Scholar

2. Witsen, N., Noord en Oost Tartarye, ofte Bondig Ontwerp Voor enige dier Landen en Volken welke voormaels bekend zijn geweest… in de Noorder en Oosterlykste gedeelten van Asia en Europa, Amsterdam 1692, 1705.Google Scholar

3. Kronenburg, H., ‘Gisbert Cuper,’ in: Nieuw Nederlands Diografisch Woordenboek IV, cols. 486–487Google Scholar. Extracts from the Cuper-Witsen correspondence have been published by Gebhard, ibid. II, 283–496. However, I have chosen to go through the originals, preserved in the Manuscript Division of Amsterdam University Library to be cited as UBA. Cuper drafted copies of a number of his letters to Witsen, but these have proven rather untrustworthy; they are preserved in the Manuscript Division of the Royal Library, to be cited as KB.

4. Scheltema, P., N. Witsen, Kort verhael van mijn levensloop, Aemstels Oudheid IV, 1872.Google Scholar

5. Th. Locher, P. de Buck,Nicolaas Witsen, Moscovische Reyse, 1664–1665, 3 vols. 's Gravenhage 1966/1967.Google Scholar

6. Though one copy, in the University Libary of Amsterdam, is dated 1686.

7. Gebhard, ibid. I, 428 sqq.

8. As far as I know, an inventory of the ‘Cabinet’ does not exist, though a glimpse of it may be had from the Cuper-Witsen letters, e.g. UBA, Mss. Be 73, C to W, 16 VI 1713.

9. UBA, M Bf 7a-b, 8a-b, 18, the consul at Tripoli, Z. Cousarts, to W, about French expeditions to the ruins of ‘Lebida’ - obviously Leptis Magna.

10. UBA, M Bf 12a, about letters from Colyer, and 22a, D.J. de Hochepied to W. Also Bf 27, about letters from the Dutch consul at Aleppo. Cfr. KB, M 72 C14 for a questionnaire sent to Hochepied.

11. UBA, M Bf 60, W to C.

12. E.g. KB, M 71 C14, questionnaire for Cornelis van Moerkerken, travelling to the Cape, Malabar and Malacca.

13. E.g. UBA, M Bf 21c, W to C about letters from Van der Stel at the Cape.

14. ‘Tartarije,’ 34, 39, 68, 97–98, 112, 115, 123, 179, 183, 184, 194–201, 202–207, etc. Contacts with Couplet: UBA, M Bf 69, W to C.

15. UBA, M Bf 65, W to C. Also ‘Tartarije,’ 20–25, report of the interpreter Melman, who accompanied the Embassy to Peking in 1656, dated 4 XII 1692.

16. UBA, M Bf 63a, b, c, W to C.

17. E.g. UBA, M Bf 33, 39, 71, W to C.

18. UBA, M Bf 20, 21, W to C. The expedition did bring back trees and plants for Witsen's garden: ‘Tartarije,’ 183.

19. E.g. UBA; M Bf 40, W to C; as well as Bf 69, W to C, 9 IV 1713.

20. ‘Tartarije,’ 419, sqq; 433 sqq.

21. Bruyn, C. de, Reizen over Moskovie, door Persie en Indie (Amsterdam 1711) Introduction.Google Scholar

22. E.g. UBA, M Bf 60, 63, 71, W to C.

23. E.g. KB, M 72 C14, ff. 65r–66r, W to C. Cfr. UBA, M Be 100, C to W.

24. E.g. UBA, M Be 26a, 63, C to W. Bf 21, 61, 62ab, 63a-c, W to C.

25. E.g. UBA, M Be 36, 55, 87, C to W. Bf 33, W to C.

26. E.g. UBA, M Be 66a, 70, 76, 80a-f, C to W. Bf 17a-b, W to C.

27. E.g. UBA, M Be 79, C to W.

28. Baer, K.E. van, Peter's des Grossen Verdienste an die Erweiterung der geografischen Kentnisse (s.l., 1872) 136, 237. CfrGoogle Scholar. Keuning, J., “Nicolaas Witsen as a cartographer,” in: Imago Mundi II (1954), pp; 95–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

29. E.g. UBA, M Be 49, 50, 82, C to W.

30. UBA, M Be 53, 54, 62, C to W.

31. University Library, London, Microfilm nr. 85, film reel nr. 20, nrs. 86–87. To be cited as: ULL, Leibniz. The Leibniz correspondence, of course, is deposited in the Sächsische Landesbibliothek in the German Democratic Republic. An analytical inventory is given by Bodemann, E., Der Briefwechsel des C.W. Leibniz (Hannover, 1889; Hildesheim, 1966). I would like to thank Dr.Google Scholar Maarten Ultee for drawing my attention to this material.

32. ULL, Leibniz, Leibniz to Witsen, 4 IV 1698; Witsen to Leibniz, 22 V 1698.

33. ULL, Leibniz, Witsen to Leibniz, 9 IV 1699 and 19 I 1706.

34. ULL, Leibniz, Witsen to Leibniz, 29 XI 1712. Cfr. UBA, M Be 67a, 68a, C to W, as well as Bf 64, W to C.

35. Gebhard, ibid. II, 248–249; 253–262. Cfr. also the letters in: British Library, Sloane Mss., nrs. 4025, f.251; 4041, f.6, and 4063, f.172.

36. Gebhard, ibid. II, 250–252.

37. E.g. UBA, M Bf 4, W to C.

38. E.g. UBA,. M Bf 25, 63, W to C.