Abraham Jacob van der Aa

Abraham Jacob van der Aa

Abraham Jacob van der Aa (born December 7, 1792 in Amsterdam , † March 21, 1857 in Gorinchem ) was a Dutch lexicographer and man of letters .

Life

The son of the lawyer Pierre Jean Baptiste Charles van der Aa and his wife Francina Adriana Bartha van Peene attended the day school in Amstelveen at the age of six . When he was twelve he was in a boarding school in Aarlanderveen for a year. He continued his education at the Latin school in Leiden and at the Lingen academic high school . In 1810 he began studying medicine at the University of Leiden , which he broke off in 1812.

He joined the Navy and was taken prisoner of war by the English in 1813. Van der Aa entered the military as a cadet in 1814 and participated in the war of liberation in 1815. In 1817 he was discharged from military service and retired to Leuven as a bookseller . The company did not bring economic success. In 1819 he moved to Brussels to teach the Dutch language , and in 1825 he was private secretary of the military administration in Antwerp . Van der Aa worked for the military governor in Breda from 1830 . He was dismissed from this employment relationship in 1839. He did not find another job. He moved to Gorinchem, where he lived until his death.

Works

Title page of the late work Ons Vaderland en zijne bewoners

• Abraham Jacob van der Aa is the author and editor of several reference works.
• Nieuw biographisch, anthologically en critisch woordenboek van Nederlandsche Dichters / New biographical, anthological and critical dictionary of Dutch poets. The work was continued by Pieter Gerardus Witsen Geysbeek from 1844 to 1846.
• Biographical Woordenboek der Nederlanden / Biographical Dictionary of the Netherlands (BWN); van der Aa worked on this work until the end of his life; it was completed over and over again until 1878.
• Aardrijkskundig Woordenboek der Nederlanden / Geographical Dictionary of the Netherlands, published from 1839 to 1851. The work comprises 14 volumes and is sometimes considered to be an unreliable source. It is still used today in the Benelux countries and the former Dutch colonies.
• Aardrijkskundig Woordenboek van Noord-Brabant. Breda, 1832.
• Herinneringen uit het gebied der divorceis. Amsterdam 1835.
• Nieuwe iningen. Amsterdam 1837.
• Divorced aardrijkskundige beschrijving van het koningrijk der Nederlanden. Gorinchem 1841.
• Nieuw biographically, anthologically and critically woordenboek van Nederlandsche Dichters. Amsterdam 1844–1846 3rd parts.
• Historically describing van Breda. Gorinchem 1845.
• Nederlandsch Oost-Indië. Amsterdam and Breda, 1846–57, 4 parts.
• Description of the Krimpener and the Loopikerwaard. Schoonh. 1847.
• Nederland, handboekje voor Reizigers. Amsterdam 1849.
• Lotgevallen van Willem Heenvliet. Amsterdam 1851.
• Biographically Woordenboek. the Nederlanden. Haarlem 1851-1857.
• Beknopt Aardrijkskundig Woordenboek der Nederlanden. Gorinchem 1851-1854.
• Bloemlezing uit [Van Effen's] Spectator. In: Klassiek en Letterkundig Pantheon 1855.
• Parelen uit de lettervruchten van Nederl. poet eat. Amsterdam 1856.
• Ons Vaderland en zijne bewoners. Amsterdam 1855-1857.

literature

• Hajo Brugmans: AA (Abraham Jakob van der) . In: Petrus Johannes Blok , Philipp Christiaan Molhuysen (Ed.): Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek . Part 1. N. Israel, Amsterdam 1974, Sp. 1 (Dutch, knaw.nl / dbnl.org - first edition: AW Sijthoff, Leiden 1911, reprint unchanged).
• Bijvoegsel op het Biographisch woordenboek der Nederlanden. Haarlem 1878, (Dutch, dbnl.org ).
• Hans Taubken: Low German, Dutch, High German: the history of the written language in the city and in the former county of Lingen from the 16th to the 19th century. In: Low German Studies: Series of publications of the Commission for Dialect and Name Research of the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe. 29, Cologne 1981, ISSN  0549-1614 .

Web links

Commons : Abraham Jacob van der Aa  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Works by Abraham Jacob van der Aa at the DBNL