Nicolaas Witsen

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Nicolaas Witsen, engraving by Jacobus Houbraken after Michiel van Musscher (1688)
Nicolaas Witsen, Petrus Schenk (1701)

Nicolaas Witsen , also Nicolaes Witsen (* 1641 ; † 1717 ) was a Dutch diplomat, mayor and regent of Amsterdam of the Witsen family. He was Ambachtsherr von Amstelveen and Nieuwer-Amstel for the city . As a diplomat, politician, collector, publicist and scientifically educated citizen, Witsen was the mentor of Tsar Peter I.

life and work

Depiction of a Siberian shaman from Witsen's trip to Russia in 1692

See also: Regent of Amsterdam

He was born on May 8, 1641 as the son of the Amsterdam regent, diplomat and businessman Cornelis Jan Witsen and Catharina Claesdr Gaeff, alias Lambertsdr Opsy. In his youth he was tutored by Johann Amos Comenius . He studied law at the University of Leiden and received his doctorate in 1664. He came to Russia as a member of Jacob Boreel's embassy in 1664/1665. In doing so, he collected information that he published with the first Kaart van Tartarije of Siberia in Western Europe in 1687.

After further trips to Paris , Rome , Oxford - where he spent a few days as a guest of Oliver Cromwell - and Switzerland , he returned to Amsterdam in 1667. After the death of his father, he came to the Amsterdam Vroedschap in 1670 thanks to the support of Gillis Valckenier . He refused to name the De Graeff faction, which was hostile to Valckenier, to Schepen in the following year on the grounds that he was about to write an intensive scientific publication.

In 1671 his important work on shipbuilding appeared in the Netherlands and a year later he fulfilled the function of commissioner for maritime affairs .

In the Rampjaar (Year of Terror) he was a member of the Amsterdam Defense Council . He became a member of the Council of Plenipotentiaries in 1674. In the conflicts in Scandinavia and with England he was a diplomat. He became mayor for the first time in 1682 and fulfilled this function 13 more times until his death. In this capacity he was, against his will, in 1689 the city's envoy to England. As he had little command of the new diplomatic languages ​​French and English, he was often the target of ridicule. He was also unhappy about the trade agreement to be concluded between England and Amsterdam.

When Tsar Peter I came to Amsterdam in August 1697 on his great European tour, the Great Embassy , and even did an apprenticeship as a carpenter with the shipyard master Gerrit Claesz Pool in the shipyard of the East India Company in Krummendijk and worked on the construction of the frigate Peter and Paul , Witsen was his companion, mentor and, after his departure, also a supporter in building up the Russian Navy. He helped signing Dutch seamen for the Russian ships and buying shipbuilding materials. His shipbuilding book served as a template for translating Dutch technical terms into Russian. After the death of fellow mayor Johann van Waveren Hudde (1704) and the rise of Joan Corver , Witsen's role in government was played out. In the following year he resigned from all political offices except for two small tasks.

The Kaart van Tartarije published by Witsen

The marriage with Catharina de Hochepied in 1674 brought together two families who were involved in the Moscovian trade and trade in the Baltic Sea region. As Bewindhebber (director) of the Dutch East India Company since 1693 he promoted voyages of discovery to Australia . He described a different direction of geographical discoveries in Noord en Oost Tartarije in 1692. This edition was published in a very small edition and was probably only intended as a "trial version". In 1705 this work appeared in stores with several hundred pages more. The work is illustrated with numerous copperplate engravings, which are still of ethnological interest today. Also in a second, modified variant, he had his “Shipbuilding Book” printed in 1690 under the new title Architectura navalis et regimen nauticum ofte Aeloude en Hedendaagsche Scheeps-bouw en bestier . Four copies of this very small edition are available today.

As a collector, he was a typical representative of the educated middle class of the 17th century and created a cabinet of rarities . Here it was an advantage to be a member of the VOC in order to receive objects from Far East Asia. He maintained international contacts and had a wide range of interests. Mythical animals , for example the unicorn, were a special field . Maria Sibylla Merian studied insects in Witsen's cabinet, among other places.

In 1689 he was elected a member of the Royal Society .

literature

  • Jan van Beylen: Schepen van de Nederlanden. Van de late middeleeuwen tot het a van de 17e eeuw. Amsterdam 1970.
  • JF Gebhard (jr.): Het leven van Mr. Nicolaes Cornelisz. Witsen (1641-1717) . Utrecht 1881-1882.
  • From J. Hoving: Nicolaes Witsens Scheeps-bouw-konst open. Franeker 1994.
  • Mikhail Kizilov: “ Noord en Oost Tartarye by Nicolaes Witsen: The first crestomathy on the Crimean Khanate and its sources”. In: Denise Klein (ed.): The Crimean Khanate between East and West (15th – 18th century) , Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2012, pp. 169–187.
  • Th.JG Locher, P. de Buck (Ed.): Nicolaes Witsen: “Moscovische Reyse 1664-1665. Journaal en aantekeningen. ” (Works Linschoten Vereeniging LXVI-LXVIII) The Hague 1966–1967.
  • Marion Peters: De wijze koopman. Het wereldwijde onderzoek van Nicolaes Witsen (1641-1717), burgemeester en VOC-bewindhebber van Amsterdam , Amsterdam 2010.

Web links

Commons : Nicolaas Witsen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biography in the Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek (NNBW), part 4, pages 1473/1474
  2. ↑ Google book search: Johann Jakob Redinger: 1619–1688, p. 329
  3. ↑ Nicolaes Witsen: Moscovische Reyse 1664-1665. Journaal en aantekeningen. (Handwriting)
  4. ↑ Tartaria, sive magni Chami Imperium ex credendis amplissimi viri. Amsterdam 1705
  5. ^ JE Elias: The vroedschap van Amsterdam. Haarlem 1904, Vol. I, pp. 544-545
  6. ↑ Nicolaes Witsen: Aeloude en Hedendaegsche Scheeps-bouw en Bestler. Amsterdam 1671
  7. ↑ These terms of office fell in the years 1685, 1688, 1690, 1693, 1695, 1696, 1697, 1698, 1699, 1701, 1702, 1704 and 1705
  8. ↑ Wouter Nijhoff: “De Anglofobie van Nic. Witsen en de verschillende redactiën van zijn Scheepsbouw ”, in Het Boek , 1925. pp. 88–96
  9. ^ R. van der Meulen: De Hollandsche zee- en scheepstermen in het Russian. Amsterdam 1909, p. 7
  10. ↑ GJD Wildeman: “De twee edities van Witsens Scheepsbouw nader bekeken”, in From J. Hoving: Nicolaes Witsens Scheeps-bouw-konst open gestelt. , Pp. 401-402
  11. ↑ Eric Jorink: Wetenschap en Wereldbeeld in de Gouden Eeuw. Hilversum 1999, pp. 88, 90
  12. ^ Entry on Witsen, Nicolaus (1641 - 1717) Traveler and Diplomat in the Archives of the Royal Society , London
predecessor Office successor
Gillis Valckenier , Coenraad van Beuningen , Johann van Waveren Hudde and Joan (II) Huydecoper van Maarsseveen Regent and Mayor of Amsterdam
1682–1705 together with Johann van Waveren Hudde (1672–1703), Joan (II) Huydecoper van Maarsseveen (1673–1693), Joan Corver (1681–1715) and Jeronimo de Haze de Georgio (1695–1717 ) 		Jeronimo de Haze de Georgio and Gerbrand Michielsz Pancras
personal data
SURNAME Witsen, Nicolaas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Witsen, Nicolaes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch diplomat, cartographer, explorer and author and mayor of Amsterdam
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1641
PLACE OF BIRTH Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH 1717
Place of death Amsterdam