Titia Brongersma

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Title page from Brongersma's collection of poems De Bron-swaan (1686)

Titia Brongersma (* around 1648 or around 1650 in Dokkum , † after 1687 in Groningen (?)) Was a Dutch poet in West Frisian and a pioneer of prehistoric archeology .

Life

Depiction of the excavation of the large stone grave near Borger by Titia Brongersma in Ludolph Smids Schatkamer of the Nederlandse Oudheden (1711)

Titia Brongersma probably came from an important Frisian family. Few details of her life are known. She was the daughter of the surgeon Bronger Wijtses and his wife Aeltien Koertsdaughter. She never seems to have married. She gained greater fame through the first excavation of a large stone grave in the Netherlands. She spent the Whitsun days in 1685 with friends in Borger . At the suggestion of her friend Ludolph Smids , on June 11, 1685, she and her cousin Jan Laurens Lentinck, mayor of Borger, organized an examination of the large stone grave there .

In 1686 Brongersma published a volume of poetry entitled De bron-swaan of mengeldigte . This contained mostly casual poems in which she praised the artistic skills of other Dutch women. A poem dealt with their investigation of the large stone grave of Borger. From it it emerges that Brongersma thought the tomb was a temple , which was dedicated to nature .

In addition to De bron-swaan , Brongersma wrote another poem about the large stone grave at Borger (published by Smids in 1694) and a poem about a fire near Groningen ( Op de schricklijcke Brandt van den May 12, 1687. 1687). An extended edition of De bron-swaan that she was striving for was no longer realized. It is unclear whether a second volume with the title Hemelse Orgeltoonen , mentioned by Smids, was ever completed and published. Brongersma's exact date of death is unknown.

Aftermath

Brongersma herself published nothing, apart from her poems, about her investigation of Borger's great stone grave. However, she discussed this intensively with her friend, the doctor and poet Ludolph Smids from Groningen. Smids first wrote a poem about the dig, to which Brongersma responded with her second poem. In his work Poëzije in 1694 he published both poems and also added a more detailed description of the finds and findings from the grave. In his work Schatkamer of the Nederlandse oudheden , published in 1711 , he went back to the excavation, as well as in his correspondence with Christian Schlegel . Smid's publications on the excavation in Borger meant that the previously widespread notion that the megalithic tombs were built by giants , which had once again gained popularity through a work by Johan Picardt published in 1660 , was now increasingly rejected.

Brongersma's literary work was largely disregarded in the 18th and 19th centuries. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that her poems received more attention. In 1924 they were translated into English by William Edward Collinson .

Works

  • De bron-swaan of mengeldigte (1686)

literature

  • Jan Albert Bakker : The opgraving in het Grote Hunebed te Borger door Titia Brongersma on June 11, 1685. In: Nieuwe Drentse Volksalmanak. Volume 101, 1984, pp. 103-116.
  • Jan Albert Bakker: Megalithic Research in the Netherlands, 1547-1911. From 'Giant's Beds' and 'Pillars of Hercules' to accurate investigations. Sidestone Press, Leiden 2010, ISBN 9789088900341 , pp. 54-56 ( online version ).
  • Albert Egges van Giffen : De Hunebedden in Nederland , 3 volumes. Oosthoek, Utrecht 1925-1927, pp. 3-9.
  • Lotte Eilskov Jensen, Harm Nijboer, Titia Brongersma. A frieze denser in de 17e eeuw. In: Fryslân. Nieuwsblad voor geschiedenis en cultuur. Volume 4, No. 2, 1998, pp. 3-5 ( online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jan Albert Bakker: Megalithic Research in the Netherlands, 1547-1911. 2010. p. 54.
  2. ↑ a b c Resources Huygens ING: Brongersma, Titia (approx. 1650-na 1687)
  3. ^ Jan Albert Bakker: Megalithic Research in the Netherlands, 1547-1911. 2010. pp. 54-56.
  4. ^ WE Collinson: The Frisian Poems in Titia Brongersma's "Bronswaan". In: The Modern Language Review. Volume 19, No. 1, January 1924, pp. 84-94.
personal data
SURNAME Brongersma, Titia
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch poet and pioneer of prehistoric archeology
DATE OF BIRTH around 1648 or around 1650
PLACE OF BIRTH Dokkum
DATE OF DEATH after 1687
Place of death Groningen