Album Amicorum of Jacob Heyblocq

Album Amicorum of Jacob Heyblocq

In Jacob Heyblocq's (1623–1690) time, it was considered good manners among students to compile an Album Amicorum during their studies and especially during study trips and stays abroad – a kind of friendship book, in which the young men usually collected short inscriptions, friendship confessions, aphorisms and the like from people they met or admired. The handwritten entries were dated and signed and were thus authentic and personal memories of the students' acquaintances and friends. Sometimes the entries were supplemented by authentic drawings, acquired graphics or family coats of arms and portraits.

A Unique Among 17th Century Alba Amicorum

Jacob Heyblocq had different requirements for his vriendenboek. He openly announces this on the first page: He wanted to collect brilliant contributions from the greatest and most learned thinkers, artists and dignitaries in this little book in order to leave a historical footprint – his Album Amicorum would commemorate those very people, and of course himself, beyond his death. At the same time, however, he cleverly combines his grandiloquent announcement with a common modesty phrase: he describes himself as an “unworthy” (Latin "indigni”) whose only joy in life is reading and looking at the album entries.

Who was Jacob Heyblocq?

When Jacob Heyblocq began his friendship book in 1645, he was studying theology in Leiden. After his studies, he taught at a Latin school in Amsterdam, of which he became principal in 1660. In an era of economic, scientific and artistic prosperity in the Netherlands, this position brought him into contact with the city's cultural elite, including various scholars, professors, poets, painters and other artists, all of whom he naturally asked to contribute to his outstanding Album Amicorum.

Illustrious Expressions of Friendship

In Jacob Heyblocq's friendship book, not only did a number of famous people such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Joost van den Vondel, Jacob Cats, Aert van der Neer and Constantijn Huygens immortalized themselves. It is also particularly extensive - both in terms of the text contributions and its illumination. Many poems were composed especially for the Album Amicorum, mostly in Dutch or Latin, with the owner's name often serving as inspiration. But the remaining inscriptions in the form of aphorisms and Bible verses in Latin, Greek and Hebrew are also often much more detailed than usual.

Images of the Highest Quality

What makes the album particularly valuable are the numerous high-quality drawings, most of which take up entire pages and range from genre scenes and landscape painting to the depiction of biblical scenes, such as Rembrandt's pictorial contribution. It also features a Portrait of Jacob Heyblocq attributed to Pieter Hoff. His accompanying inscription spells out the sitter's motto, which does not fit in at all with the claim formulated at the beginning: “Ne tollar in altum, ut lapsu graviore ruam.” – “May I not rise too high, for I will fall all the lower.” The total of 41 drawings, 2 engravings and 3 paper works make this inconspicuous little book the most beautiful and most extensively illuminated Album Amicorum in Dutch history.