Author: [MANUSCRIPT - UTRECHT - STRICK VAN LINSCHOTEN, Johan].
Title: [Fair copies of and extracts from official documents, from 1605 to 1635, concerning Johan Strick van Linschoten (1583-1648), initially Canon and finally Secretary of the Oudmunster chapter church in Utrecht, and influential member of the States Assembly of the province of Utrecht; Prince Maurits and others].[Utrecht], ca. 1621-ca. 1635. Folio (31 x 20 cm). Contemporary sheepskin parchment, with remnants of leather ties. Manuscript title on the spine and writing on the front board.
Description: [5 blank], "260" [= 263], [1] ll.A remarkable and extensive contemporary manuscript in Dutch and Latin, comprising more than 500 written pages from the family of one of the most influential figures in Utrecht during the first half of the 17th century. It not only brings together a wealth of official documents about Johan Strick van Linschoten and his circle of acquaintances, but no doubt provides transcriptions of many documents that would otherwise have been lost, making it an essential source for the history of the city, province, and church of Utrecht in the turbulent period 1605-1635. Son of the Secretary of States Assembly of the province of Utrecht, Johan Strick (known as "Van Linschoten" after he had acquired an estate near Linschoten in 1633 and was granted arms by King Louis XIII of France) was appointed Canon of the Oudmunster chapter church in Utrecht in 1605 and steadily attained higher posts there, becoming Secretary in 1637. In 1621, after suppressing Oldenbarnevelt and the Remonstrants at the Synod of Dordrecht (1618/19), Maurits Prince of Orange and Nassau, appointed Strick bailiff of Utrecht in place of Johan van Suylen vande Haer, who came from a Remonstrant family. Strick had already gained a seat in the provincial assembly in 1620 and soon became "a man of the greatest influence in Utrecht," according to Van der Aa.The documents transcribed in the present manuscript begin in the year Strick was appointed Canon, and include the official record of his 1609 law degree (which we have not found noted elsewhere) from the University of Orléans, where Hugo de Groot had taken his law degree a decade earlier. Most of the documents, however, come from the years 1620-1635, when the manuscript includes many resolutions of the States of Utrecht and of the Oudmunster Chapter, Maurits' appointment of Strick as bailiff of Utrecht, records of the purchase of land, documents about the inheritance of Strick's parents' estate on the death of his mother in 1632, documents concerning Linschoten and Strick's estate there, notarial documents from Utrecht, Delft and elsewhere, and much more. Among the figures who appear, besides Prince Maurits and the others noted above, are Philips van Merode (1594-1638), Marquis of Westerlo; Adriaen Ploos van Amstel (1585-1639), Lord of Tienhoven; Johann Albrecht (1563-1623), Count of Solms; Bartholomeus van Bloys van Treslong; and the Utrecht notary Willem van Duysen, to mention a few. The documents are neatly transcribed in a clear early 17th-century hand. They are not in chronological order and one from 1621 begins on the verso of leaf 4, so work on the manuscript is unlikely to have begun before then. The latest document transcribed dates from 1635. Some are transcribed twice. The collation is straightforward: 34 quires of 8 leaves each, followed by a quire of 4 leaves, with the first and last quired blank and with no leaves removed, but there are 3 repeated leaf numbers: 197, 223 and 253. The paper is consistently watermarked: - - = cockatrice with a house, with a Basel crosier above the house, a mark of Heusden near Basel. It follows the general style of Laurentius 6-11 (used in the Hague, 1610-1632). Work on the manuscript is therefore unlikely to have begun later than 1635 and could have begun as early as 1621.The corners of the boards are scuffed and the parchment is somewhat creased and stained, the pastedowns have comes loose from the boards. With 2 wormholes through the first 50 leaves and minor water stains in the upper outside corner of the second half of the work. Otherwise in good condition.l Aa, van der, Bibliografisch woordenboek der Nederlanden, vol. VI, p. 326.

Keywords: [403A2955597B] AUTOGRAPHS, DOCUMENTS & MANUSCRIPTS|[403A2955597B] AUTOGRAPHS, DOCUMENTS & MANUSCRIPTS -> [C351C9CFA94C] Manuscripts & Documents|[BFFF1D78AE20] HISTORY, LAW & PHILOSOPHY|[BFFF1D78AE20] HISTORY, LAW & PHILOSOPHY -> [7D9788317463] Law & Polit