1.
Willem Janszoon
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Willem Janszoon, sometimes abbreviated to Willem Jansz. was a Dutch navigator and colonial governor. Janszoon served in the Netherlands East Indies in the periods 1603–11 and 1612–16 and he is the first European known to have seen the coast of Australia during his voyage of 1605–06. Willem Janszoon was born around 1570, but nothing is known of his early life, Van Neck, dispatched by the Dutch to the Dutch East Indies. On 5 May 1601, he sailed for the East Indies as master of the Lam. Janszoon sailed from the Netherlands for the East Indies for the time on 18 December 1603, as captain of the Duyfken. When the other ships left Java, Janszoon was sent to search for other outlets of trade, particularly in the land of New Guinea and other East. On 18 November 1605, the Duyfken sailed from Bantam to the coast of western New Guinea, after that, Janszoon crossed the eastern end of the Arafura Sea, without seeing the Torres Strait, into the Gulf of Carpentaria. On 26 February 1606, he made landfall at the Pennefather River on the shore of Cape York in Queensland. This is the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, Janszoon proceeded to chart some 320 km of the coastline, which he thought was a southerly extension of New Guinea. Finding the land swampy and the inhospitable, at Cape Keerweer, south of Albatross Bay, Willem Janszoon decided to return. He called the land he had discovered Nieu Zeland after the Dutch province of Zeeland, the Duyfken was actually in Torres Strait in March 1606, a few months before Luís Vaz de Torres sailed through it. In 1607 Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge sent him to Ambon and Banda, in 1611 Janszoon returned to the Netherlands believing that the south coast of New Guinea was joined to the land along which he sailed, and Dutch maps reproduced this error for many years. Janszoon reported that on 31 July 1618, he had landed on an island at 22° South with a length of 22 miles and 240 miles SSE of the Sunda Strait. Around 1617/18 he was back in the Netherlands and was appointed as a member of the Council of the Indies, in 1620 he was one of the negotiators with the English. In a combined fleet sailed to Manila to prevent Chinese merchants dealing with the Spanish. Janszoon became vice-admiral, and the later admiral. Near the end of his life, Janszoon served as governor of Banda and he returned to Batavia in June 1627 and soon afterwards, as admiral of a fleet of eight vessels, went on a diplomatic mission to India. On 4 December 1628, he sailed for Holland and on 16 July 1629 and he was now probably about sixty years old and ready to retire from his strenuous and successful career in the service of his country
2.
Jeremias Falck
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Jeremias Falck was an engraver of the 17th century Baroque, born and active in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He signed his works as Falck Polonus or Falck Gedanensis, born probably around 1610 in Danzig, in the province of Polish Prussia, a part of Poland. Falck studied and worked with Wilhelm Hondius, in 1639 he moved to Paris, and in 1649 he became Royal Swedish engraver for Queen Christina in Sweden until 1654, when she became a Catholic. He then went to the Netherlands, where he engraved a portrait of Willem Blaeu, in 1662 in Hamburg he published 16 engravings of flowers and plants. He engraved the royals of the places he worked and he worked in Danzig. Jeremias brother Hans Falck was as Messerschmidt at Neugarten, Danzig, in 1650 Jeremias marriage in Danzig is recorded and later Hans and his Catharine were recorded as witnesses to the birth of Jeremias child. A letter by Jeremias Falck from 1658 stated. ich habe eine geraume Zeit sehr grosse Schmerzen im rechten Arm, many of Falcks engravings are based on portraits by Daniel Schultz and other painters. Falck lies buried in St. Peter and St. Pauls Church, the 1890 book with dedication by the great-grandson Herman Eugen Falk thanks a number of Polish writers who collected works by Falck. Of about three hundred portraits and pictures, which were inspected by J. C. Block for his book, nearly all works show J. Falck. But there are some that identify him as Swedish sculptor, when he was in salaried employment in Sweden, there are also listed about nine copper-etching Portrait Ovals mostly of Polish Bishops by Falck alone or with name, Dankert or Georg Förster. These nine metal ovals are mounted on rectangles and the rectangles are inscribed with Jeremias Falck Polonus,11, S. 213-214 AKL, Band 36,2003, S.339 Block, J. C. Jeremias Falck, sein Leben und seine Werke, mit vollständigem alphabetischen und chronologischen Register sämmtlicher Blätter, sowie Reproductionen nach des Künstlers besten Stichen, C
3.
Seventeen Provinces
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The Seventeen Provinces was a term applied to the Imperial states of the Habsburg Netherlands in the 15th and 16th century. Also within this area were semi-independent fiefdoms, mainly ecclesiastical ones, such as Liège, Cambrai and Stavelot-Malmedy. The Seventeen Provinces arose from the Burgundian Netherlands, a number of fiefs held by the House of Valois-Burgundy and inherited by the Habsburg dynasty in 1482, since 1512 the Provinces formed the major part of the Burgundian Circle. In 1581 the Seven United Provinces seceded to form the Dutch Republic, sometimes one delegation was included in another. In later years the County of Zutphen became a part of the Duchy of Guelders, the Lordship of Drenthe is sometimes considered as part of the Lordship of Overijssel. On the other hand, the French-speaking cities of Flanders were sometimes recognised as a separate province, the largest of these was the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, the green area on the map, including the County of Horne. The ethnically and culturally Netherlandish duchies of Cleves and Julich did not join either, in the north, there were also a few smaller entities like the island of Ameland that would retain their own lords until the French Revolution. Historians came up with different variations of the list, but always with 17 members and this number could have been chosen because of its Christian connotation. The Seventeen Provinces originated from the Burgundian Netherlands, the dukes of Burgundy systematically became the lord of different provinces. Mary I of Valois, Duchess of Burgundy was the last of the House of Burgundy, most of these provinces were fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire. Two provinces, the County of Flanders and County of Artois, were originally French fiefs, the Pragmatic Sanction of 1549 determined that the Provinces should remain united in the future and inherited by the same monarch. Therefore, Charles V introduced the title of Heer der Nederlanden, only he and his son could ever use this title. After Charles Vs abdication in 1555, his realms were divided between his son, Philip II of Habsburg, King of Spain, and his brother, Ferdinand I, the Seventeen Provinces went to his son, the king of Spain. Conflicts between Philip II and his Dutch subjects led to the Eighty Years War, which started in 1568, the seven northern provinces gained their independence as a republic called the Seven United Provinces. Hence, these became known as the Spanish Netherlands or Southern Netherlands. The northern Seven United Provinces kept parts of Limburg, Brabant, and Flanders during the Eighty Years War, Artois and parts of Flanders and Hainaut were ceded to France in the course of the 17th and 18th century. Bruges had already lost its prominent position as economic powerhouse of northern Europe, and Holland was gradually gaining importance in the 15th and 16th centuries. The center of prosperity moved from cities in the such as Bruges, Antwerp, Ghent, and Brussels to cities in the north, mostly Holland, including Amsterdam, The Hague
4.
Amsterdam
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Amsterdam is the capital and most populous municipality of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 851,373 within the city proper,1,351,587 in the urban area, the city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country. The metropolitan area comprises much of the part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe. Amsterdams name derives from Amstelredamme, indicative of the citys origin around a dam in the river Amstel, during that time, the city was the leading centre for finance and diamonds. In the 19th and 20th centuries the city expanded, and many new neighborhoods and suburbs were planned, the 17th-century canals of Amsterdam and the 19–20th century Defence Line of Amsterdam are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As the commercial capital of the Netherlands and one of the top financial centres in Europe, Amsterdam is considered a world city by the Globalization. The city is also the capital of the Netherlands. Many large Dutch institutions have their headquarters there, and seven of the worlds 500 largest companies, including Philips and ING, are based in the city. In 2012, Amsterdam was ranked the second best city to live in by the Economist Intelligence Unit and 12th globally on quality of living for environment, the city was ranked 3rd in innovation by Australian innovation agency 2thinknow in their Innovation Cities Index 2009. The Amsterdam seaport to this day remains the second in the country, famous Amsterdam residents include the diarist Anne Frank, artists Rembrandt van Rijn and Vincent van Gogh, and philosopher Baruch Spinoza. The Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the oldest stock exchange in the world, is located in the city center. After the floods of 1170 and 1173, locals near the river Amstel built a bridge over the river, the earliest recorded use of that name is in a document dated October 27,1275, which exempted inhabitants of the village from paying bridge tolls to Count Floris V. This allowed the inhabitants of the village of Aemstelredamme to travel freely through the County of Holland, paying no tolls at bridges, locks, the certificate describes the inhabitants as homines manentes apud Amestelledamme. By 1327, the name had developed into Aemsterdam, Amsterdam is much younger than Dutch cities such as Nijmegen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht. In October 2008, historical geographer Chris de Bont suggested that the land around Amsterdam was being reclaimed as early as the late 10th century. This does not necessarily mean there was already a settlement then, since reclamation of land may not have been for farming—it may have been for peat. Amsterdam was granted city rights in either 1300 or 1306, from the 14th century on, Amsterdam flourished, largely from trade with the Hanseatic League
5.
Dutch Republic
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It preceded the Batavian Republic, the Kingdom of Holland, the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and ultimately the modern Kingdom of the Netherlands. Alternative names include the United Provinces, Seven Provinces, Federated Dutch Provinces, most of the Low Countries had come under the rule of the House of Burgundy and subsequently the House of Habsburg. In 1549 Holy Roman Emperor Charles V issued the Pragmatic Sanction, Charles was succeeded by his son, King Philip II of Spain. This was the start of the Eighty Years War, in 1579 a number of the northern provinces of the Low Countries signed the Union of Utrecht, in which they promised to support each other in their defence against the Spanish army. This was followed in 1581 by the Act of Abjuration, the declaration of independence of the provinces from Philip II. In 1582 the United Provinces invited Francis, Duke of Anjou to lead them, but after an attempt to take Antwerp in 1583. After the assassination of William of Orange, both Henry III of France and Elizabeth I of England declined the offer of sovereignty, however, the latter agreed to turn the United Provinces into a protectorate of England, and sent the Earl of Leicester as governor-general. This was unsuccessful and in 1588 the provinces became a confederacy, the Union of Utrecht is regarded as the foundation of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, which was not recognized by the Spanish Empire until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. During the Anglo-French war, the territory was divided into groups, the Patriots, who were pro-French and pro-American and the Orangists. The Republic of the United Provinces faced a series of revolutions in 1783–1787. During this period, republican forces occupied several major Dutch cities, initially on the defence, the Orangist forces received aid from Prussian troops and retook the Netherlands in 1787. After the French Republic became the French Empire under Napoleon, the Batavian Republic was replaced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Holland, the Netherlands regained independence from France in 1813. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 the names United Provinces of the Netherlands, on 16 March 1815, the son of stadtholder William V crowned himself King William I of the Netherlands. Between 1815 and 1890 the King of the Netherlands was also in a union the Grand Duke of the sovereign Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. After Belgium gained its independence in 1830, the state became known as the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The County of Holland was the wealthiest and most urbanized region in the world, the free trade spirit of the time received a strong augmentation through the development of a modern, effective stock market in the Low Countries. The Netherlands has the oldest stock exchange in the world, founded in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company, while Rotterdam has the oldest bourse in the Netherlands, the worlds first stock exchange, that of the Dutch East-India Company, went public in six different cities. Later, a court ruled that the company had to reside legally in a city so Amsterdam is recognized as the oldest such institution based on modern trading principles
6.
Cartography
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Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively, the fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to, Set the maps agenda and select traits of the object to be mapped. This is the concern of map editing, traits may be physical, such as roads or land masses, or may be abstract, such as toponyms or political boundaries. Represent the terrain of the object on flat media. This is the concern of map projections, eliminate characteristics of the mapped object that are not relevant to the maps purpose. This is the concern of generalization, reduce the complexity of the characteristics that will be mapped. This is also the concern of generalization, orchestrate the elements of the map to best convey its message to its audience. This is the concern of map design, modern cartography constitutes many theoretical and practical foundations of geographic information systems. The earliest known map is a matter of debate, both because the term map isnt well-defined and because some artifacts that might be maps might actually be something else. A wall painting that might depict the ancient Anatolian city of Çatalhöyük has been dated to the late 7th millennium BCE, the oldest surviving world maps are from 9th century BCE Babylonia. One shows Babylon on the Euphrates, surrounded by Assyria, Urartu and several cities, all, in turn, another depicts Babylon as being north of the world center. The ancient Greeks and Romans created maps since Anaximander in the 6th century BCE, in the 2nd century AD, Ptolemy wrote his treatise on cartography, Geographia. This contained Ptolemys world map – the world known to Western society. As early as the 8th century, Arab scholars were translating the works of the Greek geographers into Arabic, in ancient China, geographical literature dates to the 5th century BCE. The oldest extant Chinese maps come from the State of Qin, dated back to the 4th century BCE, in the book of the Xin Yi Xiang Fa Yao, published in 1092 by the Chinese scientist Su Song, a star map on the equidistant cylindrical projection. Early forms of cartography of India included depictions of the pole star and these charts may have been used for navigation. Mappa mundi are the Medieval European maps of the world, approximately 1,100 mappae mundi are known to have survived from the Middle Ages. Of these, some 900 are found illustrating manuscripts and the remainder exist as stand-alone documents, the Arab geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi produced his medieval atlas Tabula Rogeriana in 1154
7.
Atlas
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An atlas is a collection of maps, it is typically a map of Earth or a region of Earth, but there are atlases of the other planets in the Solar System. Furthermore, atlases of anatomy exist, mapping out the body or other organisms. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats, in addition to presenting geographic features and political boundaries, many atlases often feature geopolitical, social, religious and economic statistics. They also have information about the map and places in it, the use of the word atlas in a geographical context dates from 1595 when the geographer Gerardus Mercator published Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura. This title provides Mercators definition of the word as a description of the creation and form of the whole universe, nonetheless, this distinction is conventionally awarded to the Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius who in 1570 published the collection of maps Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. A travel atlas is made for use during travel. It has maps at a large zoom so the maps can be reviewed easily, a travel atlas may also be referred to as a road map. A desk atlas is made similar to a reference book and it may be in hardback or paperback form. With the coming of the market, publishers in different countries can reprint maps from places made elsewhere. This means that the names on the maps often use the designations or abbreviations of the language of the country in which the feature is located. For example, islands near Russia have the abbreviation O. for ostrov and this practice differs from what is standard for any given language, and it reaches its extremity concerning transliterations from other languages. In particular, German mapmakers use the transliterations from Cyrillic developed by the Czechs, national Geographic MapMachine History of atlases Atlases, at the US Library of Congress site - a discussion of many significant atlases, with some illustrations. Part of Geography and Maps, an Illustrated Guide, Historical atlases online Centennia Historical Atlas required reading at the US Naval Academy for over a decade. Manuscript Atlases held by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries - fully digitized with descriptions, Historical Altas in Persuasive Cartography, The PJ Mode Collection, Cornell University Library Other links Google Earth, a visual 3D interactive atlas. Wikimapia a wikiproject designed to describe the entire world
8.
Publishing
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Publishing is the dissemination of literature, music, or information—the activity of making information available to the general public. In some cases, authors may be their own publishers, meaning originators and developers of content also provide media to deliver, also, the word publisher can refer to the individual who leads a publishing company or an imprint or to a person who owns/heads a magazine. Traditionally, the term refers to the distribution of printed works such as books, Publishing includes the following stages of development, acquisition, copy editing, production, printing, and marketing and distribution. There are two categories of book publisher, Non-paid publishers, A non-paid publisher is a house that does not charge authors at all to publish their books. Paid publishers, The author has to meet with the expense to get the book published. This is also known as vanity publishing, at a small press, it is possible to survive by relying entirely on commissioned material. But as activity increases, the need for works may outstrip the publishers established circle of writers, for works written independently of the publisher, writers often first submit a query letter or proposal directly to a literary agent or to a publisher. Submissions sent directly to a publisher are referred to as unsolicited submissions, the acquisitions editors send their choices to the editorial staff. Unsolicited submissions have a low rate of acceptance, with some sources estimating that publishers ultimately choose about three out of every ten thousand unsolicited manuscripts they receive. Many book publishers around the world maintain a strict no unsolicited submissions policy and this policy shifts the burden of assessing and developing writers out of the publisher and onto the literary agents. At these publishers, unsolicited manuscripts are thrown out, or sometimes returned, established authors may be represented by a literary agent to market their work to publishers and negotiate contracts. Literary agents take a percentage of earnings to pay for their services. Some writers follow a route to publication. Such books often employ the services of a ghostwriter, for a submission to reach publication, it must be championed by an editor or publisher who must work to convince other staff of the need to publish a particular title. An editor who discovers or champions a book that becomes a best-seller may find their reputation enhanced as a result of their success. Once a work is accepted, commissioning editors negotiate the purchase of property rights. The authors of traditional printed materials typically sell exclusive territorial intellectual property rights that match the list of countries in which distribution is proposed. In the case of books, the publisher and writer must also agree on the formats of publication —mass-market paperback
9.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands, also informally known as Holland is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
10.
History of cartography
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Cartography, or mapmaking, has been an integral part of the human history for thousands of years. Maps began as drawings but can also adopt three-dimensional shapes. The term cartography is modern, loaned into English from French cartographie in the 1840s, the earliest known maps are of the stars, not the earth. Dots dating to 16,500 BC found on the walls of the Lascaux caves map out part of the night sky, the Cuevas de El Castillo in Spain contain a dot map of the Corona Borealis constellation dating from 12,000 BC. Cave painting and rock carvings used simple visual elements that may have aided in recognizing landscape features, another ancient picture that resembles a map was created in the late 7th millennium BC in Çatalhöyük, Anatolia, modern Turkey. This wall painting may represent a plan of this Neolithic village, however, Maps in Ancient Babylonia were made by using accurate surveying techniques. For example, a 7.6 ×6.8 cm clay tablet found in 1930 at Ga-Sur, near contemporary Kirkuk, cuneiform inscriptions label the features on the map, including a plot of land described as 354 iku that was owned by a person called Azala. Most scholars date the tablet to the 25th to 24th century BC, Leo Bagrow dissents with a date of 7000 BC. Hills are shown by overlapping semicircles, rivers by lines, the map also is marked to show the cardinal directions. An engraved map from the Kassite period of Babylonian history shows walls, in contrast, the Babylonian World Map, the earliest surviving map of the world, is a symbolic, not a literal representation. It deliberately omits peoples such as the Persians and Egyptians, who were known to the Babylonians. The area shown is depicted as a circular shape surrounded by water, examples of maps from ancient Egypt are quite rare. Its originality can be seen in the inscriptions, its precise orientation. In reviewing the literature of early geography and early conceptions of the earth, all lead to Homer. Regardless of the doubts about Homers existence, one thing is certain, Homers knowledge of the Earth was very limited. He and his Greek contemporaries knew very little of the Earth beyond Egypt as far south as the Libyan desert, the south-west coast of Asia Minor, furthermore, the coast of the Black Sea was only known through myths and legends that circulated during his time. In his poems there is no mention of Europe and Asia as geographical concepts and that is why the big part of Homers world that is portrayed on this interpretive map represents lands that border on the Aegean Sea. Additional statements about ancient geography may be found in Hesiods poems, through the lyrics of Works and Days and Theogony he shows to his contemporaries some definite geographical knowledge. He introduces the names of rivers as Nile, Ister, the shores of the Bosporus, and the Euxine, the coast of Gaul, the island of Sicily
11.
Uitgeest
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Uitgeest is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. The municipality of Uitgeest consists of the cities, towns, villages and/or districts, Assum, Busch en Dam. Uitgeest was the birthplace of Cornelis Corneliszoon, inventor of the wind-powered sawmill, an industrial heritage park, centered on sawmill De Hoop, is under construction. The village has a Reformed church dating back to the early 14th Century, the outdoor kart-racing track of 670m had to make room for development of houses, so one tourist attraction has been lost. Fort along Den Ham was one of the 42 forts of the Stelling van Amsterdam, the fort is now a museum open to the public on Sundays. Railway station, Uitgeest Uitgeest is served by 4 trains per hour and it is recommended not to travel on the Stoptrein via Beverwijk and Haarlem as this journey is slower, and the journey via Zaandam passes through beautiful countryside. Highway Uitgeest is very close to the Highways N8/A8 and A9 and this will take you to Amsterdam in around 15 minutes. Recently the A9 highway has been improved by adding two lanes, improving the traffic to and from the Amsterdam region, peter Smit -childrens writer Media related to Uitgeest at Wikimedia Commons Official website
12.
Alkmaar
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Alkmaar is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Alkmaar is well known for its cheese market. For tourists, it is a cultural destination. The earliest mention of the name Alkmaar is in a 10th-century document, as the village grew into a town, it was granted city rights in 1254. The oldest part of Alkmaar lies on an ancient sand bank that afforded protection from inundation during medieval times. Even so, it is only a couple of metres above the surrounding region, in 1573 the city underwent a siege by Spanish forces under the leadership of Don Fadrique, son of the Duke of Alva. Some of his dispatches fell into the hands of Don Fadrique, and, with the beginning to rise. It was a point in the Eighty Years War and gave rise to the expression Bij Alkmaar begint de victorie. The event is celebrated every year in Alkmaar on 8 October. In 1799, during the French revolutionary wars, an Anglo-Russian expeditionary force captured the city but was defeated in the Battle of Castricum. The French victory was commemorated on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris as Alkmaer, the North Holland Canal, opened in 1824, was dug through Alkmaar. In 1865 and 1867 the railways between Alkmaar and Den Helder and between Alkmaar and Haarlem were built respectively, in the second half of the 20th century, Alkmaar expanded quickly with development of new neighbourhoods. On 1 October 1972, the town of Oudorp and the portions of Koedijk. The municipality of Alkmaar consists of the cities, towns, villages and/or districts, Alkmaar, Koedijk, Overdie, Oudorp. These once separate villages are now all linked together by the suburban sprawl of buildings that arose between the late 1970s and early 1990s, during this time, the population of Alkmaar almost doubled. On 1 January 2015 the municipalities of Graft-De Rijp and Schermer were merged into Alkmaar, there are direct trains to Den Helder, Hoorn, Zaandam, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Ede, Arnhem, Nijmegen, s-Hertogenbosch, Eindhoven, Maastricht and Haarlem. For exact details see Alkmaar railway station, Alkmaar has two railway stations, Alkmaar Alkmaar Noord The waterway Noordhollandsch Kanaal, which opened in 1824, runs through Alkmaar. Alkmaar has many buildings that are still intact, most notably the tall tower of the Grote of Sint-Laurenskerk
13.
Herring
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Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family Clupeidae. Herring often move in schools around fishing banks and near the coast. Three species of Clupea are recognised, and provide about 90% of all captured in fisheries. Most abundant of all is the Atlantic herring, providing half of all herring capture. Fishes called herring are found in India, in the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean. Herring played a role in the history of marine fisheries in Europe. These oily fish also have a history as an important food fish. A number of different species, most belonging to the family Clupeidae, are referred to as herrings. The origins of the herring is somewhat unclear, though it may derive from the Old High German heri meaning a host, multitude. The type genus of the herring family Clupeidae is Clupea, Clupea contains three species, the Atlantic herring found in the north Atlantic, the Pacific herring found in the north Pacific, and the Araucanian herring found off the coast of Chile. Subspecific divisions have been suggested for both the Atlantic and Pacific herrings, but their biological basis remain unclear, in addition, a number of related species, all in the family Clupeidae, are commonly referred to as herrings. The table immediately below includes those members of the Clupeidae family referred to by FishBase as herrings which have been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. There are also a number of other species called herrings, which may be related to clupeids or just share some characteristics of herrings. Just which of these species are called herrings can vary with locality, some examples, The species of Clupea belong to the larger family Clupeidae, which comprises some 200 species that share similar features. These silvery-coloured fish have a dorsal fin, which is soft. They have no lateral line and have a lower jaw. At least one stock of Atlantic herring spawns in every month of the year, each spawns at a different time and place. Greenland populations spawn in 0–5 metres of water while North Sea herrings spawn at up to 200 metres in autumn
14.
Mathematics
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Mathematics is the study of topics such as quantity, structure, space, and change. There is a range of views among mathematicians and philosophers as to the exact scope, Mathematicians seek out patterns and use them to formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proof, when mathematical structures are good models of real phenomena, then mathematical reasoning can provide insight or predictions about nature. Through the use of abstraction and logic, mathematics developed from counting, calculation, measurement, practical mathematics has been a human activity from as far back as written records exist. The research required to solve mathematical problems can take years or even centuries of sustained inquiry, rigorous arguments first appeared in Greek mathematics, most notably in Euclids Elements. Galileo Galilei said, The universe cannot be read until we have learned the language and it is written in mathematical language, and the letters are triangles, circles and other geometrical figures, without which means it is humanly impossible to comprehend a single word. Without these, one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth, carl Friedrich Gauss referred to mathematics as the Queen of the Sciences. Benjamin Peirce called mathematics the science that draws necessary conclusions, David Hilbert said of mathematics, We are not speaking here of arbitrariness in any sense. Mathematics is not like a game whose tasks are determined by arbitrarily stipulated rules, rather, it is a conceptual system possessing internal necessity that can only be so and by no means otherwise. Albert Einstein stated that as far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, Mathematics is essential in many fields, including natural science, engineering, medicine, finance and the social sciences. Applied mathematics has led to entirely new mathematical disciplines, such as statistics, Mathematicians also engage in pure mathematics, or mathematics for its own sake, without having any application in mind. There is no clear line separating pure and applied mathematics, the history of mathematics can be seen as an ever-increasing series of abstractions. The earliest uses of mathematics were in trading, land measurement, painting and weaving patterns, in Babylonian mathematics elementary arithmetic first appears in the archaeological record. Numeracy pre-dated writing and numeral systems have many and diverse. Between 600 and 300 BC the Ancient Greeks began a study of mathematics in its own right with Greek mathematics. Mathematics has since been extended, and there has been a fruitful interaction between mathematics and science, to the benefit of both. Mathematical discoveries continue to be made today, the overwhelming majority of works in this ocean contain new mathematical theorems and their proofs. The word máthēma is derived from μανθάνω, while the modern Greek equivalent is μαθαίνω, in Greece, the word for mathematics came to have the narrower and more technical meaning mathematical study even in Classical times
15.
Astronomy
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Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It applies mathematics, physics, and chemistry, in an effort to explain the origin of those objects and phenomena and their evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, galaxies, and comets, while the phenomena include supernovae explosions, gamma ray bursts, more generally, all astronomical phenomena that originate outside Earths atmosphere are within the purview of astronomy. A related but distinct subject, physical cosmology, is concerned with the study of the Universe as a whole, Astronomy is the oldest of the natural sciences. The early civilizations in recorded history, such as the Babylonians, Greeks, Indians, Egyptians, Nubians, Iranians, Chinese, during the 20th century, the field of professional astronomy split into observational and theoretical branches. Observational astronomy is focused on acquiring data from observations of astronomical objects, theoretical astronomy is oriented toward the development of computer or analytical models to describe astronomical objects and phenomena. The two fields complement each other, with theoretical astronomy seeking to explain the results and observations being used to confirm theoretical results. Astronomy is one of the few sciences where amateurs can play an active role, especially in the discovery. Amateur astronomers have made and contributed to many important astronomical discoveries, Astronomy means law of the stars. Astronomy should not be confused with astrology, the system which claims that human affairs are correlated with the positions of celestial objects. Although the two share a common origin, they are now entirely distinct. Generally, either the term astronomy or astrophysics may be used to refer to this subject, however, since most modern astronomical research deals with subjects related to physics, modern astronomy could actually be called astrophysics. Few fields, such as astrometry, are purely astronomy rather than also astrophysics, some titles of the leading scientific journals in this field includeThe Astronomical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal and Astronomy and Astrophysics. In early times, astronomy only comprised the observation and predictions of the motions of objects visible to the naked eye, in some locations, early cultures assembled massive artifacts that possibly had some astronomical purpose. Before tools such as the telescope were invented, early study of the stars was conducted using the naked eye, most of early astronomy actually consisted of mapping the positions of the stars and planets, a science now referred to as astrometry. From these observations, early ideas about the motions of the planets were formed, and the nature of the Sun, Moon, the Earth was believed to be the center of the Universe with the Sun, the Moon and the stars rotating around it. This is known as the model of the Universe, or the Ptolemaic system. The Babylonians discovered that lunar eclipses recurred in a cycle known as a saros
16.
Denmark
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The term Danish Realm refers to the relationship between Denmark proper, the Faroe Islands and Greenland—three countries constituting the Kingdom of Denmark. The legal nature of the Kingdom of Denmark is fundamentally one of a sovereign state. The Faroe Islands and Greenland have been part of the Crown of Denmark since 1397 when the Kalmar Union was ratified, legal matters in The Danish Realm are subject to the Danish Constitution. Beginning in 1953, state law issues within The Danish Realm has been governed by The Unity of the Realm, a less formal name for The Unity of the Realm is the Commonwealth of the Realm. In 1978, The Unity of The Realm was for the first time referred to as rigsfællesskabet. The name caught on and since the 1990s, both The Unity of The Realm and The Danish Realm itself has increasingly been referred to as simply rigsfællesskabet in daily parlance. The Danish Constitution stipulates that the foreign and security interests for all parts of the Danish Realm are the responsibility of the Danish government, the Faroes received home rule in 1948 and Greenland did so in 1979. In 2005, the Faroes received a self-government arrangement, and in 2009 Greenland received self rule, the Danish Realms unique state of internal affairs is acted out in the principle of The Unity of the Realm. This principle is derived from Article 1 of the Danish Constitution which specifies that constitutional law applies equally to all areas of the Danish Realm, the Constitutional Act specifies that sovereignty is to continue to be exclusively with the authorities of the Realm. The language of Denmark is Danish, and the Danish state authorities are based in Denmark, the Kingdom of Denmarks parliament, with its 179 members, is located in the capital, Copenhagen. Two of the members are elected in each of Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The Government ministries are located in Copenhagen, as is the highest court, in principle, the Danish Realm constitutes a unified sovereign state, with equal status between its constituent parts. Devolution differs from federalism in that the powers of the subnational authority ultimately reside in central government. The Self-Government Arrangements devolves political competence and responsibility from the Danish political authorities to the Faroese, the Faroese and Greenlandic authorities administer the tasks taken over from the state, enact legislation in these specific fields and have the economic responsibility for solving these tasks. The Danish government provides a grant to the Faroese and the Greenlandic authorities to cover the costs of these devolved areas. The 1948 Home Rule Act of the Faroe Islands sets out the terms of Faroese home rule, the Act states. the Faroe Islands shall constitute a self-governing community within the State of Denmark. It establishes the government of the Faroe Islands and the Faroese parliament. The Faroe Islands were previously administered as a Danish county, the Home Rule Act abolished the post of Amtmand and these powers were expanded in a 2005 Act, which named the Faroese home government as an equal partner with the Danish government
17.
Astronomer
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An astronomer is a scientist in the field of astronomy who concentrates their studies on a specific question or field outside of the scope of Earth. They look at stars, planets, moons, comets and galaxies, as well as other celestial objects — either in observational astronomy. Examples of topics or fields astronomers work on include, planetary science, solar astronomy, there are also related but distinct subjects like physical cosmology which studies the Universe as a whole. Astronomers usually fit into two types, Observational astronomers make direct observations of planets, stars and galaxies, and analyze the data, theoretical astronomers create and investigate models of things that cannot be observed. They use this data to create models or simulations to theorize how different celestial bodies work, there are further subcategories inside these two main branches of astronomy such as planetary astronomy, galactic astronomy or physical cosmology. Today, that distinction has disappeared and the terms astronomer. Professional astronomers are highly educated individuals who typically have a Ph. D. in physics or astronomy and are employed by research institutions or universities. They spend the majority of their time working on research, although quite often have other duties such as teaching, building instruments. The number of astronomers in the United States is actually quite small. The American Astronomical Society, which is the organization of professional astronomers in North America, has approximately 7,000 members. This number includes scientists from other such as physics, geology. The International Astronomical Union comprises almost 10,145 members from 70 different countries who are involved in research at the Ph. D. level. Before CCDs, photographic plates were a method of observation. Modern astronomers spend relatively little time at telescopes usually just a few weeks per year, analysis of observed phenomena, along with making predictions as to the causes of what they observe, takes the majority of observational astronomers time. Astronomers who serve as faculty spend much of their time teaching undergraduate and graduate classes, most universities also have outreach programs including public telescope time and sometimes planetariums as a public service to encourage interest in the field. Those who become astronomers usually have a background in maths, sciences. Taking courses that teach how to research, write and present papers are also invaluable, in college/university most astronomers get a Ph. D. in astronomy or physics. Keeping in mind how few there are it is understood that graduate schools in this field are very competitive
18.
Tycho Brahe
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Tycho Brahe, born Tyge Ottesen Brahe, was a Danish nobleman known for his accurate and comprehensive astronomical and planetary observations. He was born in the then Danish peninsula of Scania, well known in his lifetime as an astronomer, astrologer and alchemist, he has been described as the first competent mind in modern astronomy to feel ardently the passion for exact empirical facts. His observations were some five times more accurate than the best available observations at the time, an heir to several of Denmarks principal noble families, he received a comprehensive education. He took an interest in astronomy and in the creation of more instruments of measurement. His system correctly saw the Moon as orbiting Earth, and the planets as orbiting the Sun, furthermore, he was the last of the major naked eye astronomers, working without telescopes for his observations. In his De nova stella of 1573, he refuted the Aristotelian belief in a celestial realm. Using similar measurements he showed that comets were also not atmospheric phenomena, as previously thought, on the island he founded manufactories, such as a paper mill, to provide material for printing his results. He built an observatory at Benátky nad Jizerou, there, from 1600 until his death in 1601, he was assisted by Johannes Kepler, who later used Tychos astronomical data to develop his three laws of planetary motion. Tychos body has been exhumed twice, in 1901 and 2010, to examine the circumstances of his death, both of his grandfathers and all of his great grandfathers had served as members of the Danish kings Privy Council. His paternal grandfather and namesake Thyge Brahe was the lord of Tosterup Castle in Scania, Tychos father Otte Brahe, like his father a royal Privy Councilor, married Beate Bille, who was herself a powerful figure at the Danish court holding several royal land titles. Both parents are buried under the floor of Kågeröd Church, four kilometres east of Knutstorp, Tycho was born at his familys ancestral seat of Knutstorp Castle, about eight kilometres north of Svalöv in then Danish Scania. He was the oldest of 12 siblngs,8 of whom lived to adulthood and his twin brother died before being baptized. Tycho later wrote an ode in Latin to his dead twin, an epitaph, originally from Knutstorp, but now on a plaque near the church door, shows the whole family, including Tycho as a boy. When he was two years old Tycho was taken away to be raised by his uncle Jørgen Thygesen Brahe. It is unclear why the Otte Brahe reached this arrangement with his brother, Tycho later wrote that Jørgen Brahe raised me and generously provided for me during his life until my eighteenth year, he always treated me as his own son and made me his heir. From ages 6 to 12, Tycho attended Latin school, probably in Nykøbing, at age 12, on 19 April 1559, Tycho began studies at the University of Copenhagen. There, following his uncles wishes, he studied law, but also studied a variety of other subjects, at the University, Aristotle was a staple of scientific theory, and Tycho likely received a thorough training in Aristotelian physics and cosmology. He experienced the solar eclipse of 21 August 1560, and was impressed by the fact that it had been predicted
19.
Variable star
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A variable star is a star whose brightness as seen from Earth fluctuates. Many, possibly most, stars have at least some variation in luminosity, an ancient Egyptian calendar of lucky and unlucky days composed some 3,200 years ago may be the oldest preserved historical document of the discovery of a variable star, the eclipsing binary Algol. This discovery, combined with supernovae observed in 1572 and 1604, proved that the sky was not eternally invariable as Aristotle. In this way, the discovery of variable stars contributed to the revolution of the sixteenth. The second variable star to be described was the eclipsing variable Algol, by Geminiano Montanari in 1669, chi Cygni was identified in 1686 by G. Kirch, then R Hydrae in 1704 by G. D. Maraldi. By 1786 ten variable stars were known, John Goodricke himself discovered Delta Cephei and Beta Lyrae. Since 1850 the number of variable stars has increased rapidly, especially after 1890 when it became possible to identify variable stars by means of photography. The latest edition of the General Catalogue of Variable Stars lists more than 46,000 variable stars in the Milky Way, as well as 10,000 in other galaxies, and over 10,000 suspected variables. The most common kinds of variability involve changes in brightness, but other types of variability also occur, by combining light curve data with observed spectral changes, astronomers are often able to explain why a particular star is variable. Variable stars are generally analysed using photometry, spectrophotometry and spectroscopy, measurements of their changes in brightness can be plotted to produce light curves. Peak brightnesses in the curve are known as maxima, while troughs are known as minima. By estimating the magnitude and noting the time of observation a visual lightcurve can be constructed. The American Association of Variable Star Observers collects such observations from participants around the world, from the light curve the following data are derived, are the brightness variations periodical, semiperiodical, irregular, or unique. What is the period of the brightness fluctuations, what is the shape of the light curve. From the spectrum the following data are derived, what kind of star is it, what is its temperature, is it a single star, or a binary. does the spectrum change with time. In very few cases it is possible to make pictures of a stellar disk and these may show darker spots on its surface. Combining light curves with spectral data often gives a clue as to the changes occur in a variable star. For example, evidence for a star is found in its shifting spectrum because its surface periodically moves toward and away from us
20.
P Cygni
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P Cygni is a variable star in the constellation Cygnus. The designation P was originally assigned by Johann Bayer in Uranometria as a nova, located about 5000 to 6000 light-years from Earth, it is a hypergiant luminous blue variable star of spectral type B1Ia+ that is one of the most luminous stars in the Milky Way. The star is located about 5000 to 6000 light-years from Earth, despite this vast distance, it is visible to the naked eye in suitable dark sky locations. It was unknown until the end of the 16th century, when it brightened to 3rd magnitude. It was first observed on 18 August 1600 by Willem Janszoon Blaeu, bayers atlas of 1603 assigned it the miscellaneous label P and the name has stuck ever since. After six years the star faded slowly, dropping below naked-eye visibility in 1626 and it brightened again in 1655, but had faded by 1662. Another outburst took place in 1665, this was followed by numerous fluctuations, since 1715 P Cygni has been a fifth magnitude star, with only minor fluctuations in brightness. Today it has a magnitude of 4.8, irregularly variable by a few hundredths of a magnitude on a scale of days, the visual brightness is increasing by about 0.15 magnitude per century, attributed to a slow decrease in temperature at constant luminosity. P Cygni is widely considered to be the earliest known example of a luminous blue variable, however it is far from a typical example. P Cygni does show evidence for previous large eruptions around 900,2,100, luminous blue variables like P Cygni are very rare and short lived, and only form in regions of galaxies where intense star formation is happening. LBV stars are so massive and energetic that they exhaust their fuel very quickly. After shining for only a few years they erupt in a supernova. The recent supernova SN 2006gy was likely the end of an LBV star similar to P Cygni, P Cygni is thought to be in the hydrogen shell burning phase immediately after leaving the main sequence. It has been identified as a possible type IIb supernova candidate in modelling of the fate of stars 20 to 25 times the mass of the Sun and these profiles are useful in the study of stellar winds in many types of stars. They are often cited as an indicator of a luminous blue variable star, the size of the stellar wind H-alpha emission region is 5.64 +/-0.21 milli-arcseconds. At the estimated distance of 1,700 parsecs this is a size of approximately 26 stellar radii. Infall of matter into the star would produce the release of gravitational energy. Spectrum AAVSO Variable Star of the Month
21.
Holland
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Holland is a region and former province on the western coast of the Netherlands. The name Holland is also used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. From the 10th to the 16th century, Holland proper was a political region within the Holy Roman Empire as a county ruled by the Counts of Holland. By the 17th century, Holland had risen to become a maritime and economic power, the name Holland first appeared in sources in 866 for the region around Haarlem, and by 1064 was being used as the name of the entire county. By this time, the inhabitants of Holland were referring to themselves as Hollanders, Holland is derived from the Middle Dutch term holtland. This spelling variation remained in use until around the 14th century, a popular folk etymology holds that Holland is derived from hol land and was inspired by the low-lying geography of Holland. The proper name of the area in both Dutch and English is Holland, Holland is a part of the Netherlands. Holland is informally used in English and other languages, including sometimes the Dutch language itself, the people of Holland are referred to as Hollanders in both Dutch and English. Today this refers specifically to people from the current provinces of North Holland, strictly speaking, the term Hollanders does not refer to people from the other provinces in the Netherlands, but colloquially Hollanders is sometimes used in this wider sense. In Dutch, the Dutch word Hollands is the form for Holland. In English, Dutch refers to the Netherlands as a whole, the word Hollandish is no longer in common use. Hollandic is the name give to the dialect spoken in Holland, and is occasionally also used by historians. Initially, Holland was a corner of the Holy Roman Empire. Gradually, its importance increased until it began to have a decisive. Until the start of the 12th century, the inhabitants of the area that became Holland were known as Frisians, the area was initially part of Frisia. At the end of the 9th century, West-Frisia became a county in the Holy Roman Empire. The first Count known about with certainty was Dirk I, who ruled from 896 to 931 and he was succeeded by a long line of counts in the House of Holland. When John I, count of Holland, died childless in 1299, by the time of William V the count of Holland was also the count of Hainaut and Zealand
22.
Atlas Maior
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It was the largest and most expensive book published in the seventeenth century. Earlier, much smaller versions, titled Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, sive, somewhere around 1604 Willem Blaeu settled down in Amsterdam and opened a shop on the Damrak, where he produced and sold scientific instruments, globes and maps. He was also a publisher, editor and engraver, in 1629, Willem Blaeu bought the copperplates of several dozens of maps from Jodocus Hondius IIs widow. Afterwards, he published an Atlantis Appendix to Mercators atlas in 1630, containing 60 maps, the next year a new edition was published, with 98 maps and descriptive text in Latin. Willem and his son Joan Blaeu made an announcement in an Amsterdam newspaper that they would publish their own full atlas in 1634. After his fathers death in 1638, Joan continued to rework, a three volume edition was published from 1640 onwards. The final version of the atlas was published as the Atlas Maior and contained 594 maps in eleven, twelve and this final version of the Atlas Maior was the largest and most expansive book published in the seventeenth century. The first volumes were published in 1662, the last volume was finished in 1665 and he also started creating a 12 volume Spanish edition, however, only 10 volumes were finished. The second part and third part were never produced, in 1672, fire broke out in the workshop. Joan Blaeu died the next year, no new editions of his atlases were published and the family business went bankrupt within a few years. University of Chicago Press,2003, ISBN 0-226-30071-4, john Goss & Peter Clark, Blaeu – Der große Atlas, die Welt im 17. Wien 1990, ISBN 3-701-40304-X J. Keuning, Willem Jansz, a biography and history of his work as a cartographer and publisher. Rev. and ed. by M. Donkersloot-De Vrij, koeman, Joan Blaeu and his Grand atlas. Ute Schneider, Die Macht der Karten, eine Geschichte der Kartographie vom Mittelalter bis heute. R. Shirley, The mapping of the world, london 1983 F. Wawrik, Berühmte Atlanten. Dortmund 1982 Bibliographical descriptions of the atlases, Peter van der Krogt, Koemans Atlantes Neerlandici II, the third centenary ed. Amsterdam 1967-1968 Taschen editions based on the Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, Peter van der Krogt, Joan Blaeu. // Peter van der Krogt, Joan Blaeu, // Peter van der Krogt, Joan Blaeu. // Peter van der Krogt, Joan Blaeu, Peter van der Krogt, Joan Blaeu
23.
Dutch East India Company
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It is often considered to be the worlds first truly transnational corporation and the first company in history to actually issue bonds and shares of stock to the general public. In other words, the VOC was officially the first publicly traded company of the world, the company was also considered by many to be the very first major and the greatest corporation in history. Statistically, the VOC eclipsed all of its rivals in international trade for almost 200 years of existence. Between 1602 and 1796 the VOC sent almost a million Europeans to work in the Asia trade on 4,785 ships, the VOC enjoyed huge profits from its spice monopoly through most of the 17th century. Having been set up in 1602, to profit from the Malukan spice trade, in 1619 the VOC established a capital in the city of Jayakarta. Over the next two centuries the Company acquired additional ports as trading bases and safeguarded their interests by taking over surrounding territory and it remained an important trading concern and paid an 18% annual dividend for almost 200 years. Around the world and especially in English-speaking countries, the VOC is widely known as the Dutch East India Company, the name ‘Dutch East India Company’ is used to make a distinction with the East India Company and other East Indian companies. The abbreviation VOC stands for Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie in Dutch, the VOC monogram was possibly the first globally-recognized corporate logo. The logo of the VOC consisted of a large capital V with an O on the left and it appeared on various corporate items, such as cannon and coins. The first letter of the hometown of the conducting the operation was placed on top. An Australian vintner has used the VOC logo since the late 20th century, the flag of the company was orange, white, and blue, with the company logo embroidered on it. Before the Dutch Revolt, Antwerp had played an important role as a centre in northern Europe. At the same time, the Portuguese trade system was unable to supply to satisfy growing demand. Demand for spices was relatively inelastic, and therefore each lag in the supply of pepper caused a rise in pepper prices. These three factors motivated Dutch merchants to enter the spice trade themselves. Further, a number of Dutchmen like Jan Huyghen van Linschoten and Cornelis de Houtman obtained first hand knowledge of the secret Portuguese trade routes and practices, thereby providing opportunity. The stage was set for Houtmans 1595 four-ship exploratory expedition to Banten, the main pepper port of West Java. Houtmans expedition then sailed east along the north coast of Java, losing twelve crew to a Javanese attack at Sidayu, half the crew were lost before the expedition made it back to the Netherlands the following year, but with enough spices to make a considerable profit
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Willebrord Snellius
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Willebrord Snellius was a Dutch astronomer and mathematician, known in the English-speaking world as Snell. The same law was also investigated by Ptolemy and in the Middle Ages by Witelo, the lunar crater Snellius is named after Willebrord Snellius. The Royal Netherlands Navy has named three ships after Snellius, including a currently-serving vessel. Willebrord Snellius was born in Leiden, Netherlands, in 1613 he succeeded his father, Rudolph Snel van Royen as professor of mathematics at the University of Leiden. He was helped in his measurements by two of his students, the Austrian barons Erasmus and Casparus Sterrenberg, in several cities he also received support of friends among the city leaders. In his work The terrae Ambitus vera quantitate under the authors name Snellius describes the methods he used and he came up with an estimate of 28,500 Rhineland rods - in modern units 107.37 km for one degree of latitude. 360 times 107.37 then gives a circumference of the Earth of 38,653 km, the actual circumference is 40,075 kilometers, so Snellius underestimated the circumference of the earth by 3. 5%. Snellius came to his result by calculating the distances between a number of points in the plain west and southwest of the Netherlands using triangulation. In order to carry out these measurements accurately Snellius had a large quadrant built and this quadrant can still be seen in the Museum Boerhaave in Leiden. In a network of fourteen cities a total of 53 triangulation measurements were made, in his calculations Snellius made use of a solution for what is now called the Snellius–Pothenot problem. By necessity Snellius his high points were nearly all church spires, there were hardly any other tall buildings in Snellius time in the west of the Netherlands. More or less ordered from north to south and/or in successive order of measuring Snellius used a network of fourteen points, Alkmaar. The difference in latitude between Alkmaar and Breda is 1.0436 degree, assuming Snellius corrected for this he must have calculated a distance of 107.37 *1.0436 =112.05 kilometers between the Sint-Laurenskerk in Alkmaar and the Grote Kerk in Breda. Snellius was also a mathematician, producing a new method for calculating π—the first such improvement since ancient times. He rediscovered the law of refraction in 1621, in addition to the Eratosthenes Batavus, he published Cyclometricus, de circuli dimensione, and Tiphys Batavus. He also edited Coeli et siderum in eo errantium observationes Hassiacae, a work on trigonometry authored by Snellius was published a year after his death. Snellius died at Leiden on October 1626, at the age of 46 from an illness diagnosed as colic, oConnor, John J. Robertson, Edmund F. Willebrord van Royen Snell, MacTutor History of Mathematics archive, University of St Andrews. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Snell
25.
Adriaan Metius
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Adriaan Adriaanszoon, called Metius, was a Dutch geometer and astronomer born in Alkmaar. The name Metius comes from the Dutch word meten, and therefore something like measurer or surveyor. Adriaan Metius was born in Alkmaar, North Holland and his father, Adriaan Anthonisz, was a mathematician, land-surveyor, cartographer, and military engineer who from 1582 served also as burgomaster of Alkmaar. Metius brother, Jacob Metius, worked as an instrument-maker and a specialist in grinding lenses, also born in Alkmaar, Jacob died between 1624 and 1631. Adriaan Metius attended a Latin school in Alkmaar and studied philosophy in 1589 at the recently founded University of Franeker and he continued his studies at Leiden in 1594, where he studied under Rudolph Snellius. He worked for a time under Tycho Brahe on the island of Hven. He was permitted to teach in the vernacular instead of Latin and he served as rector of the university in 1603 and 1632. With his father and brother he established an instrument making business which specialised in optical instruments, the family business seems to have manufactured the precision Jacobs staffs used by Tycho Brahe for his star sightings. Though he scoffed at astrology, Metius is said to have spent a lot of time pursuing alchemy, Metius published treatises on the astrolabe and on surveying. His works include Arithmeticæ et geometriæ practica, Institutiones Astronomicae Geographicae, Metius also manufactured astronomical instruments and developed a special form of Jacobs staff. In 1585, his father had estimated the ratio of a circumference to its diameter, later called pi. Metius later published his fathers results, and the value 355/113 is traditionally referred to as Metius number, the lunar crater Metius is named after him. In Vermeers painting The Astronomer, the book lying on the table has been identified as a 1621 second edition of Metiuss Institutiones Astronomicae Geographicae. It is opened to Book III, where inspiration from God is recommended for astronomical research along with knowledge of geometry, galileo Project, Metius Metius Imago Mundi, Metius Metius Family
26.
Roemer Visscher
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Roemer Pieterszoon Visscher was a successful Dutch merchant and writer of the Dutch Golden Age. Visscher was born in and lived in Amsterdam and was an important and central figure of the scene there. Other members of this scene were the Dutch writers P. C, vondel called Visschers house het saligh Roemers huys, because artists of all kinds visited his house on the Gelderse Kade in Amsterdam, varying from painters to poets. Roemer was the father of three daughters Maria Tesselschade Visscher, Gertruid, and Anna Visscher, the humanistic and moralistic content of his works belongs to the period of the Renaissance, although the form was more conservative and characteristic to the rederijkers. Visscher was a specialist in the epigram, but he also wrote emblemata, the emblemata is a genre in which pictures are accompanied by one or two rhyming sentences. An example of the emblemata is Visschers Sinnepoppen, one emblema is called Elck wat wils which is still a common expression in Dutch, meaning To each his own
27.
Gerardus Vossius
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Gerrit Janszoon Vos, often known by his Latin name Gerardus Vossius, was a Dutch classical scholar and theologian. In 1600 he was rector of the latin school in Dordrecht. From 1614 to 1619 he was director of the college at Leiden University. In the meantime, he was gaining a reputation as a scholar, not only in the Netherlands. But in spite of the moderation of his views and his abstention from controversy, he came under suspicion of heresy, and escaped expulsion from his office only by resignation. The year before he had published his ‘Historia Pelagiana a history of the Pelagian controversies, in 1622, he was appointed professor of rhetoric and chronology, and subsequently of Greek, in the university. D. He was on terms with Thomas Farnaby, and Farnabys ‘Latin Grammar’ is based to a certain extent upon that which Vossius wrote for the Elzevir press in 1629. He got permission from Charles I to return to the Low Countries, in 1632 he left Leiden to take the post of professor of history in the newly founded Athenaeum Illustre at Amsterdam, which he held till his death. His son Isaac, after a career of scholarship in Sweden and he was the author of De septuaginta interpretibus, De poematum cantu et viribus rhythmi, and Variarum observationum liber. Others, His son Dionysius Vossius died 1633 or 1640 and he made notes on the work of Moses Maimonides. His third son Gerrit Vossius died 1640 and he was an editor of Velleius Paterculus. He made a chronicle of Holland, Francis Vossius was Gerardus Vossiuss brother. A person also called Gerardus Vossius, a Roman Catholic who made annotated Latin translations of Gregory Thaumaturgus and Cicero, Vossius was amongst the first to treat theological dogmas and the non-Christian religions from the historical point of view. His collected works were published at Amsterdam, in rhetoric, his works enjoyed a wide circulation, being used as textbooks. He supported Aristotles definitions, and opposed Ramism, with the major influences being Aristotle and Cicero, he also cited Hermogenes, Menander Rhetor, Bartholomeus Keckermann and Nicolas Caussin. Jean-Pierre Nicéron, Mémoires pour servir de lhistoire des hommes illustres, Vossius Vossius, Gerhard Johannes, Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie,40, Leipzig, Duncker & Humblot,1896, pp. 367–370 C. S. M. Rademaker ss. cc. Life and Works of Gerardus Joannes Vossius, G. J. Vossius, chisholm, Hugh, ed. Vossius, Gerhard Johann. Reynolds, Francis J. ed. Voss, Gerhard Johann, attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Vossius, Isaac
28.
Caspar Barlaeus
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Caspar Barlaeus was a Dutch polymath and Renaissance humanist, a theologian, poet, and historian. Born Caspar van Baerle in Antwerp, Barlaeus parents fled the city when it was occupied by Spanish troops shortly after his birth and they settled in Zaltbommel, where his father eventually would become head of the Latin school. Caspar studied theology and philosophy at the University of Leiden, after his study, he preached for 1.5 years in the village of Nieuwe-Tonge, before returning to Leiden in 1612 as an under-regent of a college. From 1617 he also was professor in philosophy at the university, because of his remonstrant sympathies, he was forced out of this job in 1619. He then studied and graduated in medicines, but never practiced professionally, in January 1632, Barlaeus, along with Gerard Vossius, held his inaugural speech at the Amsterdam Atheneum. Barlaeus later encouraged Martinus Hortensius to lecture –and give an inaugural speech- at the same institution, Barlaeus published many volumes of poetry, particularly Latin poetry. He also wrote the eulogy that accompanies the 1622 portrait of cartographer Willem Blaeu, Barlaeus was involved in various aspects of cartography and history. He translated Antonio de Herreras Description of the West Indies in 1622, in 1627, Barlaeus provided the text for the atlas of Italy created by Jodocus Hondius. In 1647, he wrote an account of the Dutch colonial empire in Brazil, the Rerum per octennium in Brasilia et alibi nuper gestarum sub praefectura, as it is called, contains numerous maps and plates of the region. Franciscus Plante wrote a work in the same year called Mauritias. These were maps of Ceará, Pernambuco, Paraíba, and Pernambuco Borealá, Plante also incorporated a portrait of John Maurice that had already been included in Barlaeus work. In 1638, Barlaeus wrote Medicea Hospes, sive descriptio publicae gratulationis, mariam de Medicis, excepit senatus populusque Amstelodamensis. Published by Willem Blaeu, it includes two large folding engraved views of the ceremonies on the occasion of the French queen mother Marie de Medicis triumphal entry into Amsterdam in 1638. Considered an important moment in Dutch history, Maries visit lent de facto recognition of the newly formed Dutch Republic. Marie de Medici actually traveled to the Netherlands as exile, but spectacular displays, there was a procession led by two mounted trumpeters, a large temporary structure erected on an artificial island in the Amstel River was built especially for the festival. This building was designed to display a series of dramatic tableaux in tribute to her once she set foot on the floating island, franciscus Plante wrote Barlaeus obituary and epitaph in 1648. Barlaeus Gymnasium, in Amsterdam, is named after him
29.
Hugo Grotius
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Hugo Grotius, also known as Huig de Groot or Hugo de Groot, was a Dutch jurist. Along with the works of Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili, Grotius laid the foundations for international law. A teenage intellectual prodigy, he was imprisoned for his involvement in the intra-Calvinist disputes of the Dutch Republic and he wrote most of his major works in exile in France. Because of his theological underpinning of free trade, he is considered an economic theologist. Born in Delft during the Dutch Revolt, Hugo was the first child of Jan de Groot, a prodigious learner, Hugo entered the University of Leiden when he was just eleven years old. There he studied some of the most acclaimed intellectuals in northern Europe, including Franciscus Junius, Joseph Justus Scaliger. Omnes, & emendati, & Notis, siue Februis Hug, in Holland, Grotius earned an appointment as advocate to The Hague in 1599 and then as official historiographer for the States of Holland in 1601. The Dutch were at war with Spain and Portugal when the merchant ship Santa Catarina. The scandal led to a judicial hearing and a wider campaign to sway public opinion. It was in this context that representatives of the Company called upon Grotius to draft a polemical defence of the seizure. The result of Grotius efforts in 1604/05 was a long, theory-laden treatise that he provisionally entitled De Indis, Grotius sought to ground his defense of the seizure in terms of the natural principles of justice. In this, he had cast a net much wider than the case at hand, his interest was in the source, the treatise was never published in full during Grotius lifetime, perhaps because the court ruling in favor of the Company preempted the need to garner public support. In The Free Sea Grotius formulated the new principle that the sea was international territory, Grotius, by claiming free seas, provided suitable ideological justification for the Dutch breaking up of various trade monopolies through its formidable naval power. In 1608 he married Maria van Reigersbergen, with whom he would have eight children and who would be invaluable in helping him and the family to weather the storm to come. The domestic dissension resulting over Arminius professorship was overshadowed by the war with Spain. The new peace would move the focus to the controversy. The controversy expanded when the Remonstrant theologian Conrad Vorstius was appointed to replace Jacobus Arminius as the chair at Leiden. Vorstius was soon seen by Counter-Remonstrants as moving beyond the teachings of Arminius into Socinianism, leading the call for Vorstius removal was theology professor Sibrandus Lubbertus
30.
Joost van den Vondel
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Joost van den Vondel was a Dutch poet, writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still most frequently performed, performances of his theatre pieces occurred regularly until the 1960s. The most visible was the performance, on New Years Day from 1637 to 1968. Vondel remained productive until an old age. Vondel was born on 17 November 1587 on the Große Witschgasse in Cologne and his parents were Mennonites of Antwerpian descent. In 1595, probably because of their religious conviction, they fled to Utrecht, at the age of 23, Vondel married Mayken de Wolff. Together they had four children, of two died in infancy. After the death of his father in 1608, Vondel managed the family shop on the Warmoesstraat in Amsterdam. In the meantime, he began to learn Latin and became acquainted with poets such as Roemer Visscher. Around the year 1641, he converted to Catholicism and this was a great shock to most of his fellow countrymen because the main conviction and de facto state religion in the Republic was Calvinist Protestantism. It is still unclear why he became a Catholic although his love for a Catholic lady may have played a role in this, during his life, he became one of the main advocates for religious tolerance. Public practice of Catholicism, Anabaptism and Arminianism was from then on officially forbidden, Vondel wrote many satires criticising the Calvinists and extolling Oldenbarnevelt. That, together with his new faith, made him a figure in Calvinist circles. He died a man though he was honoured by many fellow poets. Amsterdams biggest park, the Vondelpark, bears his name, there is a statue of Vondel in the northern part of the park. Also, there is a Vondel Street in Cologne, the Vondelstraße in the Neustadt-Süd-district, the Dutch five guilder banknote bore Vondels portrait from 1950 until it was discontinued in 1990. George Borrow called him by far the greatest that Holland ever produced and it has been suggested that John Milton drew inspiration from Lucifer and Adam in Ballingschap for his Paradise Lost
31.
Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft
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Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft - Knight in the Order of Saint Michael - was a Dutch historian, poet and playwright from the period known as the Dutch Golden Age. Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, often abbreviated to P. C, Hooft, was born in Amsterdam as the son of the then mayor, Cornelis Hooft. Hooft was also the uncle of Cornelis and Andries de Graeff, in 1598, his father sent him to France and Italy in order to get prepared for a career as merchant. However, Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft was more interested in art, in particular, he was deeply impressed by the Italian renaissance. In 1609, he was appointed bailiff of Muiden and the Gooiland and he founded the Muiderkring, a literary society located at his home, the Muiderslot, the castle of Muiden, in which he got to live due to his appointment as sheriff of Muiden. Among the members were the poets and playwrights Constantijn Huygens, Maria Tesselschade, Bredero and Joost van den Vondel, as well as the Portuguese singer Francisca Duarte. Hooft, Bredero, and Vondel were also founders of the First Nederduytsche Academy, Hooft was a prolific writer of plays, poems and letters, but he concentrated from 1618 onwards on writing his history of the Netherlands, inspired by Roman historian Tacitus. His focus was primarily on the Eighty Years War between the Netherlands and Spain, though he tried in this work to give a report of the events which was as impartial as possible, he did not really succeed in doing so. As a poet, he was influenced by his Renaissance contemporaries in France, hooftstraat, the citys main destination for expensive designer clothes shopping. The south-western end of P. C, hooftstraat runs into the citys main park, the Vondelpark, named for his friend Joost van den Vondel. In many other Dutch cities, there are streets named after Hooft. In 1947,300 years after P. C, Hooft died, a literary prize in his name was instituted by the Dutch government. An independent foundation annually awards the prize, initially it was awarded for specific works, but in recent years it is awarded based on the entire collection of a writer. He is also mentioned as Denmarks most famous poet on episode three of the television program Metalocalypse. Works of Hooft in the Laurens Janszoon Coster project P. C, Hooft Works by Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft at Internet Archive Works by Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft at LibriVox
32.
Joan Blaeu
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Joan Blaeu was a Dutch cartographer born in Alkmaar, the son of cartographer Willem Blaeu. In 1620 he became a doctor of law but he joined the work of his father, in 1635 they published the Atlas Novus in two volumes. Joan and his brother Cornelius took over the studio after their father died in 1638, Joan became the official cartographer of the Dutch East India Company. Blaeus world map, Nova et Accuratissima Terrarum Orbis Tabula, incorporating the discoveries of Abel Tasman, was published in 1648 and this map was revolutionary in that it depicts the solar system according to the heliocentric theories of Nicolaus Copernicus, which show the earth revolving around the sun. Blaeus map was copied for the map of the set into the pavement of the Groote Burger-Zaal of the new Amsterdam Town Hall, designed by the Dutch architect Jacob van Campen. As Jean Blaeu, he published the 12 volume Le Grand Atlas, ou Cosmographie blaviane, en laquelle est exactement descritte la terre, la mer. That was folio, and contained 593 engraved maps and plates, in March 2015, a copy was on sale for £750,000. Around 1649 Joan Blaeu published a collection of Dutch city maps named Toonneel der Steeden, in 1651 he was voted into the Amsterdam council. In 1654 Joan published the first atlas of Scotland, devised by Timothy Pont, in 1662 he reissued the Atlas Novus, also known as Atlas Maior, in 11 volumes, and one for oceans. A cosmology was planned as their project, but a fire destroyed the studio completely in 1672. Joan Blaeu died in Amsterdam the following year and he is buried in the Westerkerk there. Blaeu and Joan Blaeu, Houten, Hes & De Graaf publishers BV, ISBN 90-6194-438-4 BROTTON, Jerry, A History of the World in Twelve Maps, London, utrecht University Arader Galleries Collection of Maps from Blaeus Atlas Major. Brazil map by Joan Blaeu, Amsterdam 1650 Plan of Delft from Joan Blaeu Town book, Amsterdam 1660 Blaeu on the Dutch map Jonathan Potter Maps
33.
Johannes Vermeer
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Johannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. Vermeer was a successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime. He evidently was not wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death, Vermeer worked slowly and with great care, and frequently used very expensive pigments. He is particularly renowned for his treatment and use of light in his work. Vermeer painted mostly domestic interior scenes and he was recognized during his lifetime in Delft and The Hague, but his modest celebrity gave way to obscurity after his death. He was barely mentioned in Arnold Houbrakens major source book on 17th-century Dutch painting, since that time, Vermeers reputation has grown, and he is now acknowledged as one of the greatest painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Relatively little was known about Vermeers life until recently and he seems to have been devoted exclusively to his art, living out his life in the city of Delft. Until the 19th century, the sources of information were some registers, a few official documents. John Michael Montias added details on the family from the city archives of Delft in his Artists and Artisans in Delft, Johannes Vermeer was baptized in the Reformed Church on 31 October 1632. His father Reijnier Janszoon was a worker of silk or caffa. As an apprentice in Amsterdam, Reijnier lived on fashionable Sint Antoniesbreestraat, in 1615, he married Digna Baltus. The couple moved to Delft and had a daughter named Geertruy who was baptized in 1620, in 1625, Reijnier was involved in a fight with a soldier named Willem van Bylandt who died from his wounds five months later. Around this time, Reijnier began dealing in paintings, in 1631, he leased an inn, which he called The Flying Fox. In 1635, he lived on Voldersgracht 25 or 26, in 1641, he bought a larger inn on the market square, named after the Flemish town Mechelen. The acquisition of the inn constituted a financial burden. When Vermeers father died in October 1652, Vermeer took over the operation of the art business. In April 1653, Johannes Reijniersz Vermeer married a Catholic girl, the blessing took place in the quiet nearby village of Schipluiden. Vermeers new mother-in-law Maria Thins was significantly wealthier than he, according to art historian Walter Liedtke, Vermeers conversion seems to have been made with conviction
34.
Delft
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Delft is a city and a municipality in the Netherlands. It is located in the province of South Holland, to the north of Rotterdam, the city of Delft came into being aside a canal, the Delf, which comes from the word delven, meaning delving or digging, and led to the name Delft. It presumably started around the 11th century as a landlord court, from a rural village in the early Middle Ages, Delft developed to a city, that in the 13th century received its charter. The towns association with the House of Orange started when William of Orange, nicknamed William the Silent, at the time he was the leader of growing national Dutch resistance against Spanish occupation, known as the Eighty Years War. By then Delft was one of the cities of Holland. An attack by Spanish forces in October of that year was repelled, after the Act of Abjuration was proclaimed in 1581, Delft became the de facto capital of the newly independent Netherlands, as the seat of the Prince of Orange. When William was shot dead in 1584, by Balthazar Gerards in the hall of the Prinsenhof, therefore, he was buried in the Delft Nieuwe Kerk, starting a tradition for the House of Orange that has continued to the present day. The Delft Explosion, also known in history as the Delft Thunderclap, occurred on 12 October 1654 when a gunpowder store exploded, over a hundred people were killed and thousands were wounded. About 30 tonnes of gunpowder were stored in barrels in a magazine in a former Clarissen convent in the Doelenkwartier district, cornelis Soetens, the keeper of the magazine, opened the store to check a sample of the powder and a huge explosion followed. Luckily, many citizens were away, visiting a market in Schiedam or a fair in The Hague, Delft artist Egbert van der Poel painted several pictures of Delft showing the devastation. Historical buildings and other sights of interest include, Oude Kerk, buried here, Piet Hein, Johannes Vermeer, Anthony van Leeuwenhoek. Nieuwe Kerk, constructed between 1381 and 1496 and it contains the Dutch royal familys burial vault, which between funerals is sealed with a 5,000 kg cover stone. A statue of Hugo Grotius made by Franciscus Leonardus Stracké in 1886 and this is the only remaining gate of the old city walls. The Gemeenlandshuis Delfland, or Huyterhuis, built in 1505, which has housed the Delfland regional water authority since 1645, the Vermeer Centre in the rebuilt Guild house of St. Luke. Windmill De Roos, a mill built c.1760. Restored to working order in 2013, another windmill that formerly stood in Delft, Het Fortuyn, was dismantled in 1917 and re-erected at the Netherlands Open Air Museum, Arnhem, Gelderland in 1920. Delft is well known for the Delft pottery ceramic products which were styled on the imported Chinese porcelain of the 17th century, the city had an early start in this area since it was a home port of the Dutch East India Company. It can still be seen at the pottery factories De Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles, the painter Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft
35.
West Friesland (region)
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For the historical region also named West Friesland, see West Friesland Not to be confused with the West Friesland Dutch dialect. West Friesland is a region in the Northwest of the Netherlands. The River Vlie, is an extension of the IJssel branch of the Rhine River, the river divides the northern Netherlands into two parts, the western and the eastern part. In the eleventh century, heavy rainfall caused the river to flood large parts of the land. The Zuiderzee bay was formed, separating West Friesland from the contemporary Province of Friesland, because of this, the toponym West Friesland was applied more to the Westflinge area than to the original West Friesland. For approximately 300 years, West Friesland operated as an area as the West Frisians did not wish to be vassals of lords from Holland. Floris V, Count of Holland, attempted to unite Holland and West Friesland during his reign and it was his successor, John I, who achieved ultimate victory over the West Frisians in 1297. During the time of the United Provinces, West Friesland had its own independent Admiralty of the Northern Quarter, any admiral serving within this admiralty or the two other Hollandic admiralties had the title of Admiral of Holland and West Frisia. The West Frisian language has disappeared from the region and the later West Frisian dialects are now slowly disappearing, although these dialects are subdialects of Hollandic Dutch, they were strongly influenced in vocabulary and grammar by a West Frisian substratum. The first inhabitants of Alkmaar, Oudorp, and St Pancras likely settled along the beach ridges of the Vroonermeer in the 9th century AD. Better known as Vroonen, this settlement subsequently grew into a village, in the late 13th century, when the Dutch conquered West Frisians, the victors crossed the village and set it on fire. The few surviving inhabitants fled the region, after a long time, people returned to Vroonen and a chapel was built. The village of St Pancras was founded around this church, the reclamation of the North Holland lakes was a purely private business affair intended for the establishment of new tracts of fertile land. Investors financed the operation and leased their new land to farmers, the exact location of West Friesland is not clearly defined, but it has been suggested that it comprised the area north of an imaginary line through Hoorn and Alkmaar. Within this historical region is the region of West Friesland. The region covers an area of about 800 km2, delineated by the Westfriese Omringdijk and it consists of the following municipalities, Major cities include Hoorn and Alkmaar. The traditional dialect of the region is the West Frisian dialect of Hollandic Dutch, the contemporary region is similar in size and location to the historical district of Westflinge which itself was a part of a much larger historical region of West Friesland. Frisia Frisian Islands The region website
36.
Officer and Laughing Girl
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It was painted in oil on canvas, typical of most Dutch artists of the time, and is 50.5 by 46 cm. It now resides in The Frick Collection in New York, Officer and Laughing Girl includes many of the characteristics of Vermeers style. The main subject is a woman in a dress, light is coming from the left hand side of the painting from an open window. Each of these occur in some of his other paintings. The main subject is the woman, and soft, direct light falls on her face and she resembles Vermeers wife, Catharina Bolnes, who is believed to have posed for many of his paintings. With x-ray photographs, art historians can see that Vermeer had planned to paint the woman with a white collar which would have hid much of her yellow dress. Also, her cap was extended to cover all of her hair, in order to draw attention to her face. This yellow bodice with braiding has appeared in many of Vermeers other portraits and it is called a schort and was usually worn as an everyday, common dress. The woman is wearing a blue apron over her dress. Blue aprons were common attire at that time because they hid stains well, art historians have interpreted this to mean that the soldier surprised the girl with an impromptu visit during her morning chores. The woman is holding a glass, usually used for white wine. Because at that time, wine cost more than beer, it illustrates her wealth, the man in the painting is a cavalier wearing a red coat and an expensive hat, showing his wealth and rank. His hat is wide- brimmed and made of beaver pelt, which was resistant and good for snowy. The pelts for these hats were imported from the New World and this hat was probably from New Netherlands, which was then under the Dutch West India Companys control. The red in his uniform is associated with power and passion, bringing a passionate and his rank as an officer is identified by the black sash he wears. However, his presence in the foreground is what the viewers notice first. His striking presence adds drama and mystery to the mood of the composition and this artistic device—in which an object is placed in the foreground to increase the depth of field of the overall painting—is called repoussoir. Caravaggio often used this technique and Vermeer probably learned it from a Caravaggists painting, the meaning of the interaction between the woman and the soldier is unknown
37.
University of Amsterdam
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The University of Amsterdam is a public university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Established in 1632 by municipal authorities and later renamed for the city of Amsterdam and it is one of the largest research universities in Europe with 31,186 students,4,794 staff,1,340 PhD students and an annual budget of €600 million. It is the largest university in the Netherlands by enrollment, the main campus is located in central Amsterdam, with a few faculties located in adjacent boroughs. The university is organised into seven faculties, Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Science, Law, Medicine, the University of Amsterdam has produced six Nobel Laureates and five prime ministers of the Netherlands. In 2014, it was ranked 50th in the world, 15th in Europe, in January 1632, the Athenaeum Illustre of Amsterdam was founded by the municipal authorities in Amsterdam. It was mainly devoted to medical teaching, the first two professors were Gerardus Vossius and Caspar Barlaeus. The Athenaeum Illustre provided education comparable to higher education institutions. After training at the Athenaeum, students could complete their education at a university in another town, Amsterdams large degree of religious freedom allowed for the establishment of these institutions. Students of the Colegium Chirugicum and the institutions regularly attended classes at the Athenaeum Illustre. ”The Athenaeum began offering classes for students attending non-academic professional training in pharmacy. The Athenaeum remained an institution until the 19th century, with no more than 250 students. Alumni of the Athenaeum include Cornelis Petrus Tiele, in 1877, the Athenuem Illustre became the Municipal University of Amsterdam and received the right to confer doctoral degrees. This gave the university the same privileges as national universities while being funded by the city of Amsterdam, the professors and lecturers were appointed by the municipal council. This resulted in a staff that was in ways more colorful than the staffs of national universities. The University of Amsterdams municipal status brought about the relatively early addition of the faculties of Economics, after the World War II the dramatic rise in the cost of university education put a constraint on the university’s growth. In 1961 the national government made the university a national university, giving it its current name, funding was now given by the national government instead of the city and the appointment of professors was transferred to the Board of Governors. The city of Amsterdam retained a limited influence until 1971, when the appointment was handed over to the Executive Board, the protest lasted for days and was eventually broken up by the police. During the 1970s and 1980s, the university was often the target of nationwide student actions, the university saw considerable expansion since becoming a national university, from 7,500 students in 1960 to over 32,000 in 2010. In 2007, UvA undertook the construction of the Science Park Amsterdam, much of the park has now been completed
38.
Houten
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Houten is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. The municipality consists of the towns, t Goy Houten Schalkwijk Tull en t Waal The main town in the municipality is Houten. On 1 January 2012, the town had 48,314 inhabitants, the built-up area was 5.08 km2 in area, and contained 18,451 residences. The slightly larger district of Houten had a population of about 39,100 in 2004. Remains of a Roman villa have been found in the old centre of Houten, there used to be a Roman villa on that spot. This building was discovered in the fifties, in the Dark Ages Houten took shape as a rural centre. The area of the municipality of Houten was divided in the so-called gerechten, the names of these districts are still in use, Schonauwen, Wulven, Waijen, Heemstede. A lot of elements in present-day Houten are reminders of its history, prominent in the old centre Het Oude Dorp are the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Church. The first accounts of this date from the ninth century. Another prominent building is the restaurant/cafe De Engel, already mentioned in the 16th century as a tavern, former access roads to the old centre are still recognisable by their names, such as the Odijkseweg and Loerikseweg. Houten had many orchards, but few have survived, modern Houten started to take shape in the last decades of the 20th century. It was first designated by the office of Wissing-Derks as a Groeikern – a centre of growth – to meet the needs of the city of Utrecht. From the beginning urban planner-designer Robert Derks was involved with the development of the New Town Houten, in 1979 the construction of 10,000 dwellings started and the population grew from 4,000 to more than 30,000 late in the nineties. Until 2015, some 7,000 new houses are being built in Houten-Zuid, following the urban design principles as the existing Northern part of Houten. The body of water to the east is large in comparison with water bodies in the old parts of Houten, another difference is that in some places cars share the road with bicycle paths. The southern part was designed by Robert Derks and his office for urban design Stedebouw BV. Houten has two stations, Houten and Houten Castellum. These stations are served by commuter trains to Utrecht and Geldermalsen
39.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
40.
Hessel Gerritsz
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Hessel Gerritsz was a Dutch engraver, cartographer and publisher. Gerritsz moved with Blaeu’s workshop to Amsterdam, where he married Geertje Gijsberts of Alkmaar in 1607, Geertje would die before 1624, when Hessel remarried. By 1610 he had a workshop on his own. Many of his engravings and maps made it into the atlases of Blaeu, Janssonius, in 1613, Gerritsz wrote and published a “History of the land named Spitsbergen”, describing the discovery, early voyages and whaling activities on these islands. This volume also showcases Gerritszs considerable talents as an engraver, another example of an engraving is his often reproduced 1619 posthumous portrait of the playwright Bredero. He got the position on recommendation of Petrus Plancius, chief scientist of the VOC, Gerritsz kept this post until his death, after which the position was held by the Blaeu family, starting with Willem Jansz, until 1705. Hessel Gerritszs map of 1622 showed the first part of Australia to be charted, if this be so, then the land from 9 to 14 degrees would be a separate land, different from the other New Guinea. All charts and logs from returning VOC merchants and explorers sailors had to be submitted to Gerritsz, in return Gerritsz’ charts accompanied all VOC captains on their voyages. Hessel Gerritsz published in Amsterdam in 1612 a Dutch translation of the memorial of Quiros. This is believed to be the earliest occurrence in print of the word Australia outside Spain, the publication of 1612 referred to included Isaac Massas description of Siberia, his short account of the roads from Muscovy, and the memorial mentioned. It included three maps, one of which was a map of the world by Gerritsz, in which Torres Strait is clearly shown. In 1618 Gerritsz produced a chart of the Indonesian islands, far better represented than on earlier efforts, and, for the first time, in 1622 he bundled many of his maps in a map book for the VOC. This map book included a 1622 map of the Pacific, probably the Map of the Great South Sea that Abel Tasman consulted extensively on his voyage around Australia and to New Zealand in 1642. In 1627 Gerritsz made a map, the Caert vant Landt van dEendracht, Australia is called “Eendrachtsland”, a name given by Dirk Hartog after his stay on its coast in 1616, and which would be in use until the end of the 17th century. In 1628, he added the 1627 charting of Australia’s South coast by François Thijssen to the map mentioned above, Gerritsz’ interest in the New World was so extensive that, unusual for a cartographer in his position, he joined on a 1628/29 voyage to Brazil and the Caribbean. He contributed the maps of Joannes de Laet’s Beschrijvinghe van West-Indiën published in 1630, especially his map of Florida, based on French and Spanish sources, became influential. In 1632 Hessel Gerritsz died, he was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk on September 4, Willem Janszoon Blaeu would take his place as cartographer of the VOC in January of the following year
41.
German National Library
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The German National Library is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. The German National Library maintains co-operative external relations on a national and international level, for example, it is the leading partner in developing and maintaining bibliographic rules and standards in Germany and plays a significant role in the development of international library standards. The cooperation with publishers is regulated by law since 1935 for the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig, duties are shared between the facilities in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main, with each center focusing its work in specific specialty areas. A third facility has been the Deutsches Musikarchiv Berlin, which deals with all music-related archiving, since 2010 the Deutsches Musikarchiv is also located in Leipzig as an integral part of the facility there. During the German revolutions of 1848 various booksellers and publishers offered their works to the Frankfurt Parliament for a parliamentary library, the library, led by Johann Heinrich Plath, was termed the Reichsbibliothek. After the failure of the revolution the library was abandoned and the stock of books already in existence was stored at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. In 1912, the town of Leipzig, seat of the annual Leipzig Book Fair, the Kingdom of Saxony, starting January 1,1913, all publications in German were systematically collected. In the same year, Dr. Gustav Wahl was elected as the first director, the Federal state representatives of the book trade in the American zone agreed to the proposal. The city of Frankfurt agreed to support the planned archive library with personnel, the US military government gave its approval. The Library began its work in the room of the former Rothschild library. As a result, there were two libraries in Germany, which assumed the duties and function of a library for the later GDR. Two national bibliographic catalogues almost identical in content were published annually, with the reunification of Germany on 3 October 1990, the Deutsche Bücherei Leipzig and the Deutsche Bibliothek Frankfurt am Main were merged into a new institution, The German Library. The Law regarding the German National Library came into force on 29 June 2006, the expansion of the collection brief to include online publications set the course for collecting, cataloguing and storing such publications as part of Germanys cultural heritage. The Librarys highest management body, the Administrative Council, was expanded to include two MPs from the Bundestag, the law also changed the name of the library and its buildings in Leipzig, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin to Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. In July 2000, the DMA also assumed the role as repository for GEMA, Gesellschaft für musikalische Aufführungs- und mechanische Vervielfältigungsrechte, since then, music publishers only have to submit copies to DMA, which covers both national archiving and copyright registration. The 210,000 works of printed music previously held by GEMA were transferred to DMA, additionally included in the project were 30 German-language emigrant publications German-language exile journals 1933–1945, consisting of around 100,000 pages. These collections were put online in 2004 and were some of the most frequently visited sites of the German National Library, in June 2012 the German National Library discontinued access to both collections on its website for legal reasons. The digitised versions are then available for use in the reading rooms of the German National Library in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main only
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Biografisch Portaal
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The Biografisch Portaal is an initiative based at the Huygens Institute for Dutch History in The Hague, with the aim of making biographical texts of the Netherlands more accessible. As of 2011, only information about deceased people is included. The system used is based on the standards of the Text Encoding Initiative, access to the Biografisch Portaal is available free through a web-based interface. The project is an undertaking by ten scientific and cultural bodies in the Netherlands with the Huygens Institute as main contact. In February 2012, a new project was started called BiographyNed to build a tool for use with the Biografisch Portaal that will link biographies to events in time. The main goal of the project is to formulate ‘the boundaries of the Netherlands’. List of Dutch people Official website
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Integrated Authority File
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The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
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National Diet Library
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The National Diet Library is the only national library in Japan. It was established in 1948 for the purpose of assisting members of the National Diet of Japan in researching matters of public policy, the library is similar in purpose and scope to the United States Library of Congress. The National Diet Library consists of two facilities in Tokyo and Kyoto, and several other branch libraries throughout Japan. The Diets power in prewar Japan was limited, and its need for information was correspondingly small, the original Diet libraries never developed either the collections or the services which might have made them vital adjuncts of genuinely responsible legislative activity. Until Japans defeat, moreover, the executive had controlled all political documents, depriving the people and the Diet of access to vital information. The U. S. occupation forces under General Douglas MacArthur deemed reform of the Diet library system to be an important part of the democratization of Japan after its defeat in World War II. In 1946, each house of the Diet formed its own National Diet Library Standing Committee, hani Gorō, a Marxist historian who had been imprisoned during the war for thought crimes and had been elected to the House of Councillors after the war, spearheaded the reform efforts. Hani envisioned the new body as both a citadel of popular sovereignty, and the means of realizing a peaceful revolution, the National Diet Library opened in June 1948 in the present-day State Guest-House with an initial collection of 100,000 volumes. The first Librarian of the Diet Library was the politician Tokujirō Kanamori, the philosopher Masakazu Nakai served as the first Vice Librarian. In 1949, the NDL merged with the National Library and became the national library in Japan. At this time the collection gained a million volumes previously housed in the former National Library in Ueno. In 1961, the NDL opened at its present location in Nagatachō, in 1986, the NDLs Annex was completed to accommodate a combined total of 12 million books and periodicals. The Kansai-kan, which opened in October 2002 in the Kansai Science City, has a collection of 6 million items, in May 2002, the NDL opened a new branch, the International Library of Childrens Literature, in the former building of the Imperial Library in Ueno. This branch contains some 400,000 items of literature from around the world. Though the NDLs original mandate was to be a library for the National Diet. In the fiscal year ending March 2004, for example, the library reported more than 250,000 reference inquiries, in contrast, as Japans national library, the NDL collects copies of all publications published in Japan. The NDL has an extensive collection of some 30 million pages of documents relating to the Occupation of Japan after World War II. This collection include the documents prepared by General Headquarters and the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers, the Far Eastern Commission, the NDL maintains a collection of some 530,000 books and booklets and 2 million microform titles relating to the sciences
