Two unique acquisitions for Special Collections

The Utrecht University Library has acquired two 17th-century books. Both works were printed in Utrecht and no other copies of either are known. The books provide an insight into theological discussions and urban reading culture in the period after Utrecht became Protestant (in 1580). Extra special is that one of the books, an anti-Catholic treatise, was owned by an upper-class Utrecht woman, Susanna van der Muelen (1629-1648). 

The new acquisitions are:

• Henricus Caesarius, Sielen Hemel ende Helle, Dat is, een Tractaet, van aller menschen Sielen staet ende ghelegentheyt, hier, ende hiernamaels (1622). Printed by Salomon de Roy, ‘Boeckdrucker, woonende inde leege Jacobijne straet, in de Druckerye’ in Utrecht. Shelfmark: Rariora oct 758.

• François Monginot, Ontbindinge der Twijffelingen, Ofte Corte en clare verhandelinge van de voornaemste verschillen tusschen de Gereformeerde ende de Roomsche Kercke (1631). Translated by Daniël Costerus and printed by Amelis Janssz, ‘Boeck-Vercooper inde Lijnmarckt’ in Utrecht. Shelfmark: Rariora duod 700.

Curator of printed works Andrea van Leerdam: “Because of their Utrecht provenance combined with their uniqueness, we were very keen to add these books to our collection." According to van Leerdam, the books date from a special period, just before Utrecht University was founded in 1636. Within the University, theology was a central discipline from the beginning. These books give more insight into the discussions that were current at the time. The fact that Monginots work was owned by Susanna van der Muelen shows that women also read these works. Van Leerdam: “It is important to realise that that audience did not consist only of learned men."

Interested to view the books?

Researchers and students interested in viewing the books can request them for consultation in the library’s Special Collections reading room (Utrecht Science Park). Moreover, the work of Henricus Caesarius has already been digitised and can also be viewed online. Monginot's work will be digitised in the future.

Protestant authors and a female reader

Read more below about the writers who opposed the Catholic faith, and a female reader who got hold of one of these books.

A church servant became a church critic

Henricus Caesarius (c. 1550-1628), author of Sielen Hemel ende Helle, lived in a time of religious disputes surrounding the Reformation. Caesarius grew up Catholic in Zaltbommel, but became Protestant in his teens. After working as a pastor in Dordrecht and then Schoonhoven, he settled in Utrecht in 1589. That was shortly after the city formally became Protestant - the city council had banned the practice of the Catholic religion in 1580. For no less than 30 years, he was pastor in Utrecht until he was dismissed in 1619. His dismissal was presumably due to his sympathy for the Remonstrants who had split from the Reformed church in the early 17th century. On the title page of Sielen Hemel ende Helle from 1622, Caesarius therefore describes himself as an ‘Out-kercken-dienaer’ (i.e. former church servant). 

In this work, Caesarius offers a compilation of writings on the soul and the afterlife. Drawing on the Bible, the Church Fathers and other theological authorities, he addresses questions such as: what is the soul, how to get to heaven and what happens at the end of time? He also discusses the Catholic belief in the existence of a purgatory, “with which the Roman Church has so woefully seduced and deceived the Christian people for so many hundreds of years.”

It was known that Sielen Hemel ende Helle existed, as the tract is mentioned in biographical and bibliographical reference works. Yet no copy had been documented since the end of the 17th century. The copy acquired by the University Library came from a private collection.

A female reader of an anti-Catholic treatise

Sometime in the 1640s, the Utrecht-based Susanna van der Muelen (1629-1648) must have had in her possession the treatise on de voornaemste verschillen tusschen de Gereformeerde ende de Roomsche Kercke (the most important differences between the Reformed and the Roman Church). This work had been published in French by François Monginot in 1617. The 1631 edition in Utrecht is, as far as we know, the only Dutch edition. Here, Monginot, physician to the French king Louis XIV, describes here why he converted to Protestantism, using medical imagery and analogies. The translator of the Dutch edition, Daniël Costerus, was a pastor in Houten.

Susanna had married the nobleman Albert Schach von Wittenau (1619-1692) in Utrecht in 1645, when she was 15. In the year of their marriage, Jan van Niwael painted their portraits (Susanna and Albert, RKD). In 1646, their daughter Maria Catharina was born. Susanna was a young book owner, as she died at the age of 19.

In careful handwriting, Susanna van der Muelen wrote her name in the front of the book. What other books Susanna owned, we do not know. Nor is it certain whether she actually read Monginots book. However, some corrections were made to the printed text by hand, in accordance with the printed list of errata at the end. But whether Susanna was the one who made these corrections or someone who owned the book before of after her is difficult to say.