Here, at the Oude Boteringestraat 52, once lived Rodolf Wicheringe. He was an uncle of the famous Groningen cartographer Barthold Wicheringe who, in 1616, published his famous map Groninga Dominium, or ‘the Dominion of Groningen’, together with Amsterdam publisher and cartographer Willem Janszoon Blaeu. The Wicheringe family lived in the city of Groningen at this address. Just like his nephew Barthold, Rodolf was skilled in Latin and interested in the culture of classical Antiquity — as befit educated persons in those days. He was the curator of the university library and belonged to a group of culturally engaged Groningen city residents who were committed to maintaining the library and expanding its collection.
This is reflected in the books Rodolf gifted the university library. One of the books he brought into the collection concerns this volume of collected works by the Florentine humanist Angelo Ambrogini, better known as Angelo Poliziano (1454-1494). Inspired by Antiquity’s Greek and Roman writers, Poliziano wrote poetry and prose. His poems were meant as valuable poetic works, but they also served as teaching material for students. By incorporating quotations and motifs from classical Greek and Latin texts into his poems Poliziano let his readers become acquainted with the most important works of Antiquity. This edition of Poliziano’s collected works that Rodolf Wicheringe possessed was compiled by the Parisian teacher of classical languages Jacques Toussain and printed by the scholar Josse Bade, who hailed from the province of Brabant and in 1503 had opened his own press in Paris, also teaching classical languages there himself.
Remarkably, Rodolf signed his gifted Poliziano book but his handwriting seemingly does not appear anywhere else in the book. There are quite a few annotations in the margins throughhout the book, but these are written in a hand that clearly differs from Rodolf’s ownership inscription. The content of the notes, too, confirms that they have been written by someone else. One of the marginalia concerns a speech addressed to Pope Alexander VI written by Poliziano for delegates from the city of Siena. In the printed text, Poliziano, a Catholic Italian, emphasizes the authority of the Apostolic Seat. Next to the printed text, someone wrote in the margin: ‘Quid ais Luthere? Quid o Germani?’’ In other words, ‘What do you say to this, Luther? What about you, Germans?’ The person who wrote this was in all probability a Catholic, which Rodolf certainly was not.
The margins at Poliziano’s poem Rusticus contain many manuscript annotations, of which Rodolf Wicheringe seems not to have been the author either. They do point out that at least one former reader has studied this poem very closely and has tried to identify all references to classical authors and mythology that Poliziano had put in his poem. This thorough analysis lets us believe that the reader in question was extremely well-informed about classical Antiquity — which all manuscript annotations throughout this book emphasize, really. Their number isn’t very high, but they all attest to the high degree of erudition of this former reader. Even his knowledge of Greek was excellent.
All in all, this book shows that the educated circles of Groningen in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were passionate about languages and cultures that were over a thousand years old. With the founding of the University and its library, this interest has been kept in Groningen until this very day.
Author: Rens Huisman
