Cornets de Groot

Size: De collection stands at a length of 7,5 metres.
Accessibility: A printed inventory can be consulted. Besides, all correspondence has been entered in the CEN. However, as the inventory composed by D.J.H. ter Horst is very concise and by now incomplete, a new inventory has been drawn up by V.A.J. Klooster. A temporary print-out of it can be found at the Special Collections Reading Room.
More information: Kees Thomassen 070-3140328.

Collection description

In 1926, some years after the demise of its last guardian J.A.W.L. Cornets de Groot, the family archive was offered to the Koninklijke Bibliotheek on a permanent loan. Although the Koninklijke Bibliotheek is not the most appropriate place for family archives, the loan has probably been accepted partly because its actual founder, Johan Pieter Cornets de Groot van Kraaijenburg (1808-1878), in his attempt to bring together as many records as possible concerning the (Cornets) de Groot family, also collected material about its most famous descendant, the lawyer Hugo de Groot (1583-1645). This material mainly concerns editions of his work, such as the Inleiding tot de Hollandse rechtsgeleertheyd (Introduction to Dutch law), and documentation about him from later periods. However, the central part of the archive consists of papers from the eighteenth and nineteenth century generations of the family, and contains, besides considerable amounts of correspondence, family papers such as testaments, inventories, genealogical surveys, decrees of appointment, etc. But one can also find more unusual objects, such as an extensive set of programmes of the Théatre Royal de La Haye. As some members of the family were, for longer or shorter periods, employed in the Dutch East Indies, the collection is in that view, too, a source of interest.

Literature

D.J.H. ter Horst. Overzicht van het familie-archief Cornets de Groot. 's-Gravenhage 1940.
[D.J.H. ter Horst]. Overzicht van de gedrukte werken aanwezig in het archief van Cornets de Groot. S.l., s.a.
K. Thomassen. 'J.P. Cornets de Groot van Kraaijenburg'. In: Verzamelaars en verzamelingen. Koninklijke Bibliotheek 1798-1998. Zwolle 1998, p. 63-65.