Tollens

Omvang: The collection stands at ca. 1 metre.
Accessibility: The manuscripts and the special printed works can only be consulted at the Special Collections reading room. The remaining printed books that entered the KB with this collection can be ordered at the general issue desk of the KB. These titles have not yet been computerised, but they can be traced as such in the printed survey mentioned below.
More information: Kees Thomassen 070-3140328.

Collection description

In 1895, T.A. Klinkhamer bequeathed the Tollens collection of his father-in-law Adriaan Bogaers to the KB. Tollens' granddaughter, Mrs Stoelman, added some items that up to that point had still remained in family possession. Because of these two benefactions, the KB now owns the most important collection of the poet H.F. Tollens Cz. (1780-1856), who was praised to the skies during his lifetime, but who was deeply reviled in later years. The poet was the champion of so-called domestic poetry, of which the famous poem "Op den eersten tand van mijn jongstgeboren zoontje" (Triomf, triomf! hef aan, mijn luit, want moeder zegt: de tand is uit!) is a characteristic example. The collection is focussed on Tollens' work: one will not come across any personal documents. It consists of manuscripts and letters, but also of special copies of his printed work. They are special because it concerns a galley, or because the original designs of frontispieces and/or illustrations have been bound alongside. Rather curious is a file compiled by Bogaers on the poem "De overwintering der Hollanders op Nova Zembla", which was originally written as an entry for a competition. Besides the original manuscript which was submitted under a motto, the entry of a competitor, the assessment of the jury etc., the file also contains a copy of Gerrit van der Veer's Waerachtige Beschrijvinghe van drie seylagien. 2e dr. Amsterdam 1599, on which Tollens had based his "Overwintering". Apart from this, the 1895 bequest also comprised an important collection of the works of the linguist and literary man A. Bogaers.

Literature

Werken en handschriften van H. Tollens Cz. en Mr. A. Bogaers. 's-Gravenhage 1896.
G.W. Huygens. Hendrik Tollens. De dichter van de burgerij. Rotterdam 1972.