56. Jacobus Heyblocq

‘What use a single man, he can't play chess alone, so if I find no friend, alas, my game, begone’ is the statement made by the young man on the opposite page, depicted by the artist Jan de Bray from Haarlem (1627-1697). To judge by the roguish look on his face, however, he is still enjoying life. This is one of the many illustrations in that most splendid and precious album of the seventeenth century that belonged to Jacobus Heyblocq. Although he started his album in the last year of his theological studies in Leiden, it has turned out to be anything but a student's album. In the opening poem he states his aim of wanting to acquire contributions by the famous people of his time, whom he enticed to contribute by suggesting that, if one day they were no longer with us, their contributions to his album would at any rate keep their memories alive for posterity. In hindsight this poem was not really necessary, for in the course of years Heyblocq made the acquaintance of so many famous contemporaries, that there are hardly any traces of autograph hunting in his album. No other Dutch album can boast such an impressive array of men of letters, visual artists, scholars and scientists. Among the contributions by poets and playwrights such as Cats, Huygens, Dullaert, Asselijn, Anslo, Vos, Focquenbroch, Westerbaen and Revius, the rarely represented Joost van den Vondel takes pride of place. He makes a pun on Heyblocq's name, while referring to the swampy ground on which Amsterdam is built:

'IAKOB, if eternal fame is thy desire,
To build a house or church do not aspire
On swampy soil, the bogs of courting favour:
For soils like that are bound to sag and waver;
Despite unstinting use of HEIBLOCK (rammer) and of pile.
Bogs constitute a threat, for they beguile [...]'

Even more spectacular than the many poems in this album are the contributions by visual artists. Striking examples are the pen and ink drawing by Aert van der Neer, showing the Amsterdam people living on Geldersekade enjoying themselves with the pleasurable pastimes of winter: skating and the game of pall-mall, and of course the drawing by Rembrandt van Rijn, depicting with only a few swift brush strokes the moment when old Simeon takes the Infant Jesus in his arms in the temple of Jerusalem.

Literature

• H.W. Unger, 'Vondel's handschriften', in: Oud-Holland 2 (1884), p. 26-32
• C.W. de Kruyter, 'Jacobus Heyblocq's album amicorum in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek at The Hague', in: Quaerendo 6 (1976), p. 111-153, afb. op p. 126
• Alba amicorum. Vijf eeuwen vriendschap op papier gezet. Maarssen, 's-Gravenhage 1990, no. 57, afb. op p. 85.