Album amicorum of Samuel Johannes van den Bergh

In the album amicorum of the Hague chemist and man of letters Samuel Johannes van den Bergh we find contributions by great Dutch men of letters such as Tollens, Wilthuys, Hofdijk and Immerzeel, but also the Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen.

The Hague chemist and man of letters Samuel Johannes van den Bergh belongs to the nineteenth-century men of letters who have now completely fallen into oblivion. At the same time, he arouses sympathy upon closer acquaintance. Sam Jan, as he was colloquially called, was one of the founders of the famous Hague society Oefening Kweekt Kennis in 1834, but in practice he was regarded so much as the one and only 'father' of that club that after his death the funeral was paid for from the society's funds.

How Van den Bergh, like a spider in the literary web, kept an eye on everything, is vividly described by Gerard Keller. If one was in a hurry, one had to choose one's way through The Hague carefully, because, as Keller writes:

Van den Bergh had the habit of working on his literary work behind the counter in his shop - he was a chemist. He did not let himself be distracted from this by helping the buyers, because to his honour it must be said that he did not neglect his business for the sake of literature. [...] His restless mind was also occupied with what was happening on the street, and when one of his countless acquaintances passed the Schoolstraat, it suddenly occurred to him that he had something to say to them. He beat him in, and for half an hour, yes an hour, he would discuss literature over the counter, weighing, taking and delivering his herbs and exchanging money.

Incidentally, his contacts were not limited to the Hague coterie. There was the long procession of guest speakers for Oefening Kweekt Kennis, of which Van den Bergh was first secretary and from 1845 until his death chairman. In addition, he was editor of the yearbook Aurora and from 1843 to 1847 he edited De Spektator with Joseph Alberdingk Thijm.

His oeuvre consists - in addition to adaptations of foreign writers such as Bulwer, Frederika Bremer, Walter Scott, Byron, Moore, Longfellow, Victor Hugo and Tennyson - of a large number of odes, ballads and other poems in which a warm love for the fatherland resounds. This aspect attracted the attention of the Court and in 1852 he was awarded the Order of the Oak Crown, an honour bestowed upon very few men of letters. His election in 1848 as a member of the Society of Dutch Literature was also a glorious moment for him.

The album

Sam Jan's album has a sturdy format of 20.5 x 27 cm. According to the custom of the time, it is made as a box in the form of a book, covered with purple moiré silk and lavishly decorated on the front. Of the 58 pages, 38 are filled with contributions from the years 1834-1863. Inscriptors form a mix of Well-Known Writers and ordinary people. It is striking that 21 contributions are written directly on the paper, but that seventeen contributions consist of smaller sheets that have been glued on. You can imagine that Sam Jan had an older album, was delighted with a new album in 1849 and then transferred the contents of the first one there. However, the reality turns out to be different. In November 1997, the renewed permanent exhibition `Gaan waar de woorden gaan' (Going where the words go) was opened in the Literary Museum. In one of the display cases, that older album with its contents was displayed in a fan shape! Now the matter became clear: the first album - which now still contains 31 contributions - could no longer possibly accommodate the result of Van den Bergh's industrious collecting work and the purchase of a new album was an absolute necessity. Incidentally, the first album looks just as beautiful: a cover of red morocco, inlaid with green morocco on the front and back cover, decorated with gold stamping and provided with three pairs of closing ribbons.

Friendship book?

A question that always arises with albums of literary scholars is: what were the creators aiming for? A friendship book or a collection of only famous fellow writers? Although it seems as if Sam Jan wanted to spare mainly writers in the KB album, he did indeed give space to other types of contributors. A striking feature of the nineteenth-century album is the large number of examples of home industry that can be found in it: (brush) drawings, embroidery, cut-outs, pricking, hairwork and so on. In Sam Jan's album, this type of contribution is amply represented: six drawings, a calligraphy, three embroidery and a pricking. However, the drawings certainly cannot be dismissed as 'home industry'; that would be doing an injustice to painters such as E. Koster, A.J. Ehnle, J.A. van der Drift and W.J. Mensing. The other artistic expressions were made by lovely beauties, clear proof that Van den Bergh was not looking for a 'celebrity graveyard'. And besides: he was friends with a number of writers. He would probably have asked them for a contribution, even if they had practiced a different profession. But even if he had wanted to bring together mainly literary figures in the new album, this was prevented by practical reasons. Some contributions in his first album were written on the front and back of the paper and are therefore difficult to stick on something!

In Van den Bergh's album we find big names from Dutch literature such as Tollens, Withuys, Hofdijk and Immerzeel, the most spectacular contribution comes from abroad. In 1847 the famous Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen visited the Netherlands for the first time. His arrival was rather unexpected, but in The Hague they managed to organise a real party evening in the Hôtel de l'Europe on 19 June with some improvisation, where Van den Bergh recited a Dutch adaptation of Andersen's poem 'Aftendæmring'. This adaptation is preserved in Andersen's five-part 'album', which has more the character of a scrapbook because it also contains letters, lithographs of buildings and landscapes, programmes of theatre performances and the like. On 20 June there was a small after-party and Sam Jan seized his chance. This would not be the last contribution. When Andersen visited Holland and The Hague again in 1866, he noted in his diary on 22 March: 'I ran into S.J. van den Bergh and went home with him and wrote again in his album amicorum in which I had also written in 1847.' Remarkably, this writing is now missing. The same applies to a poem by H.F. Tollens Cz. A beautiful verse from 1838 by him can be found in the album. But a collection of occasional verses (KB, 70 F 72) compiled by him in around 1855 contains a completely different poem for Van den Bergh's album. The original of that poem has not been preserved either. You would almost think that there must be a third album by Sam Jan floating around somewhere!