Album amicorum of Homme van Harinxma jr.
Album amicorum of Homme van Harinxma jr.
This album immediately catches the eye because of its unusual octagonal shape, of which no other example is known. Homme received the album from his parents when he went to study in Franeker with his brother Juw. It accompanied him during his studies in Leiden, and on the study trip to France, where he mainly took up law seriously in Orléans. His album shows a colorful mix of inscriptions, coats of arms and illustrations. There is a contingent of inscriptions from settled Frisian nobles who will have been approached mainly because that could not do any harm with a view to a later career. Then there are of course the professors from Franeker and Leiden, but also, for example, the rector of his former Latin school and the famous Leeuwarden preacher and Synod chairman Johannes Bogerman. He is prominently present in all three of the brothers' albums with an inscription over two pages.
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Inscription by Johannes Bogerman.
The majority of the inscriptions were placed by fellow students, however, and Homme did not limit himself to his compatriots. Germans and French were also happy to contribute something to his book 'zu stets wehrender Gedachtnuss', or as 'tesmoignage que je seray toujours prest de servir monsieur ...'. That little of this will have come to pass in practice is less important.
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It is no longer possible to follow that in this picture Cephalos accidentally kills his own wife because the painter left out an essential part: the spear in his hand.
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Despite his father's admonitions, Icarus flies too close to the sun. The wax holding his feathers melts and he crashes to earth.
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According to the Greek poet Hesiod, the goddess of love Venus (called Aphrodite in Greek mythology) was born from the foam of the sea.
Description of the album
Album amicorum of Homme van Harinxma [thoe Slooten] (1607-1663). 46 inscriptions. Dating of the binding: 1625-1631. Request number: 79 J 46
