Album amicorum of Pieter van Harinxma

Pieter is the youngest of the three Van Harinxma brothers and he had to wait a few years after Juw and Homme before he too received an album. That album contains far fewer illustrations than those of his brothers, but they are the most beautiful in terms of quality: Phaeton on his sun chariot and Aktaion who is turned into a deer as punishment.

While his older brother Homme went on a study trip to Orléans in France, Pieter initially went to Angers with Juw for a while. There was an 'Academie d'équitation' or riding academy there. This academy was not a simple riding school, but an educational institution in which noblemen were formed in body and mind. The body through gymnastics, horse riding, fencing, wrestling, swimming and - albeit in moderation - dancing. The mind through education in subjects such as mathematics, geography, fortification and modern languages. Whether all these subjects were actually taught in Angers is uncertain, but the brothers probably took French lessons there. Pieter spent the last months of the study trip with Homme in Orléans. History does not record whether he acquired much legal knowledge in that short time or whether he developed into a great connoisseur of French wines and women. In any case, he later showed himself in his political and legal career as a fierce and irascible man.