Dutch artists and scholars in Italy 745-1862

Described by J.A.F. Orbaan and G.J. Hoogewerff

Through the centuries Italy has attracted a steady stream of scholars and artists from the low countries. The footprints that they left of their visits and the contacts that they made can be retraced in the archives and libraries of Rome. This is why the Advisory Committee for National Historical Publications (RGP) in the Netherlands was quick to place the exploration of these rich archival depots high on its agenda with a view to searching for documents relating to intellectual and artistic contacts with the Netherlands.

The lay-out of this publication was inspired by an earlier publication entitled Archivalia in Italië. Each volume contains a chronological survey of documents with brief descriptions of their contents, preceded each time by an extensive commentary about the separate archives and institutions. The first volume of this publication, prepared by J.A.F. Orbaan, unlocks documents from the Vatican library. The second volume, that was prepared along with the third volume by G.J. Hoogewerff, offers a description of sources present in the depots of the different lay brotherhoods in Rome; lay organisations that took the northerners under their wing and came together to discuss spiritual and practical issues. The third volume contains documents from the libraries of former cloisters and public libraries in Rome. In that sense, the title of this three-volume publication is misleading as the volume that was supposed to deal with archives outside Rome never appeared. One sequel that was indeed published, albeit not in the RGP series, was Hoogewerff’s Nederlandse kunstenaars in Rome 1600-1725. Uittreksels uit de parochiale archieven (The Hague 1943).