Noble ladies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries had booklets in which friends and guests left a message. Sometimes a whole poem, sometimes supplemented with comments from others – 'it's a kind of Facebook avant la lettre', says Johan Oosterman, professor of Old Dutch Literature at Radboud University. He conducts research into these booklets and needs money to make them accessible to the public, which he wants to collect through crowdfunding.
Women's alba (plural of women's album) is the technical term used to refer to the friendship books of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century aristocratic ladies. A few dozen of these have been preserved in the Netherlands, Oosterman estimates. He is particularly interested in alba from the east of the Netherlands and the adjacent German area. ‘It is more cultural history than literary history, although well-known writers are sometimes quoted. The alba provide insight into the social life of the nobility in the region, in an important period:the time of the Eighty Years' War, the emergence of the Republic...'
The alba are the Facebook of the sixteenth century. They show social networks and what the wishes and comments also make clear is that 'the need to make friendships visible already existed then. People enjoyed writing in each other's booklets 'I like you', 'it was fun again' – or words to that effect.” The booklets contain not only names and short sayings, but also songs, pictures and, for example, comments on the suitability of certain persons as suitors.
Make accessible
The women's alba are difficult to read, even for connoisseurs:the writing from that time is often unclear. But in recent years, students of Oosterman have already deciphered and described various alba, whereby the network of an album has also been mapped as well as possible. A PhD candidate is now working full-time with the alba, assisted by several students.
In addition, a project group has been set up, including representatives of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB), which has the largest collection of women's alba; the Supreme Court of Nobility, owner of a small collection, "but one of the most important"; the Van Batenborch Foundation, owner of the album by Johan van Lynden, an album very important for Nijmegen research, started around 1556 by a man but later taken over by a woman; and the Gelders Archive, where the Van Lynden album is located, and archives of the families mentioned in the alba. All these authorities agree on one thing:the women's alba must be made accessible to a wide audience and must also be studied by others.
tangible past
That is why the project group wants to make the alba accessible via a website:it will contain facsimiles of the album pages with transcriptions and explanations. “We then want to map, using Google Maps, how that network was structured geographically. And we also want to make that visible via Facebook:we give the noble women their own account, and we include the friends at the time in their network, along with their inscriptions that become bulletin board messages. In addition, the project group wants to publish alba and organize study days.
These are all extras that cannot be financed from the materials budget of one PhD student and for which the authorities involved also have no funds. ‘Then a situation arises in which we, the researchers, have collected wonderful material, without it being more widely accessible. But unlocking the alba without benefiting others is wasted effort. It is precisely these booklets that can often be linked so concretely to specific places and families in the region. The past becomes very tangible.'
Crowdfunding
However, there are not many subsidies for this kind of business these days. And so the project group came up with the plan to have the 'public-friendly' part of the women's alba project financed through crowdfunding. Private individuals can donate money directly to make the project possible. It is a financing method that is emerging within the cultural sector in the Netherlands; it is hardly ever used in science.
It is exciting whether it will succeed:the target amount of the Alba Amicorum Foundation is 30,000 to 40,000 euros, to be spent on making the alba accessible to the public. If you want to know more about it, you can visit the website www.alba-amicorum.nl, where you can also follow the progress of the research. All donations are welcome:the foundation does not set a lower limit per donation for the time being.
There will, however, be some difference in 'compensation':at least a donor will receive a newsletter and an invitation to lectures and a symposium about Johan van Lynden's album, which will take place next autumn. With higher donations, the project group thinks of extras such as a special reception at the institutions involved.
And if the target amount is not reached? Oosterman:'The Women's Alba project will still go ahead, but we can do less to make it accessible to a larger audience. Or it will all take longer. But of course I sincerely hope it doesn't come to that.”