Documentatieblad werkgroep Achttiende eeuw. Jaargang 1991

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Uta Janssens-Knorsch
Commerce or culture?
The fate of the first circulating library in the Netherlands^*

Just over a decade ago a symposium at Wolfenbüttel^1. was dedicated to the investigation of the cultural and sociological forces that contributed to enlargen the 18th-century reading public. The emphasis there was on the reader-initiative, that is on ways in which the readers themselves procured or facilitated their access to books by way of forming private reading-societies and bookclubs. The increasing number of such private initiatives in the second half of the century, together with the institution of public lending- or circulating libraries have been deemed largely responsible for what Rolf Engelsing has labelled the 18th-century reading revolution.^2. Following this lead, recent studies have largely focussed on estimates of the reading public, on the collective or individual reception of books and on changing reading habits; ‘intensive’ and ‘extensive’ reading have become bywords of cultural and sociological as well as of literary history.

My paper proposes to investigate the public library and, connected with that, the strategy of book supply. More particularly I should like to acquaint you with the beginnings of the circulating library in the Netherlands and with its initiator, the printer and bookseller Hendrik Scheurleer junior. The discovery of a hitherto unknown catalogue of his library, dated 1751, together with the results of a thorough search for advertisements in the Dutch newspapers around that date (notably the 's-Gravenhaegsche courant), have made it possible to establish Scheurleer's circulating library in The Hague, proudly named Bibliotheca Scheurleeriana, as the first of its kind in the Netherlands, if not on the continent.

* My thanks are due to Dr. Otto Lankhorst and Drs. Nigel Browne who provided me with some of the material on which this article is based.

1. The papers given at this symposium were published under the title Lesegesellschaften und Bürgerliche Emancipation by Otto Dann (ed.), München 1981.

2. Rolf Engelsing, Der Bürger als Leser, Stuttgart 1974.

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Hendrik Scheurleer, born in 1724, the son of a weaponsmith, was an enterprising and somewhat idealistic young man, who learnt his trade with Pierre de Hondt, joined the bookdealers' guild in 1749, and opened shop in 1750 on the Houtstraat in The Hague. He called himself Hendrik Scheurleer junior or H. Scheurleer F.Z. in order to distinguish himself from his uncle Hendrik (Bastiaansz) Scheurleer, a printer and bookdealer and sometime translator of foreign books, known as an Anglophil to the extent of becoming a deacon in the English Church at The Hague.^3. When Scheurleer junior started business he also specialized in foreign books, and like his uncle developed a special interest in and a connection with England. He occasionally printed for English publishers and in 1754 brought out an English Travellers companion through the Netherlands. Moreover, taking his cue from his former master de Hondt, publisher of the successful periodical La Bibliothèque Britannique (1733-1747), Scheurleer got his business going and made a name for himself with the publication from January 1750 onwards of a Journal Britannique, which was to take the place of the earlier periodical and ran until December 1757.^4.

But how did Hendrik Scheurleer F.Z. in that same year 1750 conceive of the idea of opening his bookshop to the general public as a circulating library? Two suggestions offer themselves here: in the first place Scheurleer's connection with England, where such libraries were already known, and second, a marked recession in the booktrade around the middle of the century. With regard to the first, we know from studies of the circulating library in the United Kingdom that Edinburgh in 1725 was the first city to boast a bookshop that lent out books for a small fee. The idea quickly spread from Scotland to England, where London in the 1740's counted at least nine known book-

3. E.F. Kossmann, De boekhandel te 's-Gravenhage, The Hague 1937, p. 350-354; D. Oudschans, The History of the English Church at The Hague, Delft 1929. p. 27; and A.C. Krusemann, Aantekeningen betreffende den boekhandel van Noord-Nederland in de 17de en 18de eeuw, Amsterdam 1893 [Bijdragen tot de geschiedenis van den Nederlandschen boekhandel, 6].

4. A new travellers companion through the Netherlands, printed for Henry Scheurleer F.Z., 1754, in 8^o, 348 pp. He also published from 1750 onwards A Select Collection of the Best Modern Plays, selected from the best authors, in 8^o, which ran to 16 volumes. This collection hac been started in 1710 by T. Johnson. It was continued after his death in 1735 bij his son Alexander who sold his father's unbound stock to Scheurleer for fl 2350 (c.f. Kossmann, op. cit., pp. 209-210). Le Journal Britannique by Matthieu Maty, printed and published by H. Scheurleer F.Z., The Hague 1750-1757, 24 vols. + 1 vol. Index (1756-1757 by de Mauve), in 12^o For a detailed history of that periodical see U. Janssens-Knorsch Matthieu Maty and the Journal Britannique 1750-1755, Amsterdam 1975.

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shops functioning as circulating libraries on the basis of monthly or yearly subscriptions.^5.

As Scheurleer entertained close links with English booksellers and as the author of his Journal Britannique was living in London, the idea almost certainly came to Scheurleer from England.

With regard to the second suggestion, the recent study of the Dutch booktrade 1701-1750 by Otto Lankhorst has shown that bookselling in the Netherlands around the middle of the eighteenth century was at a low ebb.^6. The number of book auctions in The Hague rose to a peak in the 1740's and commerce was low because there simply were too many books in town. Booksellers were overstocked and a number of them went bankrupt for lack of funds, as we read in a letter by a bookdealer written in 1749:

‘... la guerre qui presentement est finie avoit causé un declin general dans le commerce de ce pays ci ... Apres cela les diverses faillites parmi les libraires dans ce pays ci et principalement a la Haye ont occasionné ... un grand nombre des ventes des fonds considerables, ce qui a fait baisser incroyablement les prix des livres.’^7.

Hendrik Scheurleer also had his share of the auction business and thus it was easy for him - once he had conceived of the idea of starting a circulating library besides selling books - to lay in a great stock of books at comparatively low costs. The closeness between the dates of some of Scheurleer's auctions and the publication dates of the supplements to his library catalogues give some ground for this suggestion.^8.

5. Hilda Hamlyn, ‘Eighteenth-century circulating libraries in England,’ The Library, 5th series, I (1947), p. 198.

6. Otto Lankhorst, ‘Les ventes aux enchères des livres à La Haye dans la première moitié du 18e siècle,’ Le Magasin de l'Univers: the Dutch republic as the centre of the European book trade, ed. by C. Berkvens-Stevelinck, H. Bots, P.G. Hoftijzer and O.S. Lankhorst, Leiden 1992, pp. 199-210.

7. Pièrre Mortier à Josias Belasaigne, 3-1-1749, Amsterdam, Bibliothèque Wallonne, no 610, published by I.H. van Eeghen in De Amsterdamse boekhandel, III, Amsterdam 1965, pp. 266-267.

8. On 17 May 1751 Scheurleer auctioned the library of the advocate Reynaud ('s-Grav. Crt, 1751, nos 47 and 49); on 1 June 1751 the library of ‘den Heer Rambouillet, eerste Kamerheer’ ('s-Grav. Crt, 1751, no 50) on 7/8 April 1752 a ‘verzameling van meescht Engelsche en Fransche boeken van den Heer Huguenin’ ('s-Grav. Crt, 1752, nos 40 and 41); on 26 November 1752 a ‘considerabele bibliotheek bestaande uyt verscheydene duyzende van boeken ... waeronder veele considerabele werken ... nagelaten door wylen den Heer David Martini, ... Officier onder de Ruytery in dienst van Saxen’ ('s-Grav. Crt, 1752, nos 133, 135, 137 and 139); on 16 April 1753 he auctioned the books of ‘wylen den Heer P.F. Husson, in zijn Leeven Professor in Theologia’ ('s-Grav. Crt, 1753, no 45); on 4/5 October 1753 ‘een fraeye Collectie van Fransche en Engelsche Boeken, nagelaten door den Heer G. *** ('s-Grav. Crt, 1753, nos 108 and 109); on 21 April 1755 a library of ‘den Heer B.R.H. Theol.Dr.’ ('s-Grav. Crt, 1755, no 41); on 2 October 1755 a collection of Latin, French, English and Dutch books of ‘den Heer B.V.H. ('s-Grav. Crt, 1755, no 109) on 16 August 1756 a similar collection ‘van wylen den Heer van L. & F.V.O.’ ('s-Grav. Crt, 1756, nos 86, 87, 89, 92, 96 and 98); on 13 December 1756 again a ‘fraeye Verzameling van Latynsche, Fransche, Engelsche en Nederduitsche Boeken van wylen den Heer Wollingen’ ('s-Grav. Crt, 1756, no 142); on 25 April 1757 ‘Boeken, Prent-Werken en Teekeningen, &c’ left by ‘den Heer Domburge en A.V.G.’ ('s-Grav. Crt, 1757, nos 37, 48, 49); on 24/25 October 1757 a ‘zeer fraeye Verzameling van Nederduytsche Boeken nagelaten door wylen den Heer M. Surendonk, Commies den Comptiore General van Holland, bestaande in Theologische, Regtsgeleerde, Historie, Poëten en andere Boeken, alle zeer fraey gebonden’ ('s-Grav. Crt, 1757, nos 115, 121 and 127). Together with P.G. van Balen, Scheurleer auctioned on 22 May 1758 ‘Fransche, Latynsche, Nederduytsche, Spaensche en Italiaansche Boeken’ plus a great collection of prints and drawings by the best Italian, French and Dutch masters as well as some ‘Rariteyten ... alles nagelaten door de Heeren D*** en N***’ ('s-Grav. Crt, 1758, nos 43, 44, 56, 57, 58); on 25 September 1758 a similar collection ‘als mede een party kostbaere Rariteyten’ having belonged to Mr. Jacob van der Esch ‘in leven Penningmeester van Delftland & c.’ ('s-Grav. Crt, 1758, nos 86, 101 and 112).
Together with H. Bakhuyzen, Scheurleer auctioned on 5 April 1762 the library of the learned C.N. Hopf ('s-Grav. Crt, 1762, nos 32 and 33); on 19/20 April the books of ‘wylen den Heer Redding ... Courantier’ ('s-Grav. Crt, 1762, no 33); compare the auctions listed fragmentarily in Kossmann, op.cit. p. 354.

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But Scheurleer was not first and foremost a businessman. Like his uncle he was an intellectual among bookdealers who believed in the ideals of the enlightenment. Both his publication of the highbrow periodical Le Journal Britannique as well as his idea of starting a circulating library for the general public, can be seen as investments in culture by a young, intelligent, and internationally orientated printer/publisher and bookseller - investments based on the consideration of scanty means versus high goals and informed by certain expectations concerning the reading public, the use of books and the dissemination of book-news.

Books had their uses, but periodicals even more so. It is significant that many of them were called Bibliothèques - libraries - emphasizing their function as instruments of learning, a kind of cabinet de lecture in duodecimo or pocketsize. The first private reading societies, as the Wolfenbüttel symposium showed, had in fact been no more than group subscriptions to periodicals, which were circulated for a small fee, and when subscription grew, also some of the books that were discussed or mentioned in the book-news were bought and circulated among the subscribers. Such practical and non-commercial arrangements were in due course imitated by other groups of readers with varying aims and interests, but usually highminded intentions, inspired by the wish to be useful and to partake in the cultural life of their time.

Hendrik Scheurleer knew the value of a good periodical: apart from procuring subscriptions it also made an excellent object for trading stock

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with other booksellers. According to a list of towns and booksellers where it could be obtained, the Journal Britannique permitted Scheurleer to increase and diversify his stock with new books by means of trading with no less than eighty-one booksellers in differnt towns in Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, England, Scotland and Ireland. He also used its occasionally blank endpages to advertise his own stock of foreign books or to promote his circulating libary.^9.

In the first advertisement in the Dutch press announcing the circulating library, Scheurleer emphasizes the enlightened principles informing his project: ‘it is to fulfill the wishes of scholars and cultivated amateurs of the arts and sciences that he is putting together a collection of 10000 volumes to be made accessible to the general public for a small yearly or monthly subscription.’ He hopes for many subscriptions to this great enterprise ‘so that learning and the press may flourish again; for one observes that those countries which possess the greatest number of such libraries also possess the greatest learning and the greatest bookproduction.’ This refers clearly to conditions in the United Kingdom and supports my earlier point about Scheurleer's being inspired by the British example. The full advertisement in the 's-Gravenhaegsche courant of 26 August 1750 reads:

‘H. SCHEURLEER, F. Zoon, Boekverkoper in de Korte Houtstraet in 's Hage, is door aenrading, zo van Geleerde als van veele andere Beminnaers der Kunsten en Weetenschappen, beezig met het opregten van een publicque BIBLIOTHEEK, die bestaen zal uyt 10000 Deelen en dagelyks vermeerderd, met de beste nieuw uytkomende Boeken, zo in de Fransche als in de Engelsche Taelen, dewelke hij aen alle de Liefhebbers van de Literatuur presenteerd voor een kleyne kosten jaerlyks en 's maendelyks by inschryving te laeten leesen: De Conditie daer van zyn by de bovengen. Boekverkoper te bekomen, en is in verwagting dat de Liefhebbers deeze groote onderneeming met haer inschryven zullen favoriseeren, op dat daer door de Geleerdheyd en Drukpers mag floriseren, als dezelve in voorgaende tyden gedaen heeft; gelyk men ziet dat in de Landen, daer zulke Bibliotheeken het meeste zyn, de Geleerdheyd het grootste en de nieuwe beste Boeken het meesten gevonden worden.’

In a second advertisement in the same paper, dated 23 September 1750, Scheurleer specified that conditions for subscription could be obtained at his shop in the Houtstraat and that subscriptions for half price would

9. For an extensive advertisement of the circulating library see Journal Britannique, III, 2 (Oct. 1750), pp. 224-228. Lists of Scheurleer's stock of English books are to be found in Journal Britannique, volumes I,2 (Feb. 1750), 117-120; II,2 (June 1750), 235-236; V,2 (June 1751), 1-6; VII,1 (Jan. 1752), 118-119.

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be offered until 20 November. This deadline may have to do with Scheurleer's moving from the Houtstraat to the Plein, where we find him in December 1750. The catalogue of the library, according to the earlier advertisement, would be ready by the first of November, but a month later another short advertisement tells us that it was published on 26 October 1750.^10.

Apart from these advertisements for the Dutch public, Scheurleer also placed a lengthy advertisement in French in the October number of the Journal Britannique, which also contained the conditions for subscription (the subscription fee for one year mentioned here was one guinea). The catalogue would be obtainable on 1 November 1750 and ‘les curieux puissent commencer à lire dès ce date.’^11.

This first catalogue, of which apparently no separate copy has survived, listed Scheurleer's stock of French and English books and according to the October advertisement, seld for 6 stuivers. Exactly one year later, on 27 October 1751, a new catalogue was published and announced in three successive issues of the 's-Gravenhaegsche courant (nos 129, 130, and 131). This catalogue was ‘considerably augmented with Latin, French, English and Dutch books.’ A unique copy of this 1751 catalogue, which was discovered in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and which contains two Forewords with conditions for subscription - one in French preceding the lists of French and English books, the other in Dutch prefixed to the Dutch section of the catalogue - makes it possible to reconstruct the original circulating library with some accuracy.^12.

The Dutch Foreword of 1751 states that ‘it is known that Hendrik Scheurleer already a year ago instituted a public library with French and English books ... which was eagerly received ... The public benefitting from its advantages had urged its expansion not only with Latin books, but also with what would be useful to those compatriots, who only

10. See 's-Grav. Crt, 1750, nos 102, 114 and 115. On 23 September 1750 Scheurleer still advertised himself as ‘Boekverkoper in de Houtstraat’, on 26 October as ‘Boekverkoper in 's Hage’ and on 18 December as ‘Boekverkoper in 's Hage op het Pleyn’. As to the first catalogue of 1750, of which no separate copy has been found, it must be identical to the French and English part of the 1751 (BNP) catalogue. This suggestion is supported by the fact that in 1751 the list of Latin books (no doubt out of reverence for Latin) is bound preceding the French and English books (and thusprecedes the Foreword and Conditions) while the Dutch books come at the end, after the English, with their own Dutch title-page, ‘Berigt’ and ‘Conditien’. This makes sense because in 1751, after adding Dutch and Latin books to his library for those who could not read French and/or English, Scheurleer sold the catalogue for these books separately with its own titlepage, foreword and conditions in Dutch.

11. See note 9.

12. BNP call number: Q 9253.

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possessed their mothertongue ...’ Dutch readers who did not read French and English could therefore subscribe for Dutch and Latin books only and were offered those two sections of the catalogue separately at the price of 3 stuivers, while the whole catalogue sold for 9 stuivers. In fact the bound catalogue of 1751, embellished with a pretty frontispice and a Latin titlepage (see ill. 1 and 2), consists of four individual catalogues (Latin, French, English and Dutch), each with its own page numbering and separate numbering of titles. The French books, preceded by a French titlepage and an ‘Avertissement’ in French containing the conditions for subscription, with 76 pages and 1188 titles by far outnumber the rest. They are followed by the English books, comprising 32 pages, without a separate titlepage, and 496 titles. The Dutch section which follows is again preceded by a separate Dutch titlepage and the foreword (from which I quoted above) with the conditions in Dutch. The Dutch books fill pages 5-16 with 197 titles. The Latin catalogue, pages 1-14, lists 239 titles. Of the total of 2120 books then, 1684, i.e. a little more than 3/4 were French and English and 1/4 Dutch and Latin. Most of the books were in octavo or duodecimo editions in several volumes, which means that Scheurleer in 1751 was well on the way to the 10,000 volumes he promised his subscribers in 1750. The subdivisions within each of the four languages in the catalogue follow the traditional subdivisions of a gentleman's library, to wit: theology, law and politics, philosophy, medicine, natural history, mathematics, arts and antiquities, geography, chronology and history, voyages, poetry and plays, and miscellaneous. This last section contains dictionaries, periodicals, criticism and prose fiction. The following table will reveal the proportions among the main subjects within each language section at a glance.^13.

It clearly shows that the Bibliotheca Scheurleeriana, although a commercial enterprise, catered in fact less to entertainment than to serious reading and is exempt from the usual criticism that attacked the circulating libraries of later date for being merely commercial and promoting a lot of trash, like novels and other ‘pernicious’ reading-matter.^14. The

13. The totals in the table compare interestingly with the totals of these sections in Scheurleer's last catalogue given below (see p. 120). To A.C. Kruseman, who only knew the 1762 catalogue, and who therefore wrongly believed that the library was founded in that year, the number of ‘learned’ or serious books seemed impressive. Kruseman speaks of Scheurleer's ‘behoefte ... aan de beschaving van zijn Vaderland bevorderlijk te zijn’ and concludes ‘Onbetwijfelbaar is hij dat geweest.’ (see Kruseman, op.cit., p. 172.

14. Q.D. Leavis, Fiction and the Reading Public, London 1932, pp. 130-137; S.T. Coleridge, Biographia Literaria, chap. XXII: ‘As to the devotees of the circulating libraries, I dare not compliment their pass-time, or rather kill-time, with the name of reading.’

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Illustration 1

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Illustration 2

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engraved frontispice which shows a lady who appears quite at home in the library, may be taken as a special invitation to the ladies, who were eager to cultivate their minds, but were at that date still excluded from serious reading-societies.^15. The serious standard of the library is also indicated by the titles written in capital letters across the backs of the books on the left in the engraving (see ill. 1) reading: CORPUS JURE, LEXICON, BAYLE, and MORERI.

	French	English	Dutch	Latin	Total
Theology	207	97	73	18	395
Law and Politics	57	17	13	12	99
Philosophy Medicine Natural History	155	86	31	53	325
Mathematics Arts and Sciences	142	41	4	17	204
Antiquities and Painting	15	10	1	29	29
Geography History	162	47	31	11	251
Travel	29	9	5	-	43
Poetry and Plays	86	45	-	93	224
Miscellanea	335	144	39	6	524
_____	_____	_____	_____	_____	_____
Total	1188	496	197	239	2120

As to the conditions for subscription, specified in the catalogue, a full yearly subscription amounted to 15 florins, a subscription for the French and English books alone to 11 florins, and for the Dutch and Latin books together to 7 florins. All books in the catalogue are listed with their prices ‘in case a borrower either loses, damages or decides to buy the book he is reading.’ The library was open from 9 - 12 and from 3 - 7. Small-sized books were lent out for 8 days only, a larger sized book for 2, respectively 3 weeks. The incidental customer, without a subscrip-

15. Cf. P.J. Buynsters, ‘Lesegesellschaften in den Niederlanden,’ in Otto Dann ed., Lesegesellschaften und Bürgerliche Emancipation, München 1981, p. 151.

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tion, could borrow any book by leaving caution money equalling the price of the book plus a small fee: 3 stuivers for a duodecimo or octavo, 6 stuivers for a quarto and 12 stuivers for a folio. Subscribers reading Dutch only, had one advantage over the others: they were entitled to ask the librarian to buy one book of their choice for the library, provided the price did not exceed 7 florins. If it did, they would have to find another subscriber to join them in their demand.^16.

Scheurleer promised his subscribers to regularly enrich his library with the newest books and periodicals which would be listed in quarterly supplements to the catalogue. This promise he kept - albeit not quarterly - for the first two years. A first supplement for the French and English books appeared on 6 October 1752. The second supplement, published on 29 October 1753, contained not only new additions to the Dutch and Latin books but also ‘other books in different languages and subjects. By these additions - the advertisement said - the friends of good reading can see that the above mentioned bookseller does not spare neither money nor effort to bring his library in the shortest time to the greatest perfection.’^17.

When one looks closely at the advertisements Scheurleer placed in the 's-Gravenhaegsche courant, one cannot but detect a close link between the dates of the book auctions he conducted and the 1751 catalogue and its supplements. Between the first catalogue of October 1750 and the enlarged catalogue of 1751 in the BNP, for instance, Scheurleer auctioned two large libraries, one left by an advocate, the other by a cabinet minister. Likewise, before he brought out the first supplement to the French and English books he auctioned a library that contained ‘mostly English and French books’ as the advertisement specified.^18. In November 1752 he auctioned a library ‘consisting of several thousands of books’ left by a cavalry officer, in April 1753 the library of a deceased professor of theology, and in October yet another collection ‘of mostly French and English books,’ three weeks after which he brought out the second supplement to the 1751 catalogue.^19.

There are no more auctions by Scheurleer after that until 1755 and no more supplements appeared. In 1755 Scheurleer conducted two auctions, another two in 1756, and two in 1757.^20. In the same year, just

16. Catalogus van Nederduytsche boeken, dewelke gekogt en geleent kunnen worden volgens de conditien hier na volgende. Bij H. Scheurleer F.Z., boekverkoper in 's Hage op 't Pleyn [1751], ‘Berigt’.

17. 's-Grav. Crt, 1753, no 130.

18. For these auctions see note 8.

19. Unfortunately I have not been able to find copies of these two supplements in order to verify my suggestions. On the other hand Scheurleer was eager to have an up-to-date library and his later catalogues list mainly recent editions.

20. See note 8 for references.

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a month after the last auction, Scheurleer printed a new, completely rearranged catalogue incorporating the supplements - no longer in four parts according to the different languages, but subdivided only according to subjects (theology, law, philosophy, medicine etc.). This catalogue, which appeared on 28 November 1757, and several copies of which have been preserved in Dutch libraries, was printed with two titlepages and forewords plus conditions and exists in a French and in a Dutch version (see ill. 3 and 4).^21.

Most striking about this catalogue is that it carries next to Scheurleer's also the name of P.G. van Balen, bookseller in the Spuystraat, while Scheurleer's address has changed from ‘op het Pleyn’ to ‘In de Pooten’.^22. The new catalogue, which was announced as containing more than 3000 titles, now costs 11 stuivers and is no longer available in parts. The subject-headings are more or less the same as in the 1751 catalogue, except for ‘Levensbeschryvingen’ or ‘Vitae’ (Lives) after Travels, and ‘Vercierde Historien’ or ‘Romans’ (novels) before Miscellanea. No doubt these specifications of obviously popular categories of books were to attract more readers, just as Scheurleer's association with P.G. van Balen must have been an effort to blow new life or new capital into the circulating library.

With the association of Van Balen the refurbished library certainly was becoming more ‘professional’ in the sense of more like a proper public library, housed on its own premises - no longer in a shop - and offering its clients more comfort and reading space. Between 5 December 1757 and 8 May 1758 the library was temporarily housed on the Princegragt ‘voorby het Hofje van Nieuwkoop’, after which it opened in an elegant and central location on the Buytenhof ‘op den hoek van het Hofpoortje’, where it was ‘easily accessible for most people and offering an extra pleasing view’^23. from its large first-floor windows (see ill. 5).

21. Bibliotheek voor de Bevordering van de Belangen van de Boekhandel [BVBBB] Amsterdam, 4210 (1757 - Nederlandse editie); 4210a (1757 - Franse editie).

22. This change of address, however, does not mean that Scheurleer moved his shop; from an 18th-century map of The Hague it appears that it is only a precision. ‘De Poten’ was the name of the street running along the south side of the Pleyn, which had of course four sides; just ‘on the Pleyn’ was perhaps too vague an address for subscribers that were no regular frequenters of bookshops and therefore did not know on which side of the Pleyn to find him.
Pieter Gerard van Balen and Scheurleer had been apprentices together at Pierre de Hondt's and probably were friends. They had similar interests, it seems, as van Balen specialized in prints and engravings and Scheurleer, after he bought his own printing press in 1755, started to print a handsome series of views of The Hague and surroundings that earned him lasting fame (cf. P.A. Scheen, Lexicon van beeldende kunstenaars 1750-1950, The Hague 1970, vol. II, p. 301-302). For a list of Scheurleer's printed engravings see Kossmann, op.cit., p. 354. A specimen is given in illustration 5, Gezicht van het Buyten Hof.

23. See 's-Grav. Crt, 1757, nos 142, 145, and 1758 nos 1, 5, 7, 55 and 58.

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Illustration 3

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Illustration 4

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Illustration 5
(With permission of Gemeentearchief, 's-Gravenhage)

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With these changes Scheurleer's Library, or LEESBIBLIOTHEEK, was becoming rather like those fashionable libraries that some English booksellers opened for the season in the Spas and holiday resorts of England, like Bath for instance, which were seeking to match or outdo the amenities offered by the private gentleman's library. Quite in this vein Scheurleer writes in the Foreword of the 1757 catalogue that his library is there to please especially all those foreigners and ‘visitors of high rank - be it political or military - who come from time to time to visit the courtly city of The Hague and cannot bring their own libraries with them; could they wish for anything more than the daily reading pleasure afforded them by this public library?’^24.

To attract a wider circle of readers' subscription rates were lowered and borrowing conditions eased: readers could now keep books as long as they liked, unless another reader wanted to borrow the same book. Subscription went down from 15 to 12 florins for the whole year, 7 florins for half a year, and 1½ florin for one month. Borrowing per book, without subscription, was possible for 12 stuivers per folio, 6 stuivers per quarto and 3 stuivers for an octavo or duodecimo. Those who without a subscription wanted to stay and read in the library or browse, were asked to pay 5½ stuiver each time. A library attendant was present at all times to keep order and to hand out or replace books on the shelves, while opening hours were extended from 9-1 pm and from 3-8 pm.^25.

Yet in spite of these measures to make the library more popular - especially through the inclusion of a greater number of novels - Scheurleer's original aims in opening a circulating library were not altered through his association with Van Balen. If possible, he voiced his enlightened humanitarian ideals even stronger than before.

It is no coincidence that in the very long foreword to the Dutch edition of the 1757 catalogue, Scheurleer makes ample mention of the Dutch Academy of Sciences (de Hollandsche Maatschappy der Wetenschappen, founded in 1752), which in 1760 elected the London-based author of his Journal Britannique as its first foreign member: ‘This useful Society’ - Scheurleer writes - ‘which in all fields of knowledge is stimulating the public to put their intelligence to good use in the service of their country and for the benefit of mankind ... only needs a library which is open to all who have the intelligence to read but lack the means to buy books ... Therefore’ - he continues - ‘I have laboured for six years to provide the public that is so eagerly striving for knowledge,

24. Naamlyst van een Uitmuntende Party der Beste Boeken in de Latynse, Franse, Nederduitse en Engelse Talen ... By een versamelt en ten Nuttigen gebruik van een ieder op eene Publieke Plaats gestelt in 's-Gravenhage, door de Boekverkopers Hendrik Scheurleer, F.Z. en Pieter Gerard van Balen, Anno 1757, ‘Voorreden’, p. iv.

25. ibidem, ‘Conditien’.

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with a unique treasure of the arts and sciences in the form of a library, which I continually endeavour to enlarge and to perfect for the benefit of all ... But as the costs and the effort to reach the high goal I envisage, have become too much for me alone, I have had to look for an associate...’^26.

The Dutch reader of the 1757 Foreword will notice that Scheurleer expresses the phrase ‘for the benefit of all’ in Dutch as ‘tot Nut van 't Algemeen’ - a phrase which was to become well known as the name of the most famous philanthropic society of the Netherlands, founded in 1784.^27.

Scheurleer's association with Van Balen was, however, only shortlived. As with his previous catalogues, Scheurleer's foreword of 1757 promised the readers to continually add newly published books to the collection, so as to keep the customers up to date, and to publish regular supplements to the catalogue. The first of these, costing 2 stuivers, appeared already in February 1758 and contained 591 titles. The second appeared in October, and with 576 titles brought the library up to 4176 titles. The accent in these new acquisitions lay on recent publications as Scheurleer and Van Balen in their first joint advertisement had urged all Dutch booksellers to send them copies of every work they published. This policy, however, attractive and beneficial to the subscribers as it was, could not but raise professional jealousy among the other booksellers in The Hague who had watched Scheurleer's enterprise from the start with great suspicion. As business was low already, they felt that Scheurleer's circulating library was drawing away the last potential customers from their shops. If people could borrow books for little money, nobody would buy books anymore! Scheurleer had foreseen this criticism from the beginning and had tried to forestall it in his very first advertisement, which I quoted in full above. Yet he must have suffered considerable opposition and mean undermining from jealous colleagues for years, otherwise he would not have expatiated on this subject at such length in 1757. ‘Because we foresee’ - he writes - ‘that jealousy will boycott (as it has done in the past) and detract our Library in the opinion of the public, alleging that it is killing the already weak booktrade and that we will never be able to provide the reading matter we promise our readers ... we want to stress once more that, on the contrary, our Library will revive the book-selling business because it will stimulate people's interest in books ... Besides, not only foreign examples but our own lettered Leiden teaches us that even the most famous

26. ibidem, ‘Voorreden’, p. ii-iii (passim). J.A. Bierens de Haan, De Hollandsche Maatschappy der Wetenschappen 1752-1952, Haarlem 1952, p. 40.

27. Cf. W.W. Mijnhardt, Tot Heil van 't Menschdom: Culturele Genootschappen in Nederland 1750-1815, Amsterdam 1987, chap. vi.

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library in the country, which is open to everyone, is in no way diminishing the booktrade in that city ... As to the second objection, that to fulfill our promise to continually buy new books we would need funds which we don't possess: admitted, we don't have those funds yet, but we hope for enough subscriptions to enable us to provide a Library which may even exceed the expectations of many’.^28.

But Scheurleer's reasonable arguments fell on deaf ears, and the splendid circulating library, which he managed to set up with the help of Van Balen on the Buytenhof, only contributed to make him more enemies. Jealousy among the guild brothers prevailed and within a year the Guild itself dealt Scheurleer's and Van Balen's association what their colleagues hoped would be the death-blow: in 1758 the Guild demanded of each of them a double membership contribution because they were operating on the Buytenhof what the Guild considered ‘a second shop’.^29. This blow forced Scheurleer to dissolve his association again in the next year. He announced this ‘dissociation’ officially in the 's-Gravenhaegsche courant of 12 March 1759 together with - and in defiance of his enemies - yet another supplement (the third) which was to augment the library's stock to over 4500 titles. He also altered the library's opening hours from 9 - 1.30 pm. and from 3 - 7.30 pm.^30.

A fourth supplement appeared in November 1759 and was said to exceed all previous ones in the quality of the books it listed. The tone of the advertisement was openly defiant to his guild brothers while it admonished his subscribers to continue their subscriptions, ‘so that this useful enterprise may continue to flourish against the will of those who with mean insinuations try to undermine its success.’ The circulating library now counted 5110 titles.^31. Its rapid growth can easily be seen in the table below:

28. Naamlyst ... 1757, ‘Voorreden’, pp. iv-v.

29. Gildeboek, Boek O, Resol. Schout 1758, 17 Mei.

30. 's-Grav. Crt, 1759, nos 31 and 52.

31. 's-Grav. Crt, 1759, no 136. The University library in Amsterdam preserves a catalogue (call number 2425 F 19) dated 1759. This is a re-issue of the 1757 catalogue plus the four supplements, bound together with a new titlepage which leaves out the name of P.G. van Balen. The third and fourth supplement in this catalogue have a separate titlepage. The full title of the catalogue reads Catalogue des Livres, qui se trouvent dans la Bibliothèque recueillie par H. Scheurleer, F.Z. dans une salle Publique sur le Buytenhof à l'usage des Curieux & de ceux qui aiment la lecture ... A La Haye, 1759 ... Le prix du Catalogue est de 11 sols & chaque Supplement 2 sols. This last specification shows that the supplements could also be bought separately by those who already possessed the 1757 catalogue (see ill. 4).

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catalogues	date of publication	pages	titles
1751	Oct. 1751		2120
1757	Nov. 1757	1-184	1-3008
1rst Supp.	May 1758	185-230	3009-3600
2nd. Supp.	Oct. 1758	231-268	3600-4176
3rd. Supp.	Apr. 1759	269-294	4177-4502
4rth. Supp.	Nov. 1759	295-337	4503-51100

As we have no list of subscribers it is impossible to estimate the number of people that actually made use of it. Fact is that Scheurleer invested way above his means in new books and incurred large debts. Although he had held two large auctions together with van Balen in 1758, he could not make ends meet. By August 1760 he was bankrupt and between 29 August and 8 September of the same year his own complete stock of unbound books, his printing press and other printing equipment were sold by auction, lock, stock & barrel.^32.

Shortly before this disaster another misfortune overshadowed Scheurleer's life. His wife died, leaving him with five small children with whom he was forced to move to a single room at a place ironically called ‘De Gouden Pot’ - the golden pot.^33. But he still possessed his cherished LEESBIBLIOTHEEK on the Buytenhof which, against all odds and determined not to give up, he continued to improve and perfect.

On 11 August 1762 he placed an advertisement in the 's-Gravenhaegsche courant announcing the current reprinting of the complete catalogue of the library ‘in well arranged order’. This new catalogue, incorporating the last four supplements, was to be his last. It appeared on 27 December 1762, ‘comprising more than 5000 books in Latin, French, Dutch and English, among which many new and precious works in Theology, Law, Philosophy, Medicine, Natural History, Arts and Sciences, Antiquities, Geography, History, Travels, Poetry and Plays, Literature and Miscellanea; and a separate Catalogue of more than 700 Novels. The price of this well arranged Catalogue, which also lists the closest price of each book, together with the Conditions for subscription to the use of these books, is 1-10-0.’ The conditions and opening hours remained the same as before. As to the possibility of subscribers wanting to buy a book from the Library, Scheurleer specifies that they can only do so if there is still another copy, ‘because the

32. Resol. Schout 1760, 29 Aug.; Kossmann, op.cit., p. 353.

33. ibidem, p. 353.

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Library always has to be complete in order to render the best service to its subscribers.’^34.

The number of books in the various categories divides up as follows: theology 760, law 352, philosphy 250, medicine 368, natural history 192, mathematics and sciences 1711, antiquities 163, geography 61, history 1030, poetry and plays 480, miscellaneous 641 (total 5008). A brief comparison with the 1751 catalogue shows that philosophy, medicine and natural history taken together show a marked increase, but are outstripped by mathematics and sciences. There are comparatively few new geography books, but history shows an enormous increase. The explanation for this is that it now comprises travels and lives (i.e. ‘travel histories’ and ‘life histories’) of which the latter especially had become very popular. There is comparatively little increase in poetry and plays and in miscellanea. For the latter the explanation is, of course, the separate catalogue of novels which is mentioned in the advertisement and which accounts for the absence of prose fiction that previously resided under miscellanea.

It is interesting that Scheurleer now lists novels (‘Romans’) not under this heading within the general catalogue, but that he brings out a separate list of them and that there are so many. Since ‘Romans’ were first mentioned separately from miscellanea in the Scheurleer/Van Balen catalogue of 1757, it must have been under Van Balen's influence that this rubric grew to such an extent. By separating the novels from the general catalogue and by drawing special attention to their large number in 1762, Scheurleer indicates his awareness of two types of readers: the serious reader, for whose use his original library had primarily been intended, and the novel-reader.

In the foreword to the 1762 catalogue he appeals once more for subscriptions because ‘under the constraint of daily adding to his already large Library, his purchases forced him to contract heavy obligations.’ He appeals here to ‘people of taste, the learned and the curious’ - intellectually curious, that is - but the novel-readers were undoubtedly the more eager subscribers, hence the separate list of novels.

But even this forced concession to popular taste could not in the end save Scheurleer's treasured library from ruin. A year later - with too little support from an as yet fairly ‘unenlightened’ general public - he had to give up the single struggle against hostile colleagues and the bookdealers' guild. On 12 December 1763, the Bibliotheca Scheurleeriana, which first opened its doors to the citizens of The Hague on 1

34. 's-Grav. Crt, 1762, nos 96, 155 and 156. For the conditions see Catalogue des Livres qui se trouvent dans la Bibliothèque Publique à La Haye ... receuillis par H. Scheurleer F.Z., dans une salle publique pour ceux qui aiment la lecture ... 1762, ‘Conditions’ [BVBBB 4212].

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November 1750, was publicly auctioned on its own premises by Hendrik Bakhuyzen ‘together with its handsome bookcases, two superb globes, many rarities and more than 100 engraved portraits of famous personages and topographical views, all neatly framed and under glass.’^35.

Bakhuyzen had previously held two auctions together with Scheurleer and Scheurleer had been using Bakhuyzen's printing press since he had had to sell his own in 1760. Because of this association it is difficult to say how much profit Bakhuyzen intended to make out of Scheurleer's insolvency. Fact is that Scheurleer's eldest son Bernard became Bakhuyzen's apprentice and that Bakhuyzen followed in Scheurleer's footsteps in setting up a new circulating library in The Hague in 1777, which prospered as a family business until the 1840's.^36.

From the catalogues preserved at Amsterdam it appears that Bakhuyzen used Scheurleer's last, 1762 catalogue as his auction catalogue; all he did was to print a new titlepage (see ill. 6). The 1763 auction catalogue has 361 pages with 5008 titles + 41 pages for the appendix with the novels plus ‘Livres de toutes sortes de Facultez’, bringing the total up to 403 pages and 5756 titles.^37.

In his pioneering study Foundations of the Public Library Jesse Shera wrote that ‘the circulating library was, first of all a commercial enter-

35. See advertisement in 's-Grav. Crt, 1763, no 133 (18 November), sale catalogue 1763 [BVBBB 4168], H. Bakhuyzen.

36. See note 8 for auctions and ‘Een Haagse uitgeversfamilie’, in Haagse Drukkers van de 16e tot en met de 19e eeuw [Catalogus tentoonstelling Museum Meermannum, Den Haag 1983].

37. Catalogues BVBBB 4212 (1762) and BVBBB 4168 (1763). The latter is entitled Catalogue de la Bibliothèque publique contenant une Superbe Collection des LIVRES, Latin, Francois, Hollandois, et Anglois, en diverses Facultés; sçavoir des Livres de Theologie, Droit, Politique, Philosophie, Medicine, Histoire Naturelle, Mathematique, Arts et Sciences, Antiquitez et Estampes, Geographie, Histoires, Vies, Voyages, Poesies, Autheurs Classique, Litteraires et Miscellanie: Avec une APPENDICE de Livres en toutes sortes de Facultez & une Collection considerable de ROMANS. Lesquels se Vendront publiquement aux plus offrent, Lundi le 12 Decembre 1763 & jours suivant, à la Bibliothèque Publique, sur le Buytenhof à La Haye. Par Henri Bakhuyzen, Libraire. Ou se distribue le Catalogue en payant 12 sols.
The 1762 catalogue, preserved in the BVBBB shows price notations in the margin and must have served someone as sale catalogue. The 1763 auction catalogue shows te same prices, also noted in the margin. Compared to the printed prices of the books in the 1762 catalogue the sale prices were substantially lower: 2/3 or 1/2 of the original price. It is possible that the auctioneer Bakhuyzen kept some of the books as the foundation to his own circulating library. (Catalogus van de Publieke Leesbibliotheek in 's Hage, bestaande in een uitmuntende Verzameling van ... Boeken ... welke uitgeleent worden om te Leezen, by H. Bakhuyzen ... in 's Hage, ... Boekverkoper op 't Spuy, 1777. [210 p., 3100 nrs.]) A cursory inspection of Bakhuyzen's catalogue reveals that he offered his readers almost exclusively entertainment literature. He had no Latin, no scientific or learned, and only few English books in his library.

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Illustration 6

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prise inaugurated to make money for the owner. Promoters of these libraries entertained no illusions of martyrdom in the cause of culture, nor had they any enthusiasm for improving the intellects of their patrons or for advancing the educational level of their communities.’^38. I think Hendrik Scheurleer's example contradicts this statement.

Although the Bibliotheca Scheurleeriana was a commercial enterprise, it was first and foremost a cultural undertaking, inspired by a true enthusiasm for the advancement of learning and the wish to be useful to society. These idealistic aims are not only clearly stated in Scheurleer's forewords to his catalogues, but mirror themselves in the actual contents of the library and Scheurleer's continuous efforts to maintain its high standards. It would be too easy to conclude from his death in absolute poverty in January 1768 that Scheurleer entertained ‘illusions of martyrdom in the cause of culture’, but there is one last fact that casts additional light on the question of his professional idealism. In 1761, after his own printing press and shop had already been auctioned off to pay his debts, Scheurleer brought out an almanac for booksellers, which contained, apart from anecdotes and much useful information, Scheurleer's description of the ideal bookseller intended to raise the low standards of the guild.^39. This almanac he sent as a free New Year's gift to all guildbrothers, to the very guild and the very brothers whose own gain and professional jealousy were in the last analysis responsible for the ruin of his circulating library.

38. Jesse Shera, Foundations of the Public Library, Chicago 1965 (repr. 1974), p. 127.

39. Almanak der Boekverkoopers, drukkers en binders, 's-Gravenhage 1761. For a description of some of the contents of this Almanak see Otto Lankhorst, ‘Au siècle des Catalogues’, in Documentatieblad 18e Eeuw, XXI/1 (1989), pp. 63-64.