Subcollections

Collection Willem Bilderdijk

The Collection Willem Bilderdijk consists of the collection of art collector Bastiaan Klinkert (1794-1854), bequeathed in 1855 to the Academy and the collection of the Public Library at Tilburg, which was donated to the Academy in 1996.

Willem Bilderdijk (1756-1831) was a poet, writer, playwright and scientist. He studied law at Leiden University. When the French occupied Holland in 1795 he was expelled and went into exile to England. he returned in 1806. Bilderdijk was a very prolific writer; it is estimated that the body of his work numbers over 300,000 lines of poetry. Because of his enormous production he was called 'an indefagitable versifex'. However, writing was not his primary occupation. For the larger part of his life he made a living as a lawyer or teacher.
As a poet Bilderdijk practised all genres and various forms of verse. Furthermore, he published a considerable number of translations, literary studies and essays on natural law, architecture, the science of law, botany, the study of perspective, philosophy, history, and theology. He was a fairly good artist and knew his way around the medical sciences.

The Collection Willem Bilderdijk at the IISH is one of the largest Bilderdijk-collections in the Netherlands. The collection contains almost the complete works of Bilderdijk, manuscripts of poetry and proza, and many drawings made by the poet-scientist.

Special catalogues and information about the collection and about Willem Bilderdijk:

• Catalogus der verzamelingen Bilderdijk en Van Lennep, aanwezig in de Boekerij der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen, gevestigd te Amsterdam. - Amsterdam : Muller, 1887. - IV, 137 p.
  Printed catalogue, ordened by genre.
• Willem Bilderdijk: een beknopte biografie - Ton Geerts
• Het Bilderdijk Museum