Marijke Meijer Drees

Early Modern Low Countries

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Early Modern Low Countries 1 (2017) 2, pp. 371-372 - eISSN: 2453-1587 371
DOI 10.18352/emlc.38 - URL: http://www.emlc-journal.org
Publisher: Stichting EMLC, supported by Utrecht University Library Open Access Journals | The Netherlands 
Copyright: The Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0  
International License.
Note
Sophie Reinders, De mug en de kaars. Vriendenboekjes van adellijke vrouwen, 
1575-1640, Nijmegen, Vantilt, 2017. 527 pp. isbn 978-94-6004-326-0.
Reinders’ in-depth study on early modern 
alba amicorum of noble women in the North-
ern Netherlands is the adapted version of her 
PhD-thesis, defended and graded cum laude at 
the Radboud University Nijmegen. Women’s 
alba amicorum were especially popular during 
the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centu-
ries among the nobility and the knighthood. 
They form a much smaller corpus than the 
thousands of men’s alba, into which relatively 
much research has been conducted. The core 
material of Reinders’ ground-breaking inves-
tigation consists of a well-considered selection 
of 22 alba, of which the oldest dates from 
1575 and the youngest from 1640. The own-
ers, living in Holland, Utrecht, Gelderland or 
Overijssel, cover about three consecutive gen-
erations of noble women. From the 22 alba 
Reinders examined the formal aspects and 
the functions in relation to the social circles in 
which the owners lived.
The alba, all hand-written, contain a miscellany of fairly short and more extended inscrip-
tions and illustrations, often multiple per page. Sometimes a tendency to a certain order is 
visible. The inscriptions of princes and high nobles, for example, have a place on the first 
folia and are followed by the contributions of less important relations. A chronological 
order of the contributions is far to be found. The inscriptions are usually multilingual and 
written down in careless handwriting that is difficult to decipher, which might be one of 
the reasons why women’s alba formerly were neglected by researchers. French and Dutch, 
including its regional variations, are the dominant languages of both male and female 
inscribers, although women-writers seem less practiced in French than men. English is 
relative scarcely used by both sexes, while Italian, Latin and Greek are exclusively chosen 
by male inscribers. The inscribers provide combinations of their name or initials with a 
Note 372
device, an emblematic motto or a similar succinct maxim, usually based on commonplace 
books. These second hand practices, however, do not exclude the personal intention of 
the inscribers. It was customary to make more or less coded social signals, for instance 
by interweaving the capitals of names, putting crowns above initials, or adding the family 
weapon. Likewise eye-catching are the amorous illustrations and the love songs. Usually 
these songs were based on existing songbooks; existing emblem picturae served most of 
the time as examples for the illustrations. 
The main social function of the women’s alba was to confirm and to continue the con-
tacts with, mainly, noble blood relatives and family in-law: the so called ‘friends’. Persons 
of a lower rank were not invited to participate. Thus, the women’s alba fit in the culture of 
sociability among the noble class during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which 
distinguished itself by ongoing exchanges of courtesy between its members, such as visit-
ing each other, giving or receiving presents and favours, and providing support in times 
of sorrow or misfortune. By these actions of mutual interest early modern friendship was 
characterized; the trust and loyalty on which it was founded needed continuous negotia-
tion and confirmation. The alba of young and unmarried female owners contain amorous 
songs and poems, as well as other signs of flirtation and love. The joining of initials was 
such a sign. So was the interplay with well known emblematic images and Petrarchist con-
ventions, such as the mosquito and the burning candle (the ‘mug’ and the ‘kaars’ from the 
title): the restless lover dangerously attracted by the difficult-to-approach beloved woman. 
Thus, for young women an album offered the opportunity to explore the marriage market 
in a traditionally playful encoded way. Once they were married, the album lost this function 
and became an object of memory, initiated as it was to establish social contacts for the time 
being and for the future as well. After the death of its owner, the memory function came 
even somewhat more into force, as witnessed by the contributions of next of kin in honour 
of their beloved deceased. It is, nonetheless, notable that such posthumous inscriptions are 
still relatively scarce during the second half of the seventeenth century and that only after 
1700 the practice of connecting with the family past by means of inscribing in alba of dead 
owners increased. In that period, however, the inscribers did not always operate equally 
profound and respectful, as shown by examples of everyday memory notes, such as recipes 
and even a short shopping list in some of the investigated alba.
Reinders’ sparkling study, carefully edited and enriched with beautiful illustrations, 
convincingly shows the qualities and the functions of noble women’s alba around 1600. 
These alba represent the upper class social network medium of an early modern era, a four 
centuries old forerunner of Facebook, as it were.
Marijke Meijer Drees, University of Groningen


Sophie Reinders, De mug en de kaars. Vriendenboekjes van adellijke vrouwen, 1575-1640

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Sophie Reinders, De mug en de kaars. Vriendenboekjes van adellijke vrouwen, 1575-1640

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