The Zeeuwsch Genootschap and the Formation of its Correspondence Network
Wetenschappen [Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities], founded in 1752.22
The establishment of these societies in the provinces of Holland and Zeeland is
unsurprising, as these were the two leading provinces of the Dutch Republic.23
Nowadays, people might find it remarkable that Zeeland was one of the leading
provinces of the Dutch Republic. This stems from the modern depiction of Zee
land as a geographically isolated, scarcely connected place. However, at the time
of the establishment of the ZGW, the opposite was the true. Zeeland was one of
the richest provinces of the Dutch Republic, due to its position in international
trade and agriculture.24 For instance, both the Dutch West India Company and the
Dutch East India Company had offices in Middelburg. Additionally, Zeeland had
a vibrant elite community with certain families occupying important positions
in both international commerce and the political sphere of the Dutch Republic.25
Learned societies were a trend in the 18th century in which the Zeelandic
elites wanted to participate. The current scholarly consensus is that the ZGW
was established in 1769. However, the records of the ZGW show that it started
functioning from 1766 onwards, as the Member Register includes Jean Guepin as
a member even though he passed away in 1766.26 Furthermore, the Correspond
ence Register of the ZGW shows that letters, essays, and lectures were sent to the
society from 1766 onwards.27 This discrepancy might come from the fact that the
ZGW requested - and received - official recognition from the States of Zeeland
in 1769.28 This was one of the measures taken to improve the reputation of the
ZGW and to bolster the cultural standing of Zeeland. The ZGW also requested
Willem V, Prince of Orange and Hereditary Stadtholder of the Seven Provinces,
to be their patron.29 Another means of gaining a better reputation was building a
national, and international, network with renowned members.
lOO
22 W. W. Mijnhardt, Tot Heil van't Menschdom: Culturele Genootschappen in Nederland, 1750
1815 (PhD Diss). Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1988, 124-125.
23 Mijnhardt, Tot Heil van't Menschdom, 124.
24 Arno Neele, Between Mainstay and Internal Colony: Zeeland and the Decline of the Dutch
Republic, 1750-1800. In: Koen Stapelbroek and Jani Marjanen (eds), The Rise of Economic
Societies in the Eighteenth Century. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 290.
25 G. A. Fokker, Iets over de Bevolking van Middelburg vóór 1795. Middelburg: J. C. W. Altorffer,
1875, 16; Margaret C. Jacob and Dorothée Sturkenboom, A Women's Scientific Society in the
West: The Late Eighteenth-Century Assimilation of Science. In: Isis 94, no. 2 (2003), 223.
26 Zeeuws Archief (ZA), Archief KZGW, inv. nr. 12, scan 3.
27 ZA, Archief KZGW, inv. nr. 56, scan 4.
28 Mijnhardt, Tot Heil van't Menschdom, 137.
29 McClellan, Science Reorganized, 1.
