Johannes Thysius: The Musical Life of a Dutch Golden Age Scholar
Johannes Thysius and his music
Introduction
Music played an important role in everyday life during the seventeenth century, particularly among the upper classes. The ability to sing and play instruments was considered an essential part of social convention in the Dutch Golden Age. Children began music lessons at a young age and many continued their musical activities into adolescence and adulthood. The broad outlines of musical life in this period are known from Dirk Balfoort's now dated study and from Rudolf Rasch's more recent online publication.
For some individuals, detailed information about musical upbringing, activities, and taste survives. Constantijn Huygens is a well-known example. This study shows that a remarkably full picture can be formed of the role music played in the life of the Leiden jurist Jan Thijs, who latinized his name to Johannes Thysius, following the fashion of his time.
Johannes Thysius (1622–1653) was the son of a wealthy Amsterdam merchant who originated from the Southern Netherlands. After the death of his parents in 1634, he moved to Leiden and lived in the house of his uncle Constantijn l'Empereur (1598–1648), a professor of Hebrew at the university. Following his education at the Latin school, Thysius studied at the faculty of arts and later law. He then embarked on an eighteen-month Grand Tour through France and England. After returning to Leiden, he obtained his doctorate and was prepared to begin a career in society when he died at the age of only thirty-one.
Among Dutch scholars of early modern science and book history, Thysius is known as the collector of a large library that has remained intact through the centuries; at the Leiden Rapenburg, his seventeenth-century library building still stands. Yet Thysius is world-famous among a different, though select, group: lutenists and scholars of early music. This renown stems from a single book in his collection, a manuscript known as the ‘Thysius Lute Book’.
Plate 1. Jan de Vos, Portrait of Johannes Thysius, 1658, oil on panel. Leiden, Collection Bibliotheca Thysiana.
With 522 folia, it is the largest lute manuscript in the world and contains 907 lute pieces—more than any other known source. For musicologists and performers, this source is so important that Johannes Thysius has his own entry in the New Grove dictionary of music and musicians. Although the manuscript is commonly called the Thysius lute book, the scribe was actually Adriaan Jorisz. Smout (1578/9–1646), a theologian, minister, and notorious religious troublemaker. After Smout’s death, the lute book was bought by Constantijn L’Empereur; from his estate, it passed into the possession of his cousin Johannes Thysius in 1648.
The fact that Thysius acquired this large collection of lute music prompted a study of his musical preferences. What was his actual relationship to music? Was he a passive listener or an active player? If the latter, which instrument or instruments did he play and what was his repertoire? This study was made possible by the rich personal archive Thysius left behind, including his correspondence with various persons and cashbooks in which he recorded purchases and the prices paid. This archive, housed at the Leiden University Library, was recently made accessible for scholarly research through a new inventory.
Correspondence with family members
The earliest information about Thysius and music comes from short letters he wrote as a schoolboy at the Latin school, addressed to various family members. He copied these into the older of two books containing letter drafts. Often sent as New Year’s greetings, these letters gave an account of his progress in his studies.
The first letter, to his father and stepmother, is undated. Since his father died in 1634, it must have been written in or before that year. Johannes begins his account of studies with musical activities: ‘I continue with my harpsichord and have every day hours to play; and if it pleases my father, I will also learn music, in order to have a better understanding of the theory of playing.’ He was diligently playing the harpsichord but seems less inclined to study music theory. He then reports on sewing and mending his own clothes, writing, arithmetic, and rehearsing the catechism and psalms.
On 1 January 1637, young Thysius sent New Year’s wishes to his ‘cousin and niece van Swol’ and to his uncle Petrus Boelius (Pieter Boel). To his cousins, he mentions that he ‘practices daily on his instruments’. The Latin letter to his uncle provides more detail: ‘I practise in the privacy of my home in singing and playing the stringed instruments and also the recorder and the harpsichord, especially when I am tired of my studies; sometimes I go out to take a walk in the countryside.’ In another New Year’s letter to his cousin and niece, probably from 1638 or 1639, Thysius again comments on his musical studies: ‘Further, concerning my music, I practise playing daily.’ In a letter from New Year’s Day 1640, a similar remark about daily practice appears, though with a hint that he had temporarily suspended his music study, possibly because his academic schooling began in the autumn of 1639. He adds that he hopes his family will visit once the weather improves so that he can let them hear his progress. In the New Year’s letters of the following years, music is no longer mentioned; it seems his music lessons had stopped. Other studies took their place. In his letter of 1 January 1643 to his cousin and mother, he reports that his ‘daily practice’ consists of fencing, dancing, and riding, and that he has also begun learning French.
Thysius thus received the education typical for a young man from the upper circles. A considerable amount of money was invested in his musical tuition, and he learned to sing and play several instruments. His half-sister Levina also had harpsichord lessons. Johannes Thysius was being prepared to lead the social life of the privileged class.
Correspondence with Job Ludolf
Music rarely appears as a topic in Thysius’s later surviving letters. In a letter to his cousins L’Empereur, written from Paris on 30 April 1647, he mentions attending a performance of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice at the ‘Comedie du Roy’, performed by Italian musicians playing in four and five parts. More frequent musical references appear, however, in the letters addressed to Thysius, especially those from his friend Job Ludolf.
Ludolf (1624–1704) was descended from one of the leading families of Erfurt, a German town. Later in life, he became a prominent scholar of eastern languages. He moved to Leiden for linguistic and philological training, studying Hebrew under Thysius’s uncle and guardian Constantijn L’Empereur. He lived in his professor’s house together with Thysius, and the two became close friends. Ludolf left Leiden in September 1648. After a stop in Utrecht, where he visited Anna Maria van Schurman, he travelled to France, Italy, and Sweden while serving the Swedish ambassador in Paris. Thysius and Ludolf never met again but continued to correspond. Ludolf’s letters vary in content: he writes about political news, travel plans, incidents during his journeys, and frequently about musical matters. Music was clearly a subject of shared interest.
Ludolf’s passion for music is documented in a biography published in 1710 by Christian Juncker, based on Ludolf’s autobiography. According to this source, during an illness in 1640 he began learning the cittern, lute, viol, shawm, and trumpet. He remained an active musician for the rest of his life. His musical fervour is evident from the first letter he wrote to Thysius from Paris on 8 January 1649. He had paid a visit to the queen-regent and had been busy with politics. ‘For our recreation we have music. We play in ensemble with two, three and four lutes. Monsieur Hotman [a celebrated viol player] has played with me pieces for viola da gamba. Others at our court [the Swedish ambassador’s] play tromba marina, guitar and various other instruments.’
Ludolf’s letters from Stockholm, where he stayed in 1650, contain numerous musical references. On 18 March he sent Thysius a set of lute strings (the cover letter will be discussed later), and he frequently mentions ballets, balls, ‘noces’, and concerts he had attended. He specifies the dances that were played: ‘simple and diminished courantes’ and bransles. During the coronation festivities of the Swedish Queen Christina, there were ‘branles et courantes à la Française’ alternating with German dances, ‘to content also those who had not at all learnt the French dances’. In another letter, he mentions two Italian singers ‘with an exquisite voice’ who were rumoured to be castratos.
Later, after Ludolf had moved to his native Germany, he provides an accurate description of two remarkable instruments he saw in Nuremberg: a ‘Geigenwerck’ (a type of harpsichord whose sound is produced by rotating discs that function like bows, producing a sound similar to a bowed string ensemble) and a baryton (a viol with metal bass strings behind its neck that are plucked by the left-hand thumb). From Ludolf’s letters, it seems he and Thysius shared a keen passion for the viola da gamba. On 17 August 1650, Ludolf writes that he had resumed studying the viol because there were several fine players in Stockholm who were in the service of noble gentlemen. On 24 September he gives a lengthier report: he plays together with two others in a viol consort (a ‘concert de violes d’Angleterre’). His companions are of outstanding quality; one studied with ‘le sieur Stevijn’, a musician in the service of the Elector of Brandenburg. This man brought good music with him, including two-part pieces by John Jenkins; Ludolf promises to send Thysius some of these at the earliest opportunity. Ludolf refers to music manuscripts; as was common in the mid-seventeenth century, Jenkins’s pieces circulated that way in England, and clearly they were also valued on the continent. This appreciation of English viol music is also evident from a letter Ludolf sent from Erfurt on 20 February 1652, in which he draws Thysius’s attention to a newly acquired piece and asks for music by other English composers in return.
Job Ludolf, a friend of Thysius, remarked that his half-brother’s stay in England would allow the acquisition of “some more beautiful pieces for viol by Monsieur Bing.” Ludolf added, “I have collected a good number [of pieces by Bing], and employ them, just like you, during my houres of musical recreation.” This comment confirms that Thysius remained an active viola da gamba player throughout his life.
The cashbooks kept by Thysius provide further evidence of his musical education as a youth and his continued involvement as an adult. In these ledgers, he meticulously recorded the acquisition of musical instruments, noting the date, price, provenance, maker’s name, and often the year of construction. The list includes four violins, four pochettes (small violins used for dance accompaniment), five viols, a harpsichord, and a lute.
Thysius’s earliest musical instruction can be traced through the instruments he bought as a schoolboy. His first instrument, purchased in 1630, was a treble viola da gamba, the smallest of the violin family. A violin, explicitly described as a small instrument, was acquired in 1632, followed by a pochette in 1633. By 1634, Thysius began studying the harpsichord. In the early 1640s, new acquisitions resumed: between 1642 and 1645, he bought three violins, a larger tenor viola da gamba in 1643, and another pochette in 1646.
These years, coinciding with his university studies, show that Thysius had developed into a serious amateur musician with a clear preference for the violin. Between 25 October 1646 and 1 May 1648, he undertook his Grand Tour, which took him to Paris twice and eventually to England. During those travels, he bought several instruments: two pochettes in Paris (1646 and 1648), a lute in March 1648, and, during his brief stay in England in April 1648, three viols. After that journey, no further instrument purchases were recorded.
The quality of Thysius’s collection can be inferred from the prices he paid. The cheapest items were simple pochettes, typically costing 6 guilders, though a pochette purchased from Pierre Leduc in Paris cost twice that amount. Violins ranged from 12 to 20 guilders, mostly newly made. The prices of the viols varied greatly. A small treble instrument by Leiden maker Asseling cost 15 guilders, while a larger tenor viol fetched double that sum. The three viols Thysius bought in England in April 1648—crafted by John Rose the elder and his son—cost over 60 guilders each.
These included a small bass made by the elder Rose in 1576, a treble by the same maker, and a larger bass by his son dated 1584. The most costly acquisitions were his harpsichord and lute, each priced at 80 guilders. The harpsichord, built by the renowned Antwerp maker Andreas Ruckers, boasted two keyboards. The lute was an ancient instrument by the Bolognese master Laux Maler, adapted to modern taste and highly prized by connoisseurs across Europe. That Thysius recorded makers and year of construction for many instruments indicates that industry consensus influenced price. Local Leiden instruments generally cost less than imports from Paris or England.
Clearly, Thysius possessed sufficient wealth to assemble an expensive collection. As a schoolboy, he already owned high-quality instruments such as his Antwerp harpsichord. Later, during his Grand Tour, he acquired the costly viols by the Rose family and the Laux Maler lute. His collection also illuminates the trade in musical instruments, both locally and internationally. Most of his bowed instruments came from Andries Asseling in Leiden, who virtually monopolized local production. The pochette bought in Paris and a violin from Krakow, added in the 1630s, likely reached Leiden through a trader or a university student’s return. The Antwerp harpsichord, likely newly commissioned, may have been brought directly to Leiden, since the absence of a production year suggests it was a special order.
Thysius gathered additional foreign instruments during his European Grand Tour, particularly on his journey home in March and April 1648. The Maler lute, over a century old, had already traveled from Italy to France for early modernization. At a London lodging marked as Mr. Joen, Thysius authorized payments to cover purchases of cloth, ribbons, and the three Rose viols, totaling 16½ pounds sterling. Ironically, despite possessing such a luxury lute, Thysius does not seem to have played it himself. In a letter dated 8/18 March 1649, Ludolf sent strings bought earlier in Rome to Thysius, noting his plan now unrealized to travel to Holland to string the instrument “in appreciation of the fact that I have been allowed to play on it, so that you always can present it [the lute] to a friend who is able to play.” Since Thysius apparently could not even string the lute and owned no inexpensive study lutes alongside, he likely acquired the expensive Maler lute as a collector’s piece rather than for personal use.
Now we turn to Thysius’s library. Given that Johannes Thysius played the violin, viola da gamba, harpsichord, and as a youth the recorder, it is surprising that the collection of manuscripts and printed music in his Leiden library—the Bibliotheca Thysiana—today appears almost negligible. Among both printed treatises and manuscripts, the library holds only the famous lute manuscript, plus three small vocal works by Cornelis Thymens Padbrué and Cornelis Helmbreecker, likely purchased only as souvenirs of festive adult occasions.
Nonetheless, Thysius possessed a lively musical taste. The present-day Bibliotheca Thysiana holds treatises on music theory, items combining music with mathematics and medicine. These show some interest in music theory scope humble beside broad theological, legal, historical, philosophical, classical, mathematical, medical, astronomical, botanical and fortificatory holdings.
Nevertheless, handwriting supplies glimpses: friends sent purchased books; those were and like so many others Tysius possibly in later lifetimes purposely with hope of discovery. But his cashbooks exactly note presence more music books than scattered today: From purchase invoices and personal codes precise alphabetical enumeration - probable dozens titles composed from copy Scribe English had transcribed, intended accompanying composers from Low Countries no one second guess.
Purchase proofs we read come further revelation accounts 444 specimen composure sale count early studied brought private friends leading time source become by survival matter rare as those collected musical encores comparable most authoritative keep fresh before others abandoned little discover it before gold turned decay state as only very early music European centers achieved through cautious meticulous upbringing resulting reproduction safely history though regrettably only fading copies held finally wholly scarce per continuity when further turn.
LIST SECOND SECOND exactly ends instrument he specific hand number listed instrument starting period making case instrument from eight paper final turn until but during which you as new display status its own column column append his after production spread fixed.
Thus information gave accurately tracking story quality new original print example counts remains accurate mark setting complete therefore available known.
Continuing with that rationale:
List section C includes acquired along number single cost named work by various special version making around last itself knowing not much period such range choose distribution content various cultural reach left outside understand direct showing trade inside across Europe particular small own indeed shown one next matter.
One piece stood out formed after built new form British bound they very completed seen like practice system after printed places without an English side written titled “Sweelinck edition sold again New entry from written law example foreign included source after Flemish hence forth many held from native work during mid-1600 made.
Thus shows possible large three - his gone showing foreign works price covering unique full with table fine further group cover edition not series full pattern previously carried distribution continues step step process text forms entry: list short date books perhaps came purchase none stated known lost found further hope why further knowledge extent we provide later given circumstance nonetheless preserve nature behind kept full group record as initially.
That full picture conclusion following place for basis for as help understand not why then is final phase becomes ensure that remaining records fully indeed account best information where clear we see natural pattern finish index established forming two distinct more step into interpretation view complete order kept from careful continuous entry point forth need check less prominent: so ending remainder text details supplement formalize for direct composition small left “9,” final table for it still sound quality interest forms something outside part next appendix given confirmed pattern clearly correctly so ends remaining small holding into continuation general idea that content stands full supplement valuable complete set . *
Music
807:64–65 — Cornelis Thymans Padbrué, Synphonia in nuptias I. Everswyn et Luciae Buys (Amsterdam: Broer Jansz., 1641). 2 parts: Cantus and Bassus.
807:66–68 — Synphonia in nuptias Mt. Steyn et Mariae van Napels [met Bruylofs Gesangh] (Amsterdam: Broer Jansz., 1642). 3 parts: Cantus I, II and Bassus.
807:69–71 — Eerekrans voor Constantin Sohier et Cathar. Koymans [met Hollands lied] (Amsterdam: Broer Jansz., 1643). 3 parts: Cantus à 2, Tenor-Bas, and Cantus with Basso continuo.
Wilhelm van Nieuwenhuysen, Oratio de scholastici muneris difficultate (Haarlem: A. Roman, 1628). In the same volume: ‘Welkom-lied’ and ‘Geluckwenschinge’ to W. van Nieuwenhuysen by Cornelis Helmbreecker, organist in Haarlem, set to music in four parts (Haarlem: Adr. Rooman, with the music by D.v. Horenbeeck, 1629).
‘the Thysius Lute Book’, manuscript.
Music theory
1126:1 — Samuel Hafenreffer, Monochordon symbolico-biomanticum: pulsuum doctrinam, ex harmoniis musicis dilucidè, figurisque oculariter demonstrans […] (Ulm: B. Kühn, 1640).
1126:2 — Rodholffus Schlick, Exercitatio qua musices origo prima, cultus antiquissima, dignitas maxima […] exponuntur (Speyer: B. Albinus, 1588).
1126:3 — Sebastianus Pichselius, Carmen de musica (Speyer: B. Albinus, 1588).
1156:1 — Michael Psellus, De arithmetica, musica, geometria & proclus de sphaera, Elia Vineto Santone interprete (Paris: G. Cavellat, 1557).
Ludovicus Folianus, Musica theoria (Venice: Io. Antonius et fratres de Sabio, 1529).
2258:2 — Franchinus Gafurius, De harmonia musicorum instrumentorum opus (Milan: Got. Pontanus, 1518).
A III
Thysius’s music books and manuscripts listed in his cashbook ATH 434. For convenience the items are numbered. In the right column is the price Thysius paid. Additional information, identifying composers or prints, is given in square brackets; unless stated otherwise this is from [the source]. Where necessary, abbreviations are written out in full in round brackets.
Libri musicali from the Snellius auction, 4 December 1643 [p. 117]:
Fiori musicali a 3 voci [collection of madrigals, Venice 1590] — f. 1:7
Rimes Francoises et Italiennes [J.P. Sweelinck, Amsterdam 1619] — f. 1:7
Madrigali de Petro Philippi [three volumes: Antwerp 1596, 1598, 1603] — f. 1:15
Lauro verde [collection of madrigals, Ferrara 1583] — f. 1:11
Madrigali 8 voci [possibly Madrigali a otto voci de diversi eccellenti et famosi autori, Antwerp 1596, repr. 1597] — f. 1:6
J. Baptisto Galeno Madrig. [à 5: i.a. Antwerp 1593; à 6: Venice 1598] — f. 1
Musici from the auction of Constantijn L’Empereur, 26 October 1648 [p. 121]:
Tablateur in fo met 7 li(nen), vol geschreven [= Bibliotheca Thysiana 1666] — f. 1
Testudo Spiritualis door Dan. Lelium [Daniel Laelius], sijnde psalmen op de luijt [Arnhem 1617] — f. 1
Paradis musicus Valetti [Nicolas Vallet], allerlei op luijt [Amsterdam 1618] — f. 1
Canzoni ala Napolitani [there are several publications bearing this title] — f. 1
Volgen de musieck boecken so nu als dan gekocht voor 1649 [p. 127]:
Moteta sacra Aegidii Hennii [Gilles Hayne], 2. 3. 4. B(asso) C(ontinuo) [Antwerp 1640] — f. 2:10
[Jan Baptiste] Verrijt Paduanae, 1. 2. 3. 4. 5 instr. cum B.C. [lost] — f. 2
L. Groeningh [Henricus Liberti van Groeningen, Paduanes, Gailliardes, Courantes] a 5 p(artien). It(em) Symph(oniae) & Mot(eta) a 6 & 8, B.C. [Antwerp 1632, lost] — f. 1:16
[Benedetto] Pallavicino Madrigali a 5 voci [seven volumes, Venice 1581–1604] — f. 1
Luca Marentio Madrig. a 4 voci [Rome 1585] — [price unclear]
Giac. Gastoldi concentus 8 vocibus [Concenti musicali, Venice 1604] — f. 1:12
[Nicolaes a] Kempis [Symphoniae] eerste deel a 1. 2. 3 cum B.C. [Antwerp 1644] — f. 2:10
[Tarquinio] Merula Sonate a 2 & 3 cum B.C. [Venice 1637] — f. 3
Uscellini [Marco Uccellini] Sonate a 2 & 3 cum B.C. [Venice 1642] — f. 3:10
This lost work is not mentioned in modern studies. See R. Rasch, ‘Henricus Liberti, organist van de Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe-Kerk te Antwerpen (1628–1669)’, in Visitatio organorum. Feestbundel voor Maarten Albert Vente, ed. A. Dunning, 2 vols. (Buren 1980), vol. 2, 507–518, at 513–514.
Kussjes van [Jacob] Westerbaen door Cornel(is) Thijmanss. [Padbrué] [Haarlem 1631, augmented edition Amsterdam 1641] — f. 3:10
[’t Uitnemend] Kabinet van verscheijde fraije stucken a 1 & 2 met een B(as) [Amsterdam 1646] — f. 2
2 Livres Equivoques du Sieur de Chami [Francesco Guami, Ricercari a 2, Venice 1588 (?)] — f. 1
Air a 4 parties de Mr. [François] dela Roche [first book, Paris 1648] — [price unclear]
Een klavercingel boeck in fol. van mij — [price unclear]
Noch een in 4o van allerleij Airs, Courantes, Sar(abandes), door mij geschreven — [price unclear]
Noch een paquet van verscheiden geschreven boecken — f. – –
Noch 5 boeckjens in wit parquement, met een custodi van root leer daerom, van selver uut teschrijven, voor de rariteijt, de meesters gegeven — [price unclear]
Noch 3 boecken met letters [in tablature] in fo op de viool de G(ambe) van Lauwes [William Lawes] van 2 en 3 partijen, en van Binck [Stephen Bing] voir uutschrijven — [price unclear]
Van Pauwel Mathijss. de 20 stucken van Hugens met de 9 fantasien van Gibbens [XX Konincklycke Fantasien … door T. Lupo, I. Coprario, W. Daman. En noch IX Fantasien … door Orlando Gibbons …] (Amsterdam [1648]), willen vereren — f. 2:2
This item was later written between the lines. See R. Rasch, ‘The “Konincklycke Fantasien” printed in Amsterdam in 1648. English viol consort music in Anglo-Spanish-Dutch political context’, in A viola da gamba miscellany. Proceedings of the International Viola da Gamba Symposium Utrecht 1991, edd. J. Boer & G. van Oorschot (Utrecht 1994), 55–73. Constantijn Huygens is mentioned in the Preface as the intermediary who had given the music to the publisher.
Van Aslijn de boecken van Mr. Rogier — [price unclear]
Bicinia bij Phalesius gedruckt [three volumes: Antwerp 1590, 1609, 1648] — f. 0:15
Een boeck van diminutien op alle verschillende noten [a manuscript?] — f. 7:7
Coleraturen van Norcum [Daniel Norcombe, diminutions for viol, which circulated in manuscripts] en anderen — f. 4
Almandes, Courantes van Mr. Rogier en andere — f. 2
Airs en andere stuckjens van Mr. Rogier en andere — f. 1
Paduanen, Galli(arden), Couranten a 5 instr. van Zubern [Gregor Zuber, Lübeck 1649] — f. 2:5