Postma tells the stories behind the books. I grew up in a village near Franeker, and in my youth I visited it often. Later the history of the Franeker University - closed by Napoleon in 1811 - became more and more interesting to me. All Dutch universities tell about their history. Franeker University can no longer do that itself, so I took it upon myself to do so!
Old Testamentist
Moreover, Franeker had very good professors of Hebrew. As an Old Testament scholar, I studied and taught Hebrew. In this exhibition we show many books that were already used for teaching Hebrew in the 16th and 17th centuries.'
Hebrew fonts in 16th century Franeker
'In Franeker, people could already print with Hebrew fonts in the 16th century - that was very special. The collection also had the first book that professor of Hebrew Drusius had printed in Franeker. In it there are already a few pieces of Hebrew font. It is a philological commentary on the book of Ruth. He explains Hebrew words and expressions that are difficult to translate. Drusius attracted disciples from all over Europe. Two of his pupils, Baudartius and Bogerman, collaborated on the Staten Translation as far as the Old Testament was concerned.'
A treat
'Also very special is the book of psalms by hebraicist and theologian Coccejus. It contains the 150 psalms in Hebrew, for which he himself made the translation. Hebrew is read from right to left, so his Latin translation is on the left page. He made this booklet at the request of his most beloved Hungarian students. It is pocket-sized, a real treat and very rare. I knew it mostly from Hungarian libraries and searched for it for years.'
Fascination with Hungarian prints
'My mother was Hungarian, but it was only when we went to Hungary for the first time in 1984 that I discovered that many Hungarian students studied in Franeker - up to 1811 a total of about 1200. The Hungarians who studied in Franeker have become a focus of my research since 1986. I also still have a chair on this topic in Hungary.'
Lectures and disquisitions
'A second red line in the exhibition is the disputations that Hungarian students had printed in Franeker. In those days education consisted of lectures and debating societies. For the latter, students had to write a disputation and defend it under the direction of the professor. They were printed in a small edition (80-100) and circulated only within the university. All teaching was in Latin, so the Hungarians wrote them in Latin as well. These booklets give a nice insight into university and law.'
