In 1613, Willem van Kittensteyn (1560 – 1625) published a collection of newsprints titled Spieghel ofte Af-beeldinge der Nederlandtsche geschiedenissen. The album includes a visual report on times of crisis and uproar: it offers an almost day-to-day report of the Eighty Year’s War until the Twelve-Year Truce (1609). Kittensteyn arranged prints according to the chronology of Emanuel van Meteren’s (1535 – 1612) Historien der Nederlanden (1598). Kittensteyn, however, does not limit himself to issues relating to Dutch events. Also, he was keen to prevent disinformation from being spread. He collected prints to offer an accurate visual account and adjusted and complemented images to provide a complete and truthful visual story of events.

Research

Maretta Joanne Johnson’s research, Curator of Heritage at Atlas Van Stolk in Rotterdam, addresses the Kittensteyn album as an early example of visual reporting. Kittensteyn’s Spieghel suggests a moralistic or didactic function, with the intention to share it publicly, as explicitly stated in the preface. This album is the starting point to investigate how visual culture in print collections, that were compiled with an opinionated aim specifically, contributes to a public understanding of society.

For her research, Johnson examines the motives of collecting, the pursuit to visualize truthfulness, and the efforts that were made by collectors to do so, by collecting and arranging the prints in a specific order as well as by the alterations they made to the prints to distinguish fact from falsehood. Therefore, Johnson will explore Kittensteyn’s Spieghel and similar albums, as well as album collections from subsequent eras.

In the case of Kittensteyn’s Spieghel, the reception and function of the album remain mysterious. Nothing is to be found on the whereabouts of the album from 1613 until the nineteenth century, where the mystery continues. Johnson argues that the album has then been taken apart and reassembled. From the total of 500 folios, 83 are missing. The album contains a register that provides information on the subject matter of the missing folios. Learning about the life-course and tracks of the album can shed light on its function and reception, and hence on the development of visual news reporting and public reception thereof.

Help the search

Do you have any information on the provenance of the Kittensteyn album and the missing folios? Or are you familiar with any other albums known from the period between the sixteenth and twentieth century that are comparable to Kittensteyn’s album in terms of visual and specifically moralistic and opinionated news reporting? Please contact Maretta Joanne Johnson via m.johnson@bibliotheek.rotterdam.nl.