Tijdschrift voor Historische Geografie - Volume 5, Issue 4, 2020

Despite vast research on early modern atlases and their maps, little is known about texts in atlases. This study focusses on these texts in verso about the Netherlands in six early modern Dutch world atlases (1571- 1664). Through their comprehensive descriptions and characterization of the Netherlands, these texts confirm and shape an image of the Netherlands and especially of the Dutch Republic. The study found that the atlases used the same sources and copy or paraphrase each other. This causes a delay in information, but also establishes a vast and repeated image of the Dutch Republic, with emphasis on the continuation of the Seventeen Netherlands into the Republic, the freedom and independence of the Provinces, and the trade and prosperity of the young Republic.

Very little systematic research has been done in the early history of fishing villages on the Dutch coast. In 2001, the English historical-geographer Harold Fox designed a model for the origin of the fishing villages on the coast of Devon. In this model, he describes an original situation in which farmers in inland villages were also part-time fisherman and owned a boat and a boatshed on the beach. Population growth led to labour division and to the emergence of specialised fishing villages. The two most probable periods in which this development took place were the 12th to early 14th centuries and the 16th century.

The available data for the coast of the county of Holland point to the first of those periods. Place-names relate the fishing villages to the inland agrarian villages: Egmond aan Zee (‘Egmond at Sea’) exists beside Egmond-Binnen, Wijk aan Zee beside Beverwijk and Katwijk aan Zee beside Katwijk aan de Rijn etc. It is improbable that these fishing villages existed before the 12th century, but during the middle of the 14th century most seem well-established, so a foundation around the 13th century seems probable. Two fishing villages, Berkheide and Ter Heijde, that were founded late in the 14th century, remained small and Berkheide even disappeared.

Although many of the medieval fishing villages have (partly) disappeared by coastal erosion, the village plans show remarkable similarities, with a main road from the beach to the inland markets and some parallel roads that join each other on the east side of the village. Only during the 19th century, these villages developed some agriculture (potato gardens in the dunes) and a new economic basis in tourism.

The originally 12th century dike (33 kilometres) was maintained by the owners of the land behind the dike. This system is called in Dutch verhoefslaging. The dike was divided in approximately 630 parts which differ in length. The parts were marked by stone poles with numbers (and letters). Around 1985 most poles were removed. Nowadays some of them are located in the inner city of Wijk bij Duurstede. They date from 1748 or 1768. The dike will be reinforced in 2023. A good moment to relocate the existing poles to the dike.

In 1855, the province of North Holland started exploiting the coastal dunes of the island of Texel. The dunes were divided into 19 large plots, each of which was leased for several years. This map from around 1840 served as an official document till 1886 and was regularly updated. It shows the plots and lists of tenants and rents for each lease period. Also interventions such as the construction of ditches and dikes were drawn. The map uniquely shows the Mient (‘commons’), a low and moist dune landscape which was botanically very rich, but which was almost completely drained and forested around 1900. The present dune area of Texel still bears the traces of the lease and the interventions from the 19th century.