Abraham van Goorle or, Latinized, Abraham Gorlaeus (ca. 1549 – 1608) was a Dutch

antiquary An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...

of Flemish origin. Gorlaeus was born in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

as the son of Jacob Godevaertsz van Ghoorle and Willemken Heijmolen, but fled as a teenager with his brother David to the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, also known as the (Seven) United Provinces, officially as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands (Dutch: ''Republiek der Zeven Verenigde Nederlanden''), and commonly referred to in historiography ...

. He lived in

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

and already in 1570 held an influential position under the employment of

stadtholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...

Adolf van Nieuwenaar Adolf van Nieuwenaar, Count of Limburg and Moers (also: Adolf von Neuenahr) (c. 1545 – 18 October 1589) was a statesman and soldier, who was stadtholder of Overijssel, Guelders and Utrecht for the States-General of the Netherlands during ...

. He married Susanna Patersson, with whom he had three children in the 1580s. In 1595 he moved to

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

where he remained until his death on 11 October 1608 and where he was buried in the Oude Kerk. The philosopher and theologian David van Goorle Jr. was the son of his brother David.

Importance

Gorlaeus published ''Dactyliotheca'', the catalog of

engraved gem An engraved gem, frequently referred to as an intaglio, is a small and usually semi-precious gemstone that has been carved, in the Western tradition normally with images or inscriptions only on one face. The engraving of gemstones was a major lu ...

s in his cabinet of curiosities. It was the first extensive repertory of Greco-Roman intaglio gems. Such gems had been avidly collected for the previous century, at first in Italy. In 1609, the cabinet was purchased on behalf of Henry, Prince of Wales, an isolated early example of English interest in engraved gems. Gorlaeus' ''Dactyliotheca'' remained useful for the rest of the century; it was republished by

Jakob Gronovius Jacobus Gronovius a.k.a. Jacob Gronow (10 October 1645 – 21 October 1716) was a Dutch classical scholar. He was born in Deventer, the son of the German classical scholar Johann Friedrich Gronovius and Aleyda ten Nuyl, and father of the bo ...

in 1695, as part of his ''Thesaurus Graecarum antiquitatum''. In his cabinet of curiosities, Gorlaeus had a collection of rare

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses ** Thin-shell structure Science Biology * Seashell, a hard ou ...

s, which was of sufficient interest to be purchased by the States-General of the Dutch Republic as a present for

Marie de' Medici Marie de' Medici (french: link=no, Marie de Médicis, it, link=no, Maria de' Medici; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France and Navarre as the second wife of King Henry IV of France of the House of Bourbon, and Regent of the Kingdom ...

, for 9000 guilders.J.J. Dodt van Flensburg, "Resolutien der Generalen Staten uit de XVII eeuw", in ''Archief voor kerkelijke en wereldsche geschiedenissen...'' (Utrecht, 1839-48), vol. v, p. 8, noted in J. G. van Gelder, "Notes on the Royal Collection - IV: The 'Dutch Gift' of 1610 to Henry, Prince of 'Whalis'..." ''The Burlington Magazine'' 105 No. 729 (December 1963: 541-545) p. 542 note 7.

Works

''Dactyliotheca seu annulorum sigillarium quorum apud Priscos tam Graecos quam Romanos usus…''
1601
''Thesaurus numismatum Romanorum. Sive numi aurei, argentei, aerei ad familias Romanas spectantes usque ad obitum Augusti''
1607

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gorlaeus, Abraham 1540s births 1608 deaths 16th-century antiquarians 17th-century antiquarians Dutch antiquarians Dutch art collectors Gemologists Numismatics Writers from Antwerp Burials at the Oude Kerk, Delft Natural history collectors Emigrants from the Holy Roman Empire to the Dutch Republic