The First Dutch Academy (

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

: ) was an institution set up by

Samuel Coster Samuel Coster (1 September 1579, Amsterdam – 1665) was a Dutch playwright. Coster was the fifth child of Adriaen Lennaertz, sexton and carpenter, and Aeltgen Jansd. By around 1605, he was a member of the Amsterdam rederijkerskamer "De Eglan ...

(with the important support of Bredero and Hooft) in Amsterdam. The institution was set up to offer better theatre than the old rederijkerskamers could then manage. Another (perhaps more important) aim was to offer higher education to common people. The academy was inaugurated on 23 September 1617 with '

Apollo Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...

' by Suffridus Sixtinus, and the tragedy "" (the murder of William of Orange) by

Gijsbert van Hoghendorp Gijsbert is a Dutch masculine given name, which is a variant of the names Gisbert and Gilbert, and means "bright pledge".''Behind the Name''"Given Name Gilbert" Retrieved on 24 January 2016. The name may refer to: * Gijsbert Bos (born 1973), Dutc ...

. This all occurred in a wooden building. The coat-of-arms of the academy consisted of a

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under an eglantine with the word "IJver" ("zeal") as a motto.

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

ic preachers of that time put pressure on the new institution to close. The theatre did not give in, particularly since its first two professors were

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radi ...

s (

Sibrant Hanses Cardinael In six-dimensional geometry, a cantellated 5-cube is a convex uniform 5-polytope, being a cantellation of the regular 5-cube. There are 6 unique cantellation for the 5-cube, including truncations. Half of them are more easily constructed from th ...

in Arithmetic and

Jan Thonis Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Num ...

in Hebrew). In 1631,

Vondel Joost van den Vondel (; 17 November 1587 – 5 February 1679) was a Dutch poet, writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still most ...

wrote his "{{lang, nl, Vraghe van d'Amsterdamsche Academi aan alle poëten en dichters" (Questions of the Amsterdam Academics to all poets), provoking further vehement Calvinist reactions. Finally the 'Oeffenschool', that was meant to go with the academy, was founded. The Athenaeum Illustre was later set up in the city, but here no teaching was presented in the native language. The main figures of the academy wrote comedy and farce: *Coster: Teeuwis de boer en Tysken vanden Schilde *Bredero: Lucelle, De Koe, Symen, De Meulenaer, Het Moortje, Spaansche Brabander *Hooft: Warenar

External links

Toneelagenda Amsterdam 1617-1665
Theatre in the Netherlands 17th century in Amsterdam Culture in Amsterdam 1617 establishments in the Dutch Republic Educational institutions established in the 1610s