Romeyn de Hooge en Samuel van Hoogstraten-Matthys Balen-Beschryvinge der stad Dordrecht -1677

Mathias or Matthijs Jansz. Balen (born 1 October 1611 in

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

; died 1691) was a Dutch historian.

Biography

He first distinguished himself as a poet, but afterwards applied himself to historical researches, and in 1677 published a description of Dordrecht in two volumes, which is full of valuable matter. He died shortly after its publication. In his book, he lists most of the regents of the various guilds and other organizations in the town, including local painters and poets, among them

Margaretha van Godewijk Margaretha van Godewijk (30 August 1627, Dordrecht – 2 November 1677, Dordrecht), was a Dutch Golden Age poet and painter. Biography According to Houbraken her father was a teacher at the Latin school in Dordrecht who taught her Greek, Latin, ...

, who wrote a poem for his book.Margarita Godewyk Biography
in ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'' (1718) by

Arnold Houbraken Arnold Houbraken (28 March 1660 – 14 October 1719) was a Dutch painter and writer from Dordrecht, now remembered mainly as a biographer of Dutch Golden Age painters. Life Houbraken was sent first to learn ''threadtwisting'' (Twyndraat) fr ...

, courtesy of the

Digital library for Dutch literature The Digital Library for Dutch Literature (Dutch: Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren or DBNL) is a website (showing the abbreviation as dbnl) about Dutch language and Dutch literature. It contains thousands of literary texts, second ...

In his book he also lists important paintings in the city hall and other city structures by painters such as

Anthonie van Montfoort Anthonie Blocklandt van Montfoort, Anthonie van Blocklandt or Anthonie van Montfoort (1533 or 1534 - 18 October 1583) was a Dutch painter. Life He was born in Montfoort, where his father was at one time mayor. He went to learn under Hendrick Swe ...

Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp Jacob Gerritszoon Cuyp (or Jacob Gerritsz. Cuijp; 1594 – 1652) was a portrait and landscape painter, best known for his portraits. He was born and died in Dordrecht, the son of the stained glass designer Gerrit Gerritsz Cuyp, who moved t ...

, and others He was probably the father or grandfather of

Matthijs Balen Matthijs Balen (1684 in Dordrecht – 1766 in Dordrecht) was an 18th-century painter from the Northern Netherlands. According to the RKD he was a registered pupil of Arnold Houbraken, and like him, became a printmaker as well as a painter. He live ...

, who became a registered pupil of Arnold Houbraken.

References

Beschryvinge der stad Dordrecht
in

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

1611 births 1691 deaths 17th-century Dutch historians People from Dordrecht {{Netherlands-historian-stub