Teylers Tweede Genootschap (English: Teylers Second Society), also known as the ''Wetenschappelijk Genootschap'' (Scientific Society) is one of the two societies founded within the

Teylers Stichting The Teylers Stichting (English: Teylers Foundation) is a Dutch foundation founded with the heritage of the Dutch 18th century cloth merchant and banker Pieter Teyler van der Hulst to support the people in need and encourage worship, science and art ...

with the purpose to promote and award prizes for research. They were the result of the testament of the Dutch 18th-century merchant

Pieter Teyler van der Hulst Pieter Teyler van der Hulst (25 March 1702 – 8 April 1778) was a wealthy Dutch Mennonite merchant and banker, who died childless, leaving a legacy of two million florins (in today's terms: about EUR 80 million) to the pursuit of religion, art ...

. The Second Society is focused on art and science, while the First Society is focused on theology.

History

Both societies were founded in 1778, and the specific areas of interest to the Second society are Physics, Biology, Literature, History, the study of Art, and Numismatics. The society has six members, and the first members appointed in 1778 by Teyler himself were: * Gerrit Willem van Oosten de Bruijn *

Cornelis Elout Cornelis Elout (Haarlem, 11 March 1714 - Haarlem, 3 November 1779)Van der Aa et al.Biographisch Woordenboek der Nederlanden Deel Vp.96 (Dutch) was a Haarlem regent, collector, one of the first members of ''Teylers Tweede Genootschap'' (Teylers Secon ...

Jan Bosch Jan Bosch (born 1967) is a Dutch computer scientist, Professor of Software Engineering at the University of Groningen and at Chalmers University of Technology, and IT consultant, particularly known for his work on software architecture. Bass, Len. ...

* Johannes Enschedé * Jean le Clé * Bernardus Vriends The first task of the new society was to commission a prize medal and set up a prize contest. Like the first society, they ordered a medal from Johann Georg Holtzhey and the allegory on the front of the medal shows an all-seeing eye in a halo, with a symbolic representation of the five arts (from left to right: history (folio), poetry (lyre), physics (globe and compass), drawing (brush and palette) and numismatics (coin and medal tableau). The text around the edge means ''All sciences that relate to human civilization, have a certain common bond''. The reverse side of the medal leaves room for the date and the winner's name. The idea was to discuss theory and present a question each year for the prize medal to be awarded. During the first ten years, only four prize medals were awarded, though five papers were published (in 1802 Jan Nieuwenhuis did not win a medal, but his paper appeared in the "Verhandelingen"). Sometimes just a gold medal was awarded, and sometimes both gold and silver medals were awarded, but often there were no contestants at all. The first gold medal winner was

Martinus van Marum Martin(us) van Marum (20 March 1750, Delft – 26 December 1837, Haarlem) was a Dutch physician, inventor, scientist and teacher, who studied medicine and philosophy in Groningen. Van Marum introduced modern chemistry in the Netherlands after ...

, who won the first prize in 1778 with his paper "Phlogisteerde en niet-phlogisteerde lucht" challenging phlogiston theory. He replaced Elout the next year and became conservator of the physics cabinet. Bosch was replaced by

Jean Gijsbert Decker Jean may refer to: People * Jean (female given name) * Jean (male given name) * Jean (surname) Fictional characters * Jean Grey, a Marvel Comics character * Jean Valjean, fictional character in novel ''Les Misérables'' and its adaptations * Jean ...

in 1780, and Enschedé was replaced by

Willem Anne Lestevenon Willem Anne Lestevenon van Berkenrode (born in Paris on October 14, 1750 and died at La Ferté-Gaucher on October 4, 1830) was a Dutch politician and art collector. Biography Willem Anne Lestevenon was born in Paris, where his father, Mattheus ...

in the same year. The society still promotes research with prize medals.Current society members and contests
on the Teylers Museum website

References

* ''Teyler 1778-1978:studies en bijdragen over Teylers Stichting naar aanleiding van het tweede eeuwfeest'', by J. H. van Borssum Buisman, H. Enno van Gelder, Pieter Teyler van der Hulst, Schuyt, 1978,

External sources

Museum website on Teylers Second Society

Museum website on the 18th century practice of essay competitions
{{authority control Teylers Stichting Teylers Museum History of Haarlem Dutch artist groups and collectives Learned societies of the Netherlands

History

See also

References

External sources