The Smetius Collection was a 17th-century collection of

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lett ...

provincial antiquities around the Dutch city of

Nijmegen Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...

. Put together by

Johannes Smetius Johannes Smith of Kettenis (10 October 1590 - 30 May 1651), known as Johannes Smetius, was a Dutch minister, collector and archaeologist, particularly known for his collection of Roman antiquities and his studies of the Roman past in the city o ...

(1591–1651) and his son Johannes Smetius Junior (1636–1704), both clergy at Nijmegen, the collection was instrumental in settling the debate about the exact location of the

Batavians The Batavi were an ancient Germanic tribe that lived around the modern Dutch Rhine delta in the area that the Romans called Batavia, from the second half of the first century BC to the third century AD. The name is also applied to several mili ...

History of the collection

Johannes Smetius Senior moved to Nijmegen in 1617 where his parents lived and worked as a preacher. Interested in history, he began collecting Roman antiquities which were frequently discovered in and around the city. In 1644 he published ''Oppidum Batavorum seu Noviomagum'', in which he used his collection to argue that

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

' description of the Batavian fortress was Nijmegen. In 1678 Johannes Smetius Junior published a catalogue of the collection under the title ''Antiquitates Neomagenses''. This book is currently on sale, recently translated to Dutch, under the title ''Nijmeegse Oudheden'' (Antiquities from Nijmegen). The two publications made the collection famous and its major importance in the scholarly debate about

activities in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

was recognized. The books also shed some light on the size of the collection, which encompassed over 10,000 Roman coins and about 4,500 other Roman antiquities. Eventually the collection was sold to

Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine Johann Wilhelm II, Elector Palatine (''"Jan Wellem"'' in Low German, English: ''"John William"''; 19 April 1658 – 8 June 1716) of the Wittelsbach dynasty was Elector Palatine (1690–1716), Duke of Neuburg (1690–1716), Duke of Jülich an ...

and moved to Düsseldorf. Only the few pieces that were donated to the city of Nijmegen are left of the collection, as the sold majority dispersed over time and its contents are now untraceable.

References and further reading

* Halbertsma, R. B. (2003), ''Scholars, Travellers, and Trade: The Pioneer Years of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, 1818-1840'', Routledge, p. 10-11 * Nellissen, L. (translator), ''Nijmeegse Oudheden'', Stichting Stilus, .
Website of the Radboud University Nijmegen about Johannes Smetius Senior
{dead link, date=January 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes History of Nijmegen Collections

History of the collection

See also

References and further reading