Abraham Jacob van der Aa (7 December 1792,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

– 21 March 1857,

Gorinchem Gorinchem ( or ), also spelled Gorkum, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. It had a population of in . The municipality of Gorinchem al ...

) was a Dutch writer best known for his dictionaries, one of notable people and the other of notable places 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 ...

. He was born in Amsterdam in 1792. His father was a lawyer. From the ages of 6 to 12, he visited the dayschool in Amstelveen. After that, he was sent to the boarding school of J.E. van Iterson in Aarlanderveen but only stayed there for a year. After a short stay at the Latin school in Leiden, where his parents lived at that time, he was sent to the Seminarium in

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, Germany to study the "dead languages". After his return in 1810, he went to medical school in

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

, but had to leave after his father's death. He later did his mandatory military service until 1817. At that point he tried to open a bookshop in Leuven but this wasn't a success so he became a teacher in the Dutch language. After 1839 he moved to Gorinchem, where he wrote several reference works, including a

gazetteer A gazetteer is a geographical index or directory used in conjunction with a map or atlas.Aurousseau, 61. It typically contains information concerning the geographical makeup, social statistics and physical features of a country, region, or con ...

and a

biographical dictionary A biographical dictionary is a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country (with limitations, such as living persons only, in ''Who's Who'', or deceased people onl ...

, ''Biographisch woordenboek der Nederlanden''.Biographisch Woordenboek (Van der Aa)
– online version hosted by

Inghist The Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands was formed on January 1, 2011 through a merger of the Institute of Dutch History ( nl, 'Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis', ING) a research institute of the Netherlands Organisation ...

The ''Aardrijkskundig Woordenboek der Nederlanden'' (''Geographical dictionary of the Netherlands'') was a 14-volume gazetteer, published between 1839 and 1851. It was written with the help of many regional historians and other geographers. It covers the

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, and the former Dutch colonies. Until his death in 1857 from undisclosed causes at age 64 he continued working on his "biographic dictionary".

Works

* ''Aardrijkskundig Woordenboek van Noord-Brabant'' (Breda, 1832); * ''Herinneringen uit het gebied der geschiedenis'' (Amsterdam 1835); * ''Nieuwe herinneringen'' (Amsterdam 1837); * ''Geschied- en aardrijkskundige beschrijving van het koninkrijk der Nederlanden en het groothertogdom Luxemburg'' (Gorinchem 1841); * ''Nieuw biographisch, anthologisch en critisch woordenboek van Nederlandsche dichters'' (Amsterdam 1844-1846); * ''Geschiedkundig beschrijving van Breda'' (Gorinchem 1845); * ''Nederlandsch Oost-Indië'' (Amsterdam en Breda 1846-'57), 4 delen; * ''Beschrijving van den Krimpener en den Loopikerwaard'', Schoonh. 1847; * ''Nederland, handboekje voor reizigers'', Amsterdam 1849; * ''Lotgevallen van Willem Heenvliet'', Amsterdam 1851; * ''Biographisch Woordenboek. der Nederlanden'', Haarlem 1852-'78; * ''Beknopt Aardrijkskundig Woordenboek der Nederlanden'', Gorinchem 1851-'54; * ''Bloemlezing uit an Effen'sSpectator'', in Klassiek en Letterkundig Pantheon 1855, 2 delen; * ''Parelen uit de lettervruchten van Nederl. dichteressen'', Amsterdam 1856; * ''Ons Vaderland en zijne bewoners'', Amsterdam 1855-'57.

References

External links

List of online volumes of the ''Geographical Dictionary of the Netherlands 1839-1851''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aa, Abraham Jacob van der 1792 births 1857 deaths 19th-century Dutch writers 19th-century Dutch male writers Dutch lexicographers Dutch literary historians Writers from Amsterdam 19th-century lexicographers