1897
George Rosenthal and the Spinoza House Society

IN HIS MID-EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY biography of the philosopher Benedictus de Spinoza (1632-1677), the Amsterdam surgeon Johannes Monnikhoff (1707-1787) noted the exact location of the house in which his subject lived in Rijnsburg from c. 1661 to 1663. He included this biographical sketch in the copy he made of Spinoza's Short Treatise on God, Man and his Well-Being, of which just one copy had been made.
Monnikhoff's copy of the Short Treatise and his biography were rediscovered at the end of the nineteenth century. According to Monnikhoff's narrative there was a plaque in the façade of Spinoza's house with the last couplet of Dirck Camphuysen's 'Maysche Morgenstondt' (May Morning): 'Alas! If all men were wise, and benign as well / then the Earth would be Paradise, whereas now it is often a Hell!'

On 16 December 1896 the house was auctioned at the 'Landbouw' coffeehouse in Rijnsburg. Willem Meijer had heard about the sale a few days before and decided to try and acquire the property to preserve it from deterioration and possible demolition. There was not enough time to set up a foundation so B.J. Kruijswijk, a businessman from The Hague, offered to put up the money. Once the foundation had been established, he would transfer the ownership. It was Prof. Dr. B.J. Stokvis who established the Society. Known as the 'Vereeniging Het Spinozahuis', it was founded on 28 April 1897 with the object of preserving Spinoza's house in Rijnsburg in its original state, to maintain it and to turn it into a Spinoza House in which various objects associated with the philosopher's life and work could be collected.
Stokvis managed to persuade George Rosenthal to provide the necessary basis to enable the Society to take over the house and part of the grounds from Kruijswijk and to donate it to the Society.
The first act of the Society's first meeting held on 12 June 1897 was to appoint George Rosenthal honorary chairman in appreciation of his unique gesture. Spinoza's house was restored to the condition it had been in at the start of the nineteenth century. Restoration costs were borne in the main by Rosenthal. Two rooms were turned into a museum in seventeenth-century Style together with Spinoza's library. On 24 March 1899 Spinoza House was ceremoniously opened. The first to write his name in the guest register was George Rosenthal. After Spinoza's death on 21 February 1677 the notary W. van den Hove drew up an inventory of his effects. The final section of the inventory was Spinoza's library. Using this list it was possible to reassemble the philosopher's book collection. Great care was taken to acquire the same editions and formats mentioned in the inventory.

In 1914 Prof. Dr. Jan te Winkel compiled a catalogue of the Spinoza House library. According to Van den Hove's list the library had contained 159 titles. George Rosenthal managed in his lifetime to donate 110 of these. He also contributed 35 books about Spinoza's life and philosophy as well as various writings. After his death his widow donated several books, as well as paying the printing costs of the catalogue.
In the annual report of 1899 - 1900, librarian Jan te Winkel noted some of the works donated by Rosenthal: 'including works from the sixteenth century such as a Pesach Haggadah, printed in 1505 in Constantinople; a Basel edition of Seneca's tragedies (1541); the complete works of Machiavelli in five volumes (1550); Los Dialogos de amor by Leon Abarbanel (1568); the Syriac translation of the New Testament printed in Hebrew letters by Immanuel Tremellius (1569) and, last but not least, a Spanish translation of Calvin's Institution, printed in 1597 but now, as a result of the Spanish Inquisition's zeal, a rare, indeed an extremely scarce edition'.
Willem Meijer, secretary of the Society, wrote in the annual report of 1909-1910 that without Rosenthal 'we would never have been able to assemble our library in such a short period [... ] we owe it to him that we need have no qualms in inviting the entire intellectual world to Rijnsburg inasmuch as they wish to study Spinoza in any depth'.
At Spinoza House today the first object one notices is the board bearing the names of the Societatis Domus Spinozanæ Socii Perpetui, headed by the name of G. Rosenthal Præses Honorarius. And on the table is the same guest register - now a museum piece itself in which thousands of visitors from all over the world, including Albert Einstein, have signed their names.

THEO VAN DER WERF

Catalogus van de boekerij der Vereeniging 'Het Spinoza Huis'. Comp. by Jan te Winkel (The Hague 1914).
Catalogus van de bibliotheek der Vereniging Het Spinozahuis te Rijnsburg. Comp. by J.M. Aler (Leiden 1965) spec. 'Ter inIeiding' p. 5 - 9; 'Introduction' p.11-15.
A. K. Offenberg, 'Spinoza's library. The Story of a Reconstruction', Quarendo. A Quarterly journal from the Low Countries Devoted to Manuscripts and Printed Books 3 (1973) p. 309 -321.