ABSTRACT
In his Calalogus ofNaamlyst van Schilderijen (1752),' Gerard Hoet laid out the scheme which Frits Lugt was able to complete nearly two hundred years later in his four-volume work, the Répertoire des catalogues de ventes? The painter and art collector began to collect early auction catalogues, and to republish them for the benefit of the interested public — the collectors, connoisseurs, amateurs and dealers — with annotations for the sales in Amsterdam and The Hague which included the price which each picture brought. Hoet's 'catalogue of catalogues' originated that branch of historical and archival study which researches the history of collecting and provenance. Apart from the 224 auction catalogues republished by Hoet, two of these recorded sales took place not in Amsterdam or The Hague, but in Frankfurt am Main and in Bonn.
