Introduction

On 25 October 1779, Isaac Ouwater, a Dutch painter best known for his townscapes painted the peculiar picture that adorns the cover of this book. The painting depicts a street scene featuring a group of people jostling each other to enter a building. On closer inspection, the inscription reveals that the building in question was the Amsterdam office of the state lottery, run by bookseller Jan de Groot, and that it must have been lottery day. ¹ Tucked away between two inns, the ‘ninth house from the Dam’ at Kalverstraat nr. 10 was only a stone’s throw away from Dam Square, the centre of Amsterdam, and from numerous fellow publishers, booksellers, art shops, and print publishers. ² In 1742, someone taking a stroll from Dam Square, via the Kalverstraat, to the Munt and back along the Rokin, would have passed as many as forty-four bookshops and mapsellers, not even counting the smaller shops in the alleys. ³ Many of these, including De Groot’s shop, had been occupied by booksellers, publishers, and engravers for well over a century. ⁴