Aeneas van Virgilius, in Nederduitsche verzen, door N.C. Brinkman, Wed. C. van Streek.

Amsterdam, Ter Boekdrukkerij van P.E. Briët, 1815. 4to. Frontispiece, (VII),(1 blank); 688 p. Half calf 24.5 cm (Ref: Geerebaert 143,35; Not in OiN) (Details: Back ruled gilt. Engraved title, designed and executed by L. Portman, depicted is the Muse Terpsichore, who holds in her left arm a 'cithara', in her right hand she holds a laurel wreath, with which she crowns a bust of Vergil that stands on a pedestal. The translation is preceded by a 5 page verse dedication to William I, the new king of Holland. After each of the 12 books of the Aeneid follow a few pages with 'Aanteekeningen' (notes)) (Condition: Binding very scuffed. Back rubbed and chafed. Head of the spine damaged. Paper on the boards gone. Front endpapers and title slightly soiled. Tip of both corners of the title torn off. Lacking, as more copies, the 8 page list of subscribers to this edition, which was separately supplied by the publisher) (Note: This verse translation into iambic hexameters and heptameters was made by the Dutch author, editor of several newspapers and translator Anna (Naatje) Catharina Brinkman, widow of C. Streek, 1760-1828. Not much is known about her school career, but she was well versed in French, German and Latin. She published an epistolary novel 'Eduard en Charles' (1791), and a novel 'Julius en Amalia, of de Gevaaren van een al te gevoelig hart' (1805-1806). Her husband died young, so she learned to earn her keep as an author, newspaper woman and translator. She tried her pen as a playwright in 1795, the first year of the short-lived Batavian Republic, which was declared after the ousting of the House of Orange, with a play in verse 'De triumph der vryheid', at the end of which the whole cast exclaimed ‘vivat de natie! vivat de Fransen! vivat de vrijheid!’, i.e. 'long live the nation, long live the French (liberators), long live freedom!'. She was a supporter of Napoleon and his younger brother Louis, who was king of Holland, 1806-1810. Brinkman was a commercial writer who lend her pen, after the fall of Napoleon, and the ousting of the French, without hesitation to the new rulers of the House of Orange. In 1806 she published a verse translation of the first 2 books of Vergil's Aeneid, and in 1809 a complete translation. This was her most ambitious work. She proudly declared that she was the only woman who translated from Latin. For this feat King Louis Bonaparte awarded her 200 guilders for each of the 12 books. The translation was brought on the market for a second time in 1815, probably unsold copies. It is said that for this 1815 edition Brinkman herself sought to rope in subscribers. If this is correct, she accomplished a tremendous job, for on the 8 page list of subscribers, which was loosely supplied by the publisher, figure King William I and other members of the Royal House of Orange (13 copies), and almost all the ministers of the government, and hundreds of officials and dignitaries. (Source: Brinkman, Anna Catharina, in: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland) This achievement of roping in subscribers, gets even bigger if we consider that the publisher must have had a store full of copies which had been printed 6 years earlier. He only added a new title, the servile dedication of Brinkman to William I, the new king of Holland, and a list with subscribers. Brinkman from then on wrote quite a number of occasional poems for King William and his family, which yielded her 'gratificatiën', and an allowance of 700 guilders a year. The number of Brinkman's biography in '1001 Vrouwen' is 580) (Photographs on request)