Album Amicorum of Nicolaas and Adriaan Rockox

Over the next 57 years, the friendship book of the Rockox brothers grew into a valuable art object filled with page after page of dedications, aphorisms and illustrations by fellow students. The two travelled from university to university. Driven by their eagerness to learn and fleeing bubonic plague and war.  

 After Leuven and Paris, Nicholas ended up at the University of Douai (France) in 1579. There he shared this booklet for the first time. Even after his studies, he continued to ask friends in various Flemish cities for personal contributions. Between 1592 and 1596, Adriaan took it with him on his grand (study) tour of Flanders and abroad.  

Unlike most similar albums, this copy contains many illustrations. Of high quality, meticulously colored. Beautiful miniatures in gouache, as well as chalk and ink drawings. Coats of arms, costume sketches, portraits. Often combined with a dedication or motto from the young noblemen. Always remarkably dignified; the friends of the Rockox brothers never indulge in vulgarities. Signatures from women are in the minority. They keep it brief, but no less fascinating, as shown by a mysterious reference to the sweetness of love: amar es dulce …

Because of the many images of stylishly dressed and coiffed men and women, one of the previous owners thought it was a book of costumes. Hence the partly erased word ‘Costumes’ on one of the front endpapers. An English owner added his own findings on the bundled tome. In the mid-19th century, someone gave it an upgrade, adding the present blue leather binding with gold lettering and borders.  

In all likelihood, the page order is not chronological. It may have subsequently been changed. Watermarks from different regions indicate that the brothers sometimes used loose sheets of paper, which they added to the friendship book at a later date. This was definitely the case for the contributions of Justus Lipsius, Aubertus Miraeus and Nicolaas himself. Paper analyses reveal that although the pages appear to be haphazardly inserted, they do belong together.  

After four centuries of peregrinations, the Album Amicorum resurfaced in 1958 at a New York antique dealer. He was able to unearth the link with the former mayor of Antwerp and sent it to the Royal Library of Belgium. Thanks to the librarian of the Antwerp city library and then-curator Frans Baudouin, the album amicorum found its way back to the Rubens House.