Collana: Papers of the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome, 76
Isbn: 978-88-5491-791-0
Issn: 3103-1595
Materie: Archeologia
Formato: 21x28
Pagine: 204
When the jurist and scholar Willem Goes (1610–1686) published his edition of, and commentary on, the Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum, a collection of Roman treatises on land surveying and the division of colonial land, he created the version through which these texts would be read for more than two centuries. Yet today almost nothing is known about the man, his edition, or why he wrote it.
This study provides the first comprehensive introduction to the author, his intellectual network and his work. It includes a complete edition and English translation of Goes’s commentary, along with notes that clarify his references and provide context for his arguments.
Analysing Goes’s extensive commentary, the book explores his vision for the Roman treatises in the context of Dutch colonialism. It argues that the edition was not merely an antiquarian exercise, but rather an intervention in contemporary debates about settlement, sovereignty and land ownership. The book provides an overview of the debates that took place within the Dutch East and West India Companies in the seventeenth century. These debates were centred around whether the
Dutch should conquer, settle, or simply trade. Key figures involved in these debates include Willem Usselincx, Jan Pieterszoon Coen, and Pieter van Hoorn. Goes’s project is read as part of this debate: adapting Roman models of colonization, he defended a vision of colonies bound in legal subordination to the metropole, with classical Rome supplying him a language of authority, justice, and territorial order.
The book contributes to two fields that rarely intersect: the reception history of technical knowledge from Antiquity and the history of Dutch colonization. Very little is known about the reception of the Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum after Antiquity. This book is the first to offer clues for its use not only in the context of mathematical education, but also colonial projects. The book also broadens the prevailing political and economic perspective on Dutch colonialism by revealing how classical Roman models influenced Dutch discussions on settler colonialism, land division and state authority.
Sommario:
Introduction
Willem Goes and his edition
Family and career
Intellectual profile and legal scholarship
The Corpus Agrimensorum and Goes’s edition
The historical context: settlers and land in Dutch colonialism
Debates about settler colonialism
Land surveying in the Republic and the colonies
Willem Goes’s Roman project for Dutch colonization
Reasons for colonization
Dependence and state power
Authority and justice
Conclusion: Settler colonialism between ideology and practice
Bibliography
Notes about this edition and translation
WILELMI GOESII ANTIQVITATVM AGRARIARUM LIBER SINGULARIS
Editor ad librum
Eiusdem ad lectorem praefatio
Caput I. Urbis coloniæve cum suo territorio unum esse corpus, et unam utriusque jurisdictionem
Caput II. Coloniae definitio explicatur
Caput III. Quorum Auctoritate Coloniae Deducuntur, et Quae Militares Sunt
Caput IV. Auctores per quos assignatum: eorum potestas, Agrimensores, eorumque officium
Caput V. Commoda utilitatesque coloniarum
Caput VI. Colonia est cujus ager assignatus: quantum assignatum cuique, jugeris divisio, pedis Romani mensura
Caput VII. Unde agri qui dividerentur: et in quae loca colonia deduci fas esset
Caput VIII. Quid Limes
Caput IX. Limites decumani et cardines: actuarii et linearii: perpetui et intercisivi. Extraclusa, quae et extremitas
Caput X. Centuriarum nomen et numerus. Earum divisiones variae. Scamnum et striga
Caput XI. Terminorum nomina. Compacti lapides. Termini duo vel tres in unum
Caput XII. Subsecivum. Praefectura
Lectori
WILLEM GOES: ROMAN LAND DIVISION, IN ONE BOOK
The editor to his book
Preface to the reader
Chapter 1: The city or colony with its territory is one entity, and both share one jurisdiction
Chapter 2: The definition of a colony is explained
Chapter 3: By whose authority colonies are founded, and which ones are military
Chapter 4: The authors of the allocation: their authority, land surveyors, and their duty
Chapter 5: The advantages and benefits of colonies
Chapter 6: A colony is a place of which the land has been allocated: how much has been allocated to each person, measurement in iugera, using the Roman foot as the unit of measure
Chapter 7: Where the lands came from that were divided, and in which places they usually founded colonies
Chapter 8: What the boundary is
Chapter 9: Limites decumani and cardines, actuarii and linearii, perpetui and intercisivi. extraclusa, which is also extremitas
Chapter 10: The name and number of centuriae, their various divisions, scamnum and striga
Chapter 11: The names of borders, piles of stones, and two or three coinciding borders
Chapter 12: Subsecivum and praefectura
To the reader
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
