Möijderkring is an informal circle uniting artists and sciences of the Netherlands , operating during the Golden Age (approximately the second half of the 17th century). Members of the circle regularly met in the castle of Myderslot near Amsterdam and arranged literary and musical evenings during the period when the owner of the castle, poet Peter Cornelisson Hoft, lived in it during his service with the drost Moyden. He was the central figure of the circle. Constantine Huygens , Dirk Svelink , Vondel , Herbrand Bredero and poets-sisters Anna Wissher and Maria Tesselshade Wissher were also notable members of the group. [1] Instead of an organized group of convinced personalities who would pursue a cultural goal, Hooft organized a kind of interest club for his friends in the castle. The first documented meeting of the circle took place on July 7, 1633, and the last in the summer of 1645.
According to the literary historian Strengholt, the existence of a circle is a myth. There was only one permanent figure, this is Hooft himself. At the end of the summer of 1616, Bredero and Hugo Grotius together visited Moyderslot. The first documented visit of Anna Rumers and Maria Tesselshade dates from 1621. This year, a stable group was formed, which included Hooft, Huygens, Anna Rumers, Tesselshade and some others.
If there was a circle around Hooft, then, according to Strengholt, it arose no earlier than in the thirties: “Only in 1633 did the first witnessed collection of friends of the Myderslot artists appear, which was held as such an experience.
Several musical works related to the activities of the circle were recorded by the Utrecht ensemble of Camerat Traektin in 1994.
Notes
- ↑ Paul Zumthor Daily Life in Rembrandt's Holland 1994 p218 "Hooft once wrote Maria a long letter consisting of mythological allusions, just to inform her that she had left her slippers at his house. But the Muiden circle was something more than a mere symbol of literary preciosity, .. "