Museum of Bags and Purses. Highlighted in red
the remnant of the dismantled wall once
separating the 'boeken kamer' from the 'groote kamer'.
The dimensions of the library room can be reconstructed with certainty. This room was originall ca. 6.20 x 2.85 m. The walls towards the groene kamer (the room to the right, when facing the library’s window) and the stairs have remained intact over the centuries, while - as shown by the first image - the wall towards the ‘groote kamer’, on the other side, was partially dismantled at an unknown time after 1974.
Plans from 1974, made in preparation for installing a bank’s headquarters in this house, in fact still show the room in its original size. In the image below you can see the digitized plans (digital restorations in purple). Note that the partition wall separating spaces nr. 203 and nr. 207 in the ‘groene kamer’ was not part of the original layout. Also the stairs at Pieter’s time were possibly different: the current staircase on this floor level (represented in this plan) may have been enlarged as a result of the major changes the house underwent at the end of the 19th century which included the removal of the main entrance on the bel-etage.
References and further reading:
C. Piccoli, Pieter de Graeff (1638-1707) and his treffelyke bibliotheek (Brill, 2025), chapter 6.
C. Piccoli, ‘A peek behind the façade: The Virtual Interiors approach to visualise Herengracht 573 in the XVII century’, Storia Urbana (Mapping Early Modern European Cities. Digital Projects of Public History) 173 (2022 [2024]), pp. 79-98.
P. Vlaardingerbroek, 'Beschrijving van Herengracht 573', internal report, Monuments and Archaeology office, Amsterdam municipality (May 2023).
Written by Chiara Piccoli