The term Jacob's staff is used to refer to several things, also known as cross-staff, a ballastella, a fore-staff, a ballestilla, or a balestilha. In its most basic form, a Jacob's staff is a stick or pole with length markings; most staffs are much more complicated than that, and usually contain a number of measurement and stabilization features. The two most frequent uses are:
Henry Hope (1735–1811) was an Amsterdam merchant banker born in Braintree, Massachusetts. He emigrated to the Netherlands to join the family business Hope & Co. at a young age. From 1779, Henry became the manager of Hope & Co. and he participated in the firm for about a third from 1782. He is considered to be as great a genius as his uncle Thomas Hope. In 1786 Adam Smith dedicated the fourth edition of his book The Wealth of Nations to Henry Hope in hopes of increasing his readership:
The Dutch Gift of 1660 was a collection of 24 mostly Italian Renaissance paintings, four by Dutch Masters, and twelve classical sculptures. The gift was presented to newly-restored King Charles II of England on 16 November by envoys of the States of Holland.
The Papenbroek Collection is one of the largest 18th-century Dutch art collections. After the death of its owner, Gerard van Papenbroek (1673–1743), the antiquities were bequeathed to Leiden University. These antiquities would become the earliest collection of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities, and have been called a "decisive factor for the creation of the first academic chair of archaeology". The portraits and manuscripts were divided between Leiden University and the Athenaeum Illustre of Amsterdam.
Mattheus Lestevenon, heer van Berckenrode was a city-secretary and schepen in Amsterdam, then Dutch ambassador to France. Lestevenon played an important role in the year 1748 and in the negotiations for the Treaty of Paris. Pietro Locatelli dedicated six violin sonatas to him.
Hieronymus van Beverningh was a prominent Dutch regent, diplomat, amateur botanist, and patron of the arts, who lived during the Dutch Golden Age.
Gerrit de Graeff, vrijheer van Zuid-Polsbroek was a member of the influential De Graeff family of Amsterdam. He belonged to the patrician class of the city and held the feudal titles Free Lord of Zuid-Polsbroek as those of Purmerland and Ilpendam.
Cornelis de Graeff was a member of the family De Graeff, a prominent regent family from the Dutch Golden Age.
Joan Gideon Loten was a Dutch servant in the colonies of the Dutch East India Company, the 29th Governor of Zeylan, Fellow of the Royal Society and Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. During his time in the colonies he made collections of natural history. In 1758 he moved to Holland. Nine months after his return from the Dutch East Indies he moved to London, where he lived for 22 years and interacted with scholarly societies and shared his natural history illustrations and collections. The sunbird species Cinnyris lotenius is named after him
KnightCornelis de Graeff was a Dutch nobleman and a water board member of the Zijpe and Haze Polder.
Willem Fredrik Jacob Mörzer Bruyns,, is a Dutch historian of navigational science, specializing in the history of navigational instruments; he has also published on the history of the Dutch in the Arctic in the nineteenth century. He rose to be Senior Curator of Navigation at the Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum before his retirement in 2005. Since 1972, Mörzer Bruyns published several books and a hundred-and-fifteen articles in scholarly journals, on the history of navigation and navigational instruments, and on the exploration of the Dutch in the Arctic, in the nineteenth century. He wrote seventy-five book reviews on these subjects in scholarly journals.
Bicker is a very old Dutch patrician family. The family has played an important role during the Dutch Golden Age. They were at the centre of Amsterdam oligarchy from the beginning of the 17th century until the early 1650s. They leaded the Dutch States Party and were in opposition to the House of Orange. Since 1815 the family belongs to the new Dutch nobility with the honorific of jonkheer or jonkvrouw.
Jacques Ignatius de Roore or Jacobus Ignatius de Roore was a Flemish painter, copyist, art dealer and art collector who worked in the Southern Netherlands and the Dutch Republic.
Willem, Count Bentinck, Lord of Rhoon and Pendrecht was a Dutch nobleman and politician, and the eldest son from the second marriage of William Bentinck, 1st Earl of Portland. He was created Count Bentinck of the Holy Roman Empire in 1732. Bentinck played a leading role in the Orangist revolution of 1747 in the Netherlands.
Jonathan Sisson was a prominent English instrument maker, the inventor of the modern theodolite with a sighting telescope for surveying, and a leading maker of astronomical instruments.
Benjamin Ayres was an English instrument maker.
The Art Gallery of Jan Gildemeester Jansz is a painting created by the Dutch painter Adriaan de Lelie in 1794-95. It is part of the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, executed in oil paint on panel. It depicts the art collector Jan Gildemeester Jansz in the midst of his large collection of paintings, showing them to friends.
The Reijnst family was a family of soldiers and politicians in the Dutch Republic. Their surname was also spelled Reynst or Rijnst. The family played an important role in the Dutch East India Company, the Navy, Amsterdam government and as Art collectors. The family owned the Reynst collection from which the Dutch Gift came.
Portrait of Stephan Geraedts, Husband of Isabella Coymans is an oil on canvas painting by Dutch Golden Age painter Frans Hals. The painting was originally part of a couple of pendant wedding portraits. Hals probably painted the present portrait, Stephanus Geraerdts', alderman in Haarlem, and the accompanying portrait of the latter's wife Isabella Coymans around 1650–1652, six or seven years after their marriage in 1644. Isabella's portrait is now in a private collection in Paris.
