Tuesday, February 21, 2006
The Big Orange?
The Island at the Centre of the World, by Russell Shorto, is described as 'the untold story of the founding of New York'. It is based on the work of Dr Charles Gehring who, in 1974, undertook the mammoth task of translating the official records of New Amsterdam, twelve thousand 'charred, mould-stippled' sheets of paper 'covered with the crabbed, loopy script of seventeenth-century Dutch ... written 350 years ago in ink that has now partially faded into the brown of the decaying paper'.
As of the time of Shorto's book, Gehring had already devoted 26 years to the undertaking and produced sixteen volumes of translation.
No doubt he backs up all his work carefully. A predecessor of his, attempting the same arduous feat in the early twentieth century, saw 'two years' worth of labour go up in the 1911 fire that destroyed the state library. He suffered a nervous breakdown, and eventually abandoned the task.'
New Amsterdam became New York in 1664 when the English seized the New Netherland colony. Like the state capital Albany (originally known as Fort Orange), New York was named after James, Duke of York and Albany, the future King James II of England. Similarly, New Jersey was called Albania for a spell.
In 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch retook the territory. For the fifteen months they held it, before giving it back to the English as part of a peace settlement, New York was called Nieuw Oranje (New Orange) and Albany Willemstad (Williamstown).
A decade and a half later, in what for some reason is not known as the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, a Dutch armada invaded England, ousted James II and put William of Orange on the throne in his place. Somewhat out of keeping with the spirit of the age, the new King William III did not have the transatlantic outposts of his new realm revert to their earlier names in his honour, and so New York and Albany remained named for the toppled and much vilified King James.
The Orange in New Orange is indeed the town of that name in Provence, which, if Wikipedia is to be believed, is the warmest in France and elects a National Front mayor.
As of the time of Shorto's book, Gehring had already devoted 26 years to the undertaking and produced sixteen volumes of translation.
No doubt he backs up all his work carefully. A predecessor of his, attempting the same arduous feat in the early twentieth century, saw 'two years' worth of labour go up in the 1911 fire that destroyed the state library. He suffered a nervous breakdown, and eventually abandoned the task.'
New Amsterdam became New York in 1664 when the English seized the New Netherland colony. Like the state capital Albany (originally known as Fort Orange), New York was named after James, Duke of York and Albany, the future King James II of England. Similarly, New Jersey was called Albania for a spell.
In 1673, during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, the Dutch retook the territory. For the fifteen months they held it, before giving it back to the English as part of a peace settlement, New York was called Nieuw Oranje (New Orange) and Albany Willemstad (Williamstown).
A decade and a half later, in what for some reason is not known as the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, a Dutch armada invaded England, ousted James II and put William of Orange on the throne in his place. Somewhat out of keeping with the spirit of the age, the new King William III did not have the transatlantic outposts of his new realm revert to their earlier names in his honour, and so New York and Albany remained named for the toppled and much vilified King James.
The Orange in New Orange is indeed the town of that name in Provence, which, if Wikipedia is to be believed, is the warmest in France and elects a National Front mayor.
