ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 2186 http://www.s-gabriel.org/2186 ************************************ 1 Dec 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked whether is an appropriate name for a Flemish woman living in the second half of the 16th century. This letter is a brief answer to your question. We haven't found an example of before 1600, but we've come close. We found a baptism of a girl named from Dutch records in North America in 1660 [1], and examples of and in 1584-5 [2]. The last of these names was pronounced almost the same as . We think it's not unlikely that could have been used, at least as a Latinized, written form of the name, but it would of course be better re-creation to use the 16th century spelling. The overall construction of your fiancee's name is perfect, though a period writer would not have capitalized the word . We found names like constructed in just the same way [2]. would have been understood to mean "Amelia from Hemessen". As you know, there were two famous 16th century painters surnamed : Jan Sander van Hemessen and his daughter Caterina. The father was born at or , a village outside Antwerp [3, 4]. We haven't found a period example of their surname, so we can't guarantee that is a correct 16th century spelling. It is plausible, though. We hope this brief letter has been useful. Please write us again if you have any questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Maridonna Benvenuti, Walraven van Nijmegen, Adelaide de Beaumont, Talan Gwynek, and Dietmar von Straubing. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 1 Dec 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Brassard, Theodore, "Baptisms at the Reformed Dutch Church of New Amsterdam (1639-1730)" (WWW: Descendants of Edward Ball of New Jersey group, 1996-98). http://www.altlaw.com/edball/dutchbap.htm [2] Aryanhwy merch Catmael, "Dutch Names, 1584-1585" (unpublished research, 1999-2000), compiled from Brieven en Andere Bescheiden Betreffende Daniel Van der Meulen, 1584-1600: Deel 1, Augustus 1584-Sepetember 1585. [3] Caterina van Hemessen (c.1528-c.1587) and her father Jan Sander van Hemessen (c.1500-1566) were both Flemish painters. Kren, Emil and Daniel Marx, "Web Gallery of Art" (WWW: self-published, accessed 2 Nov 2000). http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/ http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/h/hemessen/caterina/ http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/h/hemessen/jan/ [4] "Artist' Biographies: Hemessen" (WWW: artnet.com, accessed 1 Dec 2000). Excerpt from The Grove Dictionary of Art (Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2000). http://www4.artnet.com/library/03/0374/T037472.asp