Abraham Jacob van der Aa

Who was Abraham Jacob van der Aa?

Abraham Jacob van der Aa was a Dutch writer. He was born in Amsterdam in 1792. His father was a lawyer. From the ages of 6 to 12, he visited the dayschool in Amstelveen. After that, he was sent to the boarding school of J.E. van Iterson in Aarlanderveen but only stayed there for a year. After a short stay at the Latin school in Leiden, where his parents lived at that time, he was sent to the Seminarium in Lingen, Germany to study the "dead languages".

After his return in 1810, he went to medical school in Leiden, but had to leave after his father's death. He later did his mandatory military service until 1817. At that point he tried to open a bookshop in Leuven but this wasn't a success so he became a teacher in the Dutch language. After 1839 he moved to Gorinchem, where he wrote several reference works, including a gazetteer and a biographical dictionary, Biographisch woordenboek der Nederlanden.

The Aardrijkskundig Woordenboek der Nederlanden was a 14-volume gazetteer, published between 1839 and 1851. It was written with the help of a large number of regional historians and other geographers. It covers the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the former Dutch colonies. Until his death in 1857 from undisclosed causes at age 64 he continued working on his "biographic dictionary".