TANAP Index and Establishment Reconstructions¶

Introduction to the TANAP index¶

To increase the accessibility of the Overgekomen brieven en papieren (OBP) section of the VOC archives, the TANAP project described the individual documents that can be found in the thousands of OBP volumes and assigned document categories to them. The descriptions of the documents are based on the tables of contents that can be found in the OBP volumes or – in case volumes did not contain a table of contents – are modelled after them. Based on these descriptions, document categories were assigned. The TANAP project created these document categories by taking the perspective of the VOC as the main point of reference. Consequently, the TANAP index follows the VOC’s perspective.

The TANAP index has remained accessible through the Overgekomen Brieven en Papieren index of the Dutch National Archives. However, when searching and browsing this index on the website, the document categories that were created and assigned in the context of the TANAP project are not available. They are, however, included in the CSV version of the index that can be downloaded from the National Archives website and in the TANAP establishment reconstructions that are available here. More information about these reconstructions can be found below.

Coverage of the TANAP index¶

The OBP volumes are part of the VOC archives that are kept by the Dutch National Archives. They comprise of documents that were sent from the central administration of the VOC in Batavia to the Netherlands. Because the Gentlemen XVII alternately met in Amsterdam and Middelburg (the capital of Zeeland), copies were sent to both the Amsterdam office (the Amsterdam Chamber) and the Zeeland office (the Zeeland Chamber). This resulted in the creation of two different archives. Consequently, they are kept as two separate series and can be found here:

The OBP of the Amsterdam Chamber¶

The OBP of the Zeeland Chamber¶

The TANAP index does not include all of these volumes, because the project ran out of funding before being able to incorporate all of them. The table below provides an overview of the inventory numbers that are included in the TANAP index.

OBP section	Inventory number range	Range included in TANAP	Range NOT included in TANAP
Deel I/E.5.a Overgekomen brieven en papieren uit Indië aan de Heren XVII en de kamer Amsterdam	1053-3987	1053-1662; 1667-1669; 2325-2410; 2412-3987	1663-1666; 1670-2324; 2411
Deel I/E.5.b Overgekomen brieven en papieren uit Kaap de Goede Hoop aan de Heren XVII en de kamer Amsterdam	3988-4373		3988-4373
Deel I/E.5.c Overgekomen brieven en papieren uit China aan de Heren XVII, de kamer Amsterdam en de Chinase commissie	4374-4447		4374-4447
Deel II/E Ingekomen stukken van Gouverneur-Generaal en raden bij de Heren XVII en de kamer Zeeland	7527-9191	7527-9179	9180-9191
Deel II/F Ingekomen stukken van de Raad van Justitie in Batavia bij de Heren XVII en de kamer Zeeland	9192-9540		9192-9540
Deel II/G Ingekomen stukken van de kantoren in Indië bij de Heren XVII en de kamer Zeeland	9541-11024	10406-10435	9541-10405; 10436-11024

Extending the TANAP index by digitizing the OBP typescript indices¶

The GLOBALISE project works with all of the abovementioned OBP volumes, both those of the Amsterdam Chamber and the Zeeland Chamber. More information about how the project aims to reuse the TANAP index can be found here.

Additionally, GLOBALISE is looking into ways to fill the gap in the TANAP index. As a part of this, the project has worked together with the Dutch National Archives to digitize the typed out tables of contents of the OBP volumes of the Amsterdam Chamber; the so-called typescripts. These were created by the Dutch National Archives after finishing the new inventory of the VOC archive in the 1960s, to further increase the accessibility of the OBP volumes. These typescripts used to available for consultation in the reading room.

By digitizing the typescripts for the inventory numbers of the Amsterdam Chamber that are not included in the TANAP index, GLOBALISE fills a part of the gap in the TANAP index. These digitized typescripts can be found in the GLOBALISE dataverse. The table and graph below provide an overview of the inventory numbers that are covered by the TANAP index and the ones that are covered by the digitized typescripts.

OBP section	Inventory number range	Range included in TANAP	Range NOT included in TANAP	Range included in digitized typescripts
Deel I/E.5.a Overgekomen brieven en papieren uit Indië aan de Heren XVII en de kamer Amsterdam	1053-3987	1053-1662; 1667-1669; 2325-2410; 2412-3987	1663-1666; 1670-2324; 2411	1663-1666; 1670-2324; 2411
Deel I/E.5.b Overgekomen brieven en papieren uit Kaap de Goede Hoop aan de Heren XVII en de kamer Amsterdam	3988-4373		3988-4373	3988-4373
Deel I/E.5.c Overgekomen brieven en papieren uit China aan de Heren XVII, de kamer Amsterdam en de Chinase commissie	4374-4447		4374-4447	4374-4447
Deel II/E Ingekomen stukken van Gouverneur-Generaal en raden bij de Heren XVII en de kamer Zeeland	7527-9191	7527-9179	9180-9191
Deel II/F Ingekomen stukken van de Raad van Justitie in Batavia bij de Heren XVII en de kamer Zeeland	9192-9540		9192-9540
Deel II/G Ingekomen stukken van de kantoren in Indië bij de Heren XVII en de kamer Zeeland	9541-11024	10406-10435	9541-10405; 10436-11024

Chart showing the coverage of the TANAP index and digitized typescripts

TANAP establishment reconstructions¶

The TANAP project used the document descriptions to generate indices based on the VOC establishments that made the documents in question and arranged them per document category. They thereby created the establishment reconstructions that are available below.

A VOC establishment is a place in Asia or South Africa the company used as a trading post. Each of them kept its own archive, but most of them are incomplete or lost. TANAP tried to reconstruct their archives by bringing together the copies the establishments sent to the Dutch Republic. It is important to note, however, that they did not sent copies of all their documents to the Dutch Republic, the TANAP establishment reconstructions therefore offer a partial view.

The reconstructions are based on the VOC main establishments: establishments where the management directly communicated with the central administration in Batavia. The subordinate minor establishments can be found under them. Quilon and Cannanore, for example, are part of the reconstruction of Malabar.

One exception is Batavia ressort, which is not a VOC main establishment. The reconstruction of Batavia ressort mainly consists of correspondence between the area surrounding Batavia and the central administration in Batavia. It should, therefore, be part of the reconstruction of Batavia. However, because the VOC kept these documents separate when sending them to the Dutch Republic, they have been arranged separately in a TANAP establishment reconstruction as well.