This year four hundred years ago Batavia (and thus also Jakarta) was recorded on the world map. A historical event that can be heavily debated. About how it came about and the circumstances under which it happened. About the consequences for world trade, monopolism, colonialism and the realization of the Republic of Indonesia.

Fact is that 1619 marked a moment in the history of Indonesia. A moment that was commemorated three hundred years later (in 1919) with the publication of the three volumes series called 'Oud Batavia' by the Dutch 'Bataviaasch Genootschap van Kunsten en Wetenschappen'. The first edition of this series was published in 1922, the second edited edition in 1935.

The 1922 edition has been rescanned (including OCR text recognition) and made available and full text searchable by The Corts Foundation, and published here on this website. Each volume separately is shown in PDF format and freely downloadable.

VOL. 1 (1922, 567 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 14mb]
VOL. 2 (1922, 415 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 11mb] 
VOL. 3 (1923, 348 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 41mb]

Example of the online viewer: 

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The Corpus Diplomaticum Neerlando-Indicum comprises six volumes, and was published between 1907 and 1955 by Mr J.E. Heeres and Dr F.W. Stapel at the Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde (KITLV). These volumes contain a representative collection of political contracts and treaties concluded by the Dutch in Asia and permits granted to them.

For the first time these volumes have been scanned and published online by The Corts Foundation together with a searchable database of all the 1193 contracts and indexes on persons and places. Each volume separately has such indexes, but all the indexes are now combined together to give full access to all six volumes. Thousands of persons and places are named in these indexes and together form a valuable source for historians and other researchers. 

All the scans, database and indexes can be accessed on the Indonesian website of sejarah-nusantara.

The open data of this publication can be downloaded from the DASA project page.

UPDATE November 2019:

The six volumes are republished on this website by The Corts Foundation in PDF format including OCR text recognition. In this way the Corpus Diplomaticum is fully text searchable and the volumes are also freely available as download.

VOLUME 1 (1907, 612 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 15mb]
VOLUME 2 (1931, 639 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 17mb]
VOLUME 3 (1934, 625 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 16mb]
VOLUME 4 (1935, 617 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 15mb]
VOLUME 5 (1938, 644 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 35mb]
VOLUME 6 (1955, 754 pages) - [Open online viewer] [PDF - 26mb]

The Ambassador of The Netherlands in Tokyo generously hosted the Corts Foundation on April 4, 2019. Final editor dr. W.G.J. Remmelink presented his second Senshi Sōsho volume no. 26: “The Operations of the Navy in the Dutch East Indies and the Bay of Bengal” on a well visited reception for an attentive listening audience.

Bronbeek, 28 February 2019. The yearly commemoration of the battle of the Java Sea 1942 with the laying of a wreath was held today in the presence of the Marine Corps. Before the actual commemoration ceremony, dr. W.G.J. Remmelink presented his speech on the battle, illustrated with maps, and explained in detail the operational sequence of events and the ship movements. His presentation was based on his translation of Japanese source material from the Senshi Sōsho volume 26.