Description of the city of Gouda: Inventory 1771

Among the descriptions of the city of Gouda that have been digitized by the volunteers of Gouda op Schrift (Gouda in Writing), a workgroup of the Historical Association ‘Die Goude’, the ‘Inventory of the houses, yards and all the city public buildings, with everything annexed to them’, literally is an urban history.

In substance one can only say about the content that it is a description of Gouda as it looked around the year 1771. Not a building, not a bridge and nor a tree was lacking. Our author also found it important to write about the maintenance of all these objects, because according to him, maintenance fell under the responsibility of the city council.

The charm or allure lies in the detail of the description. None of the narrative city descriptions so far have delved as deeply into the city properties as this inventory by this unknown author. With the lists of large and small things from that time, he sketched a detailed picture of Gouda in 1771.

If the sketch from 1771 is superimposed over the current street plan of the historic center of Gouda, it will show, that the city center has remained relatively intact. Therefore, the current inhabitants of Gouda will surely recognize most of what our author described.