Joost van den Vondel, whom the 19th century loved to dub "the Dutch Shakespeare," wrote his Gijsbreght van Aemstel in 1637 for the opening of the new theatre in Amsterdam. The play is based on Vergil's epic about the fall of Troy and portrays the destruction of Amsterdam in 1302, as a result of the dissensions after the murder of Count Floris V.
A special edition appeared between 1894 and 1901 in separate installments, published by the renowned Haarlem publishing house De Erven F. Bohn.
