Jacob Abrahamsz. Dissius (November 1653 - October 1695) was a Dutch typographer and printer. He is most notable as an art collector and for his links to Johannes Vermeer - his collection included 21 Vermeer works (including The Milkmaid, Portrait of a Young Woman, A Girl Asleep, Woman Holding a Balance and The Music Lesson) and in 1680 he married Madgdalene, daughter and sole heir of Vermeer's main patron Pieter van Ruijven. Dissius died in 1695 and his collection was auctioned off in Amsterdam the following year.
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Jacob Dissius was baptised on 23 November 1653 as the son of the printer Abraham Dissius. He married Magdalena Pieters van Ruijven, daughter of Pieter van Ruijven, born in 1655. Dissius' father-in-law was one of the wealthier citizens of Delft, and became a patron of Vermeer. She inherited her parent's money and art collection after the death of her mother in 1681. When she died childless in 1682, he inherited her collection of Vermeer paintings and other works of art. He was the owner of the "Golden ABC" ("Het Gulden ABC"), a print shop on the Market Square of Delft.[1]
Jacob Dissius died in October 1695 (he was buried on 14 October), and his art collection was sold on 16 May 1696 by art dealer Gerard Houet in Amsterdam.
Three documents are crucial in reconstructing the art collection of Jacob Dissius: the inventory of his estate in April 1683, after the death of his parents-in-law and his wife; a document listing the division of this inheritance between Jacob and his father Abraham Dissius, which was united in Jacob's possession after the death of his father in 1694; and the list of the auction of his collection after his death in October 1695.[1]
Of the 21 paintings by Vermeer in the Dissius aucton of 1696, 15 are usually matched to currently known paintings, while 6 others are either lost or unidentified.