A hidden treasure, known to only a very few, is the Grotius-archive of Ter Meulen and Diermanse. It is the actual birthplace of the famous Ter Meulen-Diermanse Grotius Bibliography, published in 1950.
One bookcase stacked with shoeboxes, maps and cigar and cigarette boxes, small and large, filled with letters, notes, postcards, bits of paper with notations and remarks scribbled all over them. One can actually feel their dedication towards the fulfillment of their goal, “The Bibliography”. This is their correspondence with librarians, scholars, private persons and many others about the whereabouts of Grotius’s manuscripts, poems, letters, reprints, and translations. Wherever in the world they thought there would be a work of Grotius, at institutes, libraries, or booksellers, at the Harvard Law School, the Library of Congress, or the Bodleian Library, they would sent a questionnaire to get the information.
Ter Meulen started this work with Diermanse during World War II. Slowly but steadily they compiled all the information into the Bibliography. The correction proofs are still there.