In the big billy goat

Some house names have a tough life. The corner house Muntstraat/Jodenstraat was already called "the billy goat" in the 15th century. During the iconoclasm of 1566 Andries van Coelmont lived in "the billy goat". The gablestones of the neighbouring Dinghuis were then taken down and stored in the attic of this house.

The billy goat is green in colour, which has earned it the name IN THE GREEN BILLY GOAT in the gable stone literature. But the caption does indeed read IN THE BIG BILLY GOAT
The addition BIG is due to the fact that, by derivation, in the 17th century there was also a "cleijnen bock". (=little billy goat)

The above may also have been reflected in the already disappeared streets: Kleine Bokstraat and Grote Bokstraat. Kleine Bokstraat was located between Brugstraat and Jodenstraat. And the Grote Bokstraat between Jodenstraat and Hoenderstraat as far as the Maas Mill. The part that remained after the demolition for the sake of the canal was named Kesselskade.

From the beginning of the 18th century IN THE BIG BILLY GOAT was owned by the Henckelius family, a family of merchants, doctors but especially pharmacists. They belonged to the wealthy residents of the town. Johan Caspar Frederik Henckelius, the last pharmacist of the family, died unmarried in 1859. He was succeeded by his assistant Joseph de Bosquet, who became widely known as a palaeontologist and discovered several fossil species. He received an honorary doctorate in Groningen and the square in front of the Natural History Museum is named after him. After his death in 1880 the building on the side of the Muntstraat was converted into a shop/residential building, a return to the situation before 1763. Since then the building has had all kinds of shop uses

Remarkably, Amsterdam also has a green billy goat, which leads one to suspect that this colour, which seems randomly added, has an underlying meaning.

‍

‍

‍