I always enjoy PhD defenses: the excitement of the PhD candidate, the paranymphs and close family and friends, the interplay between candidate and committee, and most of all the ceremony: the clinking of the beadle's staff, standing up when the committee enters and leaves, and the set phrases that give structure to the defense.

At home, I cherish a small collection of dissertations from personal friends. The content is in many cases far beyond my comprehension, but I value the books as souvenirs from the long writing processes of which I was a witness and the defense ceremonies that I attended. There is a certain tension here. The content of the thesis as well as the discussion is central to the PhD defence. At the same time, for a large part of the audience this content will be too specialized. They value the defense as an important event in the life of the PhD candidate. In order to bridge this gap somewhat, in 2024 Leiden University has made the lay talk a standard element of the ceremony. During this short talk, the PhD candidate explains the content of the thesis to the lay audience.

In earlier times, it seems, there was an alternative, more secretive way to escape the boredom of unintelligible academic discussions. In 1958 Maria Hermina Nederburgh (1872-1963) donated four copies of the thesis Eenige beschouwingen over transportatie en relegatie vooral in verband met kolonisatie (‘Some thoughts on penal transportation, in particularly in relation to colonosation’) to the Academisch Historisch Museum (AHM-1958-169 to AHM-1958-171). The dissertation was defended almost seventy years earlier by her brother, Herman Gerard Nederburgh (1864-1935) in Leiden in 1890. ‘Four copies’ is a bit misleading, because whereas one of the copies is indeed the thesis, in the other three the title page of the dissertation is followed by a novel. In 1958, Miss Nederburgh provided the following explanation: ‘Since the content of the actual dissertation held no appeal for the ladies, it was replaced by a novel or history, which was presented in the same cover and with a gilded edge.’ She herself, her sister Sophia Clementia Nederburgh-Nuhout van der Veen (1862-1925) and Hermans' fiancée Anna Apollonia Salverda (1866-1958) each received such a “fake” dissertation.

Each “dissertation” contains another novel: La tasse à thé by Albert Kaempfen (1865), Vera by Catharina Alberdinck Thijm (1889) and Nog eens najaarsbladen by Nicolaas Beets (1889).

Nowadays, the fact that the female family members did not receive the actual thesis undoubtedly seems to be paternalistic, sexist and derogatory. However, it would be going too far to view these versions of the thesis as a bad joke with which Nederburgh wanted to embarrass his sisters and fiancée. Each “dissertation” contains another novel: La tasse à thé by Albert Kaempfen (1865), Vera by Catharina Alberdinck Thijm (1889) and Nog eens najaarsbladen by Nicolaas Beets (1889). Although it is not known for whom each novel was intended, it seems to be that each novel was selected with care. This is certainly the case for the design. Each novel is beautifully bound, including gold edging. It shows that the books were a well-considered gift. Through these gifts Nederburgh could share this highlight of his academic career with his sisters and his fiancée. At the end of the 19^th century the PhD defense was still very much a closed academic – and mostly male – matter. It is unlikely that the female family members would have attend the ceremony. The fact that the dissertations were carefully preserved by the three sisters(-in-law) and were passed on to Maria Hermina also seems to indicate that they themselves experienced these books as precious gifts and fond souvenirs.

Although it is unclear how widespread the practice of giving (female) relatives and/or acquaintances a ‘fake’ dissertation was, Nederburgh was certainly not the only one. In the collection of the Academisch Historisch Museum two other examples are available. The ‘fake’ dissertation of Marinus Isaac Verkouteren, defended in 1843, which contains Jose, een Spaansch verhaal by Nicolaas Beets (1838) (AHM-1970-945), and of Gerrit Nicolaas Manger Cat, defended in 1886 (AHM-1972-145). In the last case, the actual dissertation is present, but it is followed by Nemesis by Gerard Keller (1886).