--- a/src/main/java/org/monetdb/jdbc/MonetResultSet.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/monetdb/jdbc/MonetResultSet.java
@@ -1265,6 +1265,7 @@ public class MonetResultSet
 			private final boolean[] _is_fetched = new boolean[array_size];
 			private final int[] _isNullable = new int[array_size];
 			private final boolean[] _isAutoincrement = new boolean[array_size];
+			private int nextUpperbound = array_size;
 
 			/**
 			 * A private utility method to check validity of column index number
@@ -1283,14 +1284,9 @@ public class MonetResultSet
 			private final void fetchColumnInfo(final int column) throws SQLException {
 				// for debug: System.out.println("fetchColumnInfo(" + column + ")");
 				checkColumnIndexValidity(column);
-
 				if (_is_fetched[column] != true) {
-					// fetch column info for multiple columns combined in one go, starting at 1
-					fetchManyColumnsInfo(1);
-					if (_is_fetched[column] != true) {
-						// fetch info for column x if it was not fetched by the previous call
-						fetchManyColumnsInfo(column);
-					}
+					// fetch column info for multiple columns combined in one go
+					fetchManyColumnsInfo(column);
 				}
 
 				if (_is_fetched[column])
@@ -1318,7 +1314,22 @@ public class MonetResultSet
 				// So 80 is a good balance between speedup (up to 79x) and size of generated query sent to server
 				final int MAX_COLUMNS_PER_QUERY = 80;
 
-				final StringBuilder query = new StringBuilder(600 + (MAX_COLUMNS_PER_QUERY * 150));
+				// Determine the optimal startcol to make use of fetching up to 80 columns in one query.
+				int startcol = column;
+				if ((startcol > 1) && (startcol + MAX_COLUMNS_PER_QUERY >= nextUpperbound)) {
+					// we can fetch info from more columns in one query if we start with a lower startcol
+					startcol = nextUpperbound - MAX_COLUMNS_PER_QUERY;
+					if (startcol < 1) {
+						startcol = 1;
+					} else
+					if (startcol > column) {
+						startcol = column;
+					}
+					nextUpperbound = startcol;	// next time this nextUpperbound value will be used
+					// for debug: System.out.println("fetchManyColumnsInfo(" + column + ")" + (startcol != column ? " changed into startcol: " + startcol : "") + " nextUpperbound: " + nextUpperbound);
+				}
+
+				final StringBuilder query = new StringBuilder(410 + (MAX_COLUMNS_PER_QUERY * 150));
 				/* next SQL query is a simplified version of query in MonetDatabaseMetaData.getColumns(), to fetch only the needed attributes of a column */
 				query.append("SELECT " +
 					"s.\"name\" AS schnm, " +
@@ -1339,7 +1350,7 @@ public class MonetResultSet
 				String tblName = null;
 				String colName = null;
 				int queriedcolcount = 0;
-				for (int col = column; col < array_size && queriedcolcount < MAX_COLUMNS_PER_QUERY; col++) {
+				for (int col = startcol; col < array_size && queriedcolcount < MAX_COLUMNS_PER_QUERY; col++) {
 					if (_is_fetched[col] != true) {
 						if (_is_queried[col] != true) {
 							_isNullable[col] = columnNullableUnknown;
@@ -1416,7 +1427,7 @@ public class MonetResultSet
 				if (queriedcolcount != 0) {
 					// not all queried columns have resulted in a returned data row.
 					// make sure we do not match those columns again next run
-					for (int col = column; col < array_size; col++) {
+					for (int col = startcol; col < array_size; col++) {
 						if (_is_fetched[col] != true && _is_queried[col]) {
 							_is_fetched[col] = true;
 							// for debug: System.out.println("Found NO match at [" + col + "] for " + getSchemaName(col) + "." + getTableName(col) + "." + getColumnName(col));

--- a/tests/JDBC_API_Tester.java
+++ b/tests/JDBC_API_Tester.java
@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ final public class JDBC_API_Tester {
 		jt.Test_CallableStmt();
 		jt.Test_Rbooleans();
 		jt.Test_Rmetadata();
+		jt.Test_RfetchManyColumnsInfo();
 		jt.Test_Rpositioning();
 		jt.Test_Rsqldata();
 		jt.Test_Rtimedate();
@@ -108,6 +109,7 @@ final public class JDBC_API_Tester {
 		jt.BugSetQueryTimeout_Bug_3357();
 		jt.SQLcopyinto();
 		jt.DecimalPrecisionAndScale();
+
 		/* run next long running test (11 minutes) only before a new release */
 	/*	jt.Test_PSlargeamount(); */
 
@@ -3487,6 +3489,107 @@ final public class JDBC_API_Tester {
 			"0. true	true\n");
 	}
 
+	private void Test_RfetchManyColumnsInfo() {
+		sb.setLength(0);	// clear the output log buffer
+
+		Statement stmt = null;
+		ResultSet rs = null;
+		try {
+			final int NR_COLUMNS = 180;
+			final StringBuilder sql = new StringBuilder(50 + (NR_COLUMNS * 12));
+
+			sql.append("CREATE TABLE Test_RfetchManyColumnsInfo (");
+			for (int col = 1; col <= NR_COLUMNS; col++) {
+				sql.append("col").append(col).append(" int");
+				sql.append((col < NR_COLUMNS) ? ", " : ")");
+			}
+
+			stmt = con.createStatement();
+			stmt.executeUpdate(sql.toString());
+
+			// add 1 row (all NULLs)
+			int inserted = stmt.executeUpdate("INSERT INTO Test_RfetchManyColumnsInfo (col1) VALUES (1)");
+			if (inserted != 1)
+				sb.append("Expected 1 row inserted, but got: ").append(inserted).append("\n");
+
+			rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM Test_RfetchManyColumnsInfo");
+			rs.next();
+			ResultSetMetaData rsmd = rs.getMetaData();
+			sb.append(rsmd.getColumnCount()).append(" columns start at columnCount\n");
+			// do pulling of the metadata info in reverse order to test optimizing logic
+			// in ResultSetMetaData.fetchManyColumnsInfo() to choose a lower start_col iteratively
+			for (int col = rsmd.getColumnCount(); col >= 1; col--) {
+				// sb.append(col).append(",");
+				rsmd.getColumnClassName(col);
+				rsmd.getColumnDisplaySize(col);
+				rsmd.getColumnLabel(col);
+				rsmd.getColumnName(col);
+				rsmd.getColumnType(col);
+				rsmd.getColumnTypeName(col);
+				rsmd.getPrecision(col);
+				rsmd.getScale(col);
+				rsmd.getCatalogName(col);
+				rsmd.getSchemaName(col);
+				rsmd.getTableName(col);
+				rsmd.isAutoIncrement(col);
+				rsmd.isCaseSensitive(col);
+				rsmd.isCurrency(col);
+				rsmd.isDefinitelyWritable(col);
+				if (rsmd.isNullable(col) != ResultSetMetaData.columnNullable)
+					sb.append(col).append(" wrong isNullable()").append(rsmd.isNullable(col)).append("\n");
+				rsmd.isReadOnly(col);
+				rsmd.isSearchable(col);
+				rsmd.isSigned(col);
+				rsmd.isWritable(col);
+			}
+			rs.close();
+
+			rs = stmt.executeQuery("SELECT * FROM Test_RfetchManyColumnsInfo");
+			rs.next();
+			rsmd = rs.getMetaData();
+			sb.append(rsmd.getColumnCount()).append(" columns start at 1\n");
+			for (int col = 1; col <= rsmd.getColumnCount(); col++) {
+				// sb.append(col).append(",");
+				rsmd.getColumnClassName(col);
+				rsmd.getColumnDisplaySize(col);
+				rsmd.getColumnLabel(col);
+				rsmd.getColumnName(col);
+				rsmd.getColumnType(col);
+				rsmd.getColumnTypeName(col);
+				rsmd.getPrecision(col);
+				rsmd.getScale(col);
+				rsmd.getCatalogName(col);
+				rsmd.getSchemaName(col);
+				rsmd.getTableName(col);
+				rsmd.isAutoIncrement(col);
+				rsmd.isCaseSensitive(col);
+				rsmd.isCurrency(col);
+				rsmd.isDefinitelyWritable(col);
+				if (rsmd.isNullable(col) != ResultSetMetaData.columnNullable)
+					sb.append(col).append(" wrong isNullable()").append(rsmd.isNullable(col)).append("\n");
+				rsmd.isReadOnly(col);
+				rsmd.isSearchable(col);
+				rsmd.isSigned(col);
+				rsmd.isWritable(col);
+			}
+			rs.close();
+		} catch (SQLException e) {
+			sb.append("FAILED: ").append(e.getMessage()).append("\n");
+		}
+
+		// cleanup table
+		try {
+			stmt.executeUpdate("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS Test_RfetchManyColumnsInfo;");
+		} catch (SQLException e) {
+			sb.append("FAILED to drop: ").append(e.getMessage()).append("\n");
+		}
+		closeStmtResSet(stmt, rs);
+
+		compareExpectedOutput("Test_RfetchManyColumnsInfo",
+			"180 columns start at columnCount\n" +
+			"180 columns start at 1\n");
+	}
+
 	private void Test_Rpositioning() {
 		sb.setLength(0);	// clear the output log buffer