Cultura Fonds Library

Small correction to previous mesage: deadline for calls for papers is 1 December 2011

2011-09-19T09:43:00.004+02:00

In my previous post, a Calls for papers for "The Illustrated Book in Belgium 1800-1865" (conference in late Fall 2012), I said that the deadline for submitting papers was 1 October 2011. Luckily this isn't so, as it is 1 December 2011. This gives you, researcher, much more time for proposals.

Calls for papers: The illustrated book in Belgium (1800-1865) (Conference, Royal Library of Belgium, 19-20 November 2012)

2011-09-12T14:51:00.007+02:00

As there is a rather pressing deadline for papers (October 15, 2011), I'm copying the following calls for papers on the illustrated book in Belgium completely.

Before I do, I want to refer to Le livre et l'estampe LV : 2009, n° 171. Le livre is the journal of the Société des Bibliophiles et Iconophiles de Belgique (=the Brussels Bibliophile Society), with the conference contributions for The illustrated book in Belgium more or less after 1865, so for the late 19th and the 20th centuries: Peintres de l'encrier - Le livre illustré en Belgique (XIXe-XXe siècle), edited by Denis Laoureux (Brussels, ULB, international conference in 2009). Recommended reading.

Call for papers

Colloquium: The illustrated book in Belgium (1800-1865).

Royal Library of Belgium, 19 and 20 November 2012.

Organisation: R oyal Library of Belgium, in collaboration with Vlaamse Werkgroep Boekgeschiedenis en Groupe de contact FNRS ‘Documents rares et précieux’.

Scientific committee: Pierre Delsaerdt (Univ. of Antwerp), Alain Jacobs, Denis Laoureux (ULB), Jan Pauwels (KBR), Claude Sorgeloos (KBR), René Plisnier (Univ. of Mons, ULB), Stijn van Rossem (Univ. of Antwerp), Tom Verschaffel (KUL).

Organisation committee: Claude Sorgeloos (KBR), Leni Verbogen (KBR).

The illustrated book of the 19^th century has been studied for the productions of the end of the century, a time when artists were renewing layout. The previous period is much lesser known, despite the works of J.H.M. Van der Marck on lithography, Tom Verschaffel on the meaning of romantic historiography and Remi Blachon on wood engraving. The colloquium wants to define this area of research and fine-tune our knowledge of this period. The works of the colloquium will have several approaches.

Techniques and forms

The 19^th century gave birth to a plethora of techniques: lithography, chromolithography, wood engraving, etching, steel engraving, photography and photolithography, etc. The colloquium will address the history and evolution of these techniques, as they necessarily have incidences on the production of illustrated prints, their editorial aspects and layout. The industrial era of the 19^th century saw prints change shape, with the illustrated cover being taken into account. This also goes for the romantic polychrome outer covers and outer covers of textile editors, adorned with golden plaques.

Persons

Another orientation will emphasize the works of artists like Jean-Baptiste Madou, Charles Onghena, Charles Baugniet, Adolphe-François Pannemaker, Paul Lauters, Henry Brown, artists from the l’École Royale de Gravure in Brussels and the students of Luigi Calamatta on the early works of Félicien Rops, as well as unknown artists. Their works will be put into perspective with the painting and engraving by examining the respective part of the engraver and that of the illustrator or painter, and its necessary relation with the text.

Locations

Another approach will help define a synthesis related to illustrated prints in certain editorial locations: Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Liège, Mons or Tournai. The emphasis could be on certain enterprising editors, such as Vandecasteele-Werbrouck and Buffa in Bruges, Dominique Avanzo in Liège, Dewasme-Pletinckx in Tournai and Brussels, as well as certain institutions such as the Société des Beaux-Arts or the Société belge de Librairie de Hauman in Brussels.

Genres

Techniques and artists have close relationships with the genres practiced: religious publications, literary works, history books, commemorative publications, art books and facsimiles, illustrated press and magazines, almanacs, popular books, scientific books, atlases, topographical guides, publications linked to railroads, views of castles and picturesque sites, etc. This constitutes yet another approach.

Distribution

The study of the commercial distribution of these illustrated publications in Belgium or abroad in particular forgeries will help address economical aspects. The distribution takes into account subscriptions, subscriptions to series and collections, printing on paper and different mediums according to target audiences, the geography of commercial networks, the use of these prints and their readership.

Continuity

Finally, we would like to define the view of these illustrated publications of the 19^th century, their continuity and study them by addressing the problem of collections, collectors, as well as certain funds of representative libraries of the genre.

The colloquium will take place at the Royal Library of Belgium on 19 and 20 November 2012. Registration is free. The acts of the colloquium will be edited.

We kindly ask you to send in a communication proposal and a working title before 15 October 2011, accompanied by a résumé of no more than a half page.

Contacts:

Claude Sorgeloos

Royal Library of Belgium

Old and Rare Books Section

Blvd. de l’Empereur, 4

1000 Brussels

Phone: 02.519.5731

Fax: 02.519.5735

Miraeus Lecture (Antwerp, 6 April 2011): David Shaw, "Poelman and Plantin. Publishing the Classics in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp"

2011-03-24T11:45:00.018+01:00

In 2009 Vlaamse Werkgroep Boekgeschiedenis inaugurated a lecture series on themes in book history, to be held four times annually on Wednesday's in the Erfgoedbibliotheek's Nottebohmzaal. The initiative has recently turned into the Miraeus Lectures, with additional support of the Vereniging van Antwerpse Bibliofielen (=Association of Antwerp Bibliophiles).

Other venues potentially are not ruled out for the Miraeus Lectures. The first lecture this Spring is held in the Plantin-Moretus Museum, on Wednesday 6 April 2011 at 6 p.m. Lecturer is David Shaw, on "Poelman and Plantin. Publishing the Classics in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp".

The biggest studies written so far on printer Christophe Plantin are those by Leon Voet and Jenny Voet-Grisolle, the two-volume The Golden Compasses, A History and Evaluation of the Printing and Publishing Activities of the Officina Plantiniana (1969), and the classic 6-volume The Plantin Press (155-1589). A Bibliography of the works printed and published by Christopher Plantin at Antwerp and Leiden.

Another couple is walking in the footsteps of the Voets for Plantin with two studies on the use of printed illustration in Plantin editions, namely Karen L. Bowen's Christopher Plantin's Book of Hours: Illustration and Production (1997) and Karen L. Bowen and Dirk Imhof's Christopher Plantin and Engraved Book Illustrations in Sixteenth-Centry Europe (2008).

But all is not said and done yet on the Plantin-Moretus printing press, particularly because the business archive still awaits excavation and thorough examination from scholars. The museum has started a piecemeal digitization project - the Flemish government should actually turn this into its third prestigious project after ILE (the edition of the letters by Justus Lipsius in 20 volumes) and the STCV (the online Short Title Catalogus Vlaanderen).

So what are we to expect from David Shaw's talk? Antwerp in the sixteenth century was what Amsterdam became in the next: a vibrant, intensely international commercial hub experiencing its Golden Age. In that century it took the lead from Deventer with the hightest number of printing houses in the Old Netherlands. As the city did not house a university, school masters' schools -like that of Gabriel Meurier- or printing houses were the next best venues for languages and learning.

Greek had been introduced in the Old Netherlands by Dirk Martens and Joannes van Westfalen, and Leuven after 1517 with its Collegium Trilingue became an important center for the study of Greek, Latin and Hebrew. In his former assistant Rutger Rescius Dirk Martens would find a worthy successor to print many Greek and Latin college textbooks.

Decades later, Plantin easily was the richest owner of fonts and printing workshop material out of Antwerp. His abodes were often crowded with scholars pouring over the material to see it appear in print, on many topics. His crowning achievement in scholarship collaboration no doubt was the Polyglot Bible or Biblia Regia.

As to the classics, works in Greek and Latin, a great number of local scholars worked with him: Willem and Dirk Canter from Utrecht and Leuven on Aeschylos (1580), Janus Dousa on Catullus, Mekerkius on Greek pronunciation, the perennial Lipsius on Tacitus, Steewechius on Vegetius, Bonaventura Vulcanius on Callimachus, and so on.

Or Plantin selected from the book fairs at Paris and Frankfurt works first seen abroad, such as the emblemata editions by Joannes Sambucus, French and Italian endeavors on Virgil by Fulvius Ursinus, the cantankerous Joseph Scaliger and Marc Antoine Muret, and the often reprinted Catullus, Tibullus et Propertius that was first published by Aldus in 1511.

In his Annales de l'imprimerie des Alde (1834), Auguste Renouard wrote of the famous Aldus Manutius and his son Paul, who operated from Venice in the late 15th and at the cusp of the 16th century: Remplis d'une admiration enthousiaste pour les chefs-d'oeuvre littéraires de la Grèce et Rome, ils sacrifièrent les avantages de réputation et de fortune (..) et dévouèrent leur vie entière à tirer les écrivains anciens du chaos où huit siècles de barbarie les avaient plongés.

Although Renouard's admiration for the trendsetters the Alduses were for Greek and Latin texts is more than justified, his Winckelmannish hyperbole on how these works came to us somewhat obscures the work of editors and the many sources –in manuscript or printed form and often from earlier centuries- that lay at the basis of a new edition.

As an editor, Theodorus Pulmannus or Dirk Poelman (1512-1581) is expected to particularly stand out for the Plantin house, as his archives are presently part of the Plantin-Moretus Archives. He edited many authors: Avianus, Horatius, Lucanus, and Terentius Afer, to name a few. We eagerly await David Shaw's talk to zero in on some more detail.

Venue: Miraeus Lecture, Museum Plantin-Moretus, Vrijdagmarkt 22, 2000 Antwerpen, Wednesday 6 April, 2011, 6-7.30 p.m.

Illustration: woodcut initial and page from Novum Iesu Christi D.N. Testamentum, ascribed to Christophe Plantin (1566). Cultura Fonds Collection.

The privilege may be yours, but only with battle: Jan I Moretus and the Struggle for the Plantin Press (Antwerp, until 16 January, 2011)

2010-12-22T11:14:00.018+01:00

Forget the snow, forget the glühwein at noisy Christmas markets. Museum Plantin-Moretus (MPM) at Antwerp awaits you for the final month of the exhibition Jan I Moretus and The Struggle for the Plantin Press (until January 16, 2011). According to museum director Iris Kockelbergh, the show, which marks the 400th anniversary of Moretus's death in 1610, so far has been quite succesful with the public.

The serene atmosphere in these historical premises, Christopher Plantin's former print shop, belies the quarrelsome content on display: a family of printers fighting over a will, a roster of competitors aspiring to obtain the Plantin-Moretus exclusive printing privileges.

The story that curator Dirk Imhof (Cambridge University - Munby Fellow) tells is that of a successor having to battle his way through, but who eventually, in the span of his own 20-year career, steers the family business with an able hand. And as with books, Museum Plantin-Moretus is able to illustrate some finer details of this story with its unique archive.

The first document to attract the visitor's eye is Plantin's will, drawn up in 1588. Not only stood Christopher Plantin (d. 1 July, 1589) at the helm of a large printing house that remained active from the mid 16th until the mid 19th century, he also had five daughters who all married future printers who in turn set up shop at Antwerp, Leiden and Paris. Jan I Moretus (pictured, courtesy of MPM) had been assisting his father-in-law at Antwerp.

Plantin's choice to bequeathe the printing business to his wife, and after her death, to Jan I Moretus, did not fall well with the other family members. Moretus first had to come to a financial settlement with the other daughters and sons-in-law, and a final agreement was not possible until after a few drafts, as seen on display.

The battle for printer privileges takes up most of the exhibition, and Dirk Imhof expanded on this theme during a short international symposium entitled The Letter of the Law: Regulation and Censorship of the Book Trade in Early Modern Europe, organized by MPM and Vlaamse Werkgroep Boekgeschiedenis on 20 December, 2010.

Together with the entire business, Jan I Moretus inherited every privilege that Plantin was ever granted by the authorities. A privilege secured a distribution and sales monopoly over each new title that a printer was able to produce.

As Imhof was able to see in the Plantin-Moretus archival material, Jan I Moretus's practices to secure privileges bordered the margins of legality. With one of the Antwerp authorities in this matter he was distantly related, and naturally, having the best of relations. Some civil servants even kept Moretus perfectly in the know about the 'schemes' of his colleagues to steal away some of his privileges.

In the Netherlands, the Plantin-Moretus house had long enjoyed an exclusive position in the very lucrative business of liturgical works and Bibles. As demand for these kinds of books remained very high, several printers in the Netherlands tried to get their share of the cake by petitioning for privileges or simply by printing unauthorized liturgical editions: often by copying Moretus in cheaper editions on lesser quality-paper.

As Imhof was also to show with examples, some of the problems with local or foreign editions were attributed to Jan I Moretus himself, who not always put much effort in securing a general privilege for new editions. Was this negligence? Overconfidence? Whenever foreign printers challenged Moretus with rival editions, he was forced to act and secure his business.

If you think family fended for family in this matter, think again. When Plantin's son-in-law Aegidius Beys in Paris sought to benefit from the same privileges as Jan I Moretus as coheir, he was shown the exact same cold shoulder as many non-family printers. Specifically Beys sought part of the business in liturgical works. Eventually the sons-in-law went to court before the Council of Brabant, and the matter was settled in favor of Moretus.

At the symposium on 20 December 2010, three other speakers presented cases. Angela Nuovo (University of Udine) showed that the privilege system in Venice in the 16th century developed from an anti-monopolistic system, one characterized by a fair chance for each printer to obtain privileges for a limited time for new works that they were able to produce, to a system that became more person-related that required printers to obtain favors from the papal authority at Rome. Rome in Italy was to become the second printing center largely due to the relocation of Venetian firms. Some Italian printers traded their privileges to third parties who gained access to the Italian market.

Natalia Maillard Alvarez (European University Institute, Florence) dwelled on Spanish booksellers' and printers' strategies versus the Inquisition in the 16th century that actually benefited the book trade. Often booksellers became familiares or collaborators of the Spanish Inquisition themselved, thus avoiding severe indictment for themselves and colleagues.

So far, as Maillard Alvarez points out, Spain still lacks a comprehensive study on book distribution, one that supersedes the cases of individual printer families. A very interesting study could be made of the connections between multi-lingual and often interconnected families such as Giunti, Portinari, Boyer and Bellerus and their commercial interests in both Spain and Portugal, the Americas and Europe.

And finally, Stijn Van Rossem (University of Antwerp) zoomed in on the Verdussen family of printers, active at Antwerp in the 17th century. As a printer family, it compares more or less to the Plantin-Moretus dynasty in success, in duration (a printing business of nearly 250 years), and definitely in rich extant archival material, which allows Van Rossem to show how these printers tried to negotiate the legal framework which made their business thrive.

Once in a Lifetime: Admiring the Anjou Bible at Leuven

2010-08-25T14:28:00.011+02:00

This is a Going East (3): East of Brussels, at Leuven, is where on 16 September 2010 the exhibition Bijbel van Anjou, Napels 1340: Een koninklijk handschrift ontsluierd (Anjou Bible, Naples 1340: a royal manuscript unveiled) opens at Museum M, city of Leuven's recently overhauled municipal museum.

Some readers may know that one of the, if not the, savviest manager-slash-art historian resides in Leuven, more precisely at Illuminare, Study Centre of Medieval Art. Indeed, Jan van der Stock is the only person here to have ever pulled off a Named Chair in Arts & Humanities: the Rogier van der Weydenleerstoel - Paul & Dora Janssen. And one of few who does not mince words when it comes to defending this country's rich and precious heritage against ignorance.

If anything has to with Netherlandic Art, manuscripts and bindings in this city, or with princesses such as Mathilde and Maxima opening exhibitions, we can bet our head on it that Jan van der Stock is behind its marketing machinery.

Even if in the case of this precious manuscript, Illuminare does a home run - after years of careful restorating work, the Anjou Bible is ready to go back to its Leuven vault, but not before allowing the public to catch a glimpse and to gather more about how a Naples manuscript -Medieval manuscripts are wont to travel, as history always teaches- ended up here.

This restauration work is the credit of this exhibition's curator: Lieve Watteeuw, whose line of work merits a chair on its own. Lieve in recent years became a PhD with a thesis entitled De handdruk van Chronos - Zorgen voor het Middeleeuwse manuscript 1731-1937 (The handshake of Chronos: Care for the Medieval Manuscript 1731-1937), about restoration theory and practice pertaining to the Burgundy library - yet awaiting translation and publication in English.

We hope that princesses may hereby return many times to admire Low Countries' artefacts with their broods - incognito.

Venue:
Museum M.
L.Vanderkelenstraat 28
3000 Leuven
www.mleuven.be

The Anjou Bible runs until 5 December 2010.
Tue-Sunday 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Going East (2): 800 years of Crosier Art in Western Europe on show at Rheine (Germany)

2010-08-23T09:30:00.038+02:00

A 3-hour drive away from Brussels lies the town of Rheine in Nordrhein-Westfalen: close to Holland and Belgium, and a bow's arrow from Niedersachsen. And adjacent to the German highway, but tucked away in greenery lies Kloster Bentlage, which the city of Rheine beautifully restored and which serves as municipal museum grounds.

This city museum now plays host to an exhibition highlighting 800 years of Crosier art in Western-Europe. Fittlingly, because in 1437 members of the order of the Holy Cross, Crosiers, settled in Rheine and built Kloster Bentlage. The order wasn't dissolved until 1803, when the monastery grounds came into the family Looz-Corswarem from Liège-Rhine territory.

The order of he Holy Cross was founded in the 13th century in Belgium in the city of Huy. From the river Meuse/Maas and other places in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège and the Rhineland, the order spread all over Europe, to places like Paris and London. St Agatha in Cuijk (Holland) for instance played an important role in the order's history in the 15th century.

Although the Crosier order of canons regular today is thriving on four continents, it must be very pleased to see that Rheine took the lead in an exhibition celebrating its origins and involving artefacts from at least three countries.

Our interest involves the many items on loan from places like Brussels, Liège, Denderleeuw and Cuijck for among others sculpture, manuscripts, and bindings, all handled and placed expertly by curators and conservators at Rheine.

The exhibition opened on 29 August 2010 with festivities and representation from the Crosier's Generalate. It remains on show until 27 February 2011.

Venue:
Museum Kloster Bentlage
Bentlager Weg 130
48432 Rheine
www.kloster-bentlage.de

Opening hours:
Wednesday-Sunday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Going East (1): Bibliophily in Hasselt

2010-08-23T09:30:00.029+02:00

Is the exhibition Liefde voor het boek. Een keuze bibliofiele boeken, kunstenaarsboeken & boekobjecten in Vlaanderen vanaf 1900 tot 2010 currently on display in the city of Hasselt, writing a new chapter in the history of Flemish bibliophily / bibliophily in Flanders?

Firstly, let's recall -from Pierre Wigny's introduction to La bibliothèque de l'honnête homme- what a bibliophile yearns for, in contrast to an ordinary reader: l'édition originale, le petit tirage, l'illustration rare, la reliure signée; il manie lui-même avec amour le volume que les amis peuvent seulement regarder sans y toucher.

In many respects, to limit an overview of bibliophily in Belgium to Flanders has.. well.. its limits. Flemish bibliophile owners may live in Brussels or Wallonia and for Walloon collectors vice versa. Several reforms of state have Brussels playing a role as third party. The books on display are hardly by Flemish authors/in Dutch only, which is the official language in Flanders and of the Flemish in Belgium, let alone made by strictly Flemish artisans.

But if one keeps these nuances -to which Belgians eternally seem condemned, in mind, this choice can also entirely be justified. A language is a language, a culture is a culture and two aren't always one. Each culture has its own history of coming into being and its own highlights in different times. Such is the case for the Dutch- and French- and even German-speaking communities in this country.

And to complicate matters more, whoever tackles bibliophily in Flanders, may want to peek over the northern borders into The Netherlands, and vice versa, as the Flemish share their language and some of their history and literary predilections with that country.

Whoever wants to document bibliophily pertaining specifically to Flanders, will have to hark back to 1980, to a seminal exhibition held at Brussels. It did not emanate from our Royal and National Library just yet, just as bibliophile societies in those days and before rarely operated in terms of binary oppositions such as Flemish/Walloon. Books were.. well, Belgian.

The 1980 exhibition, entitled Vlaamse bibliofiele uitgaven 1830-1980, was held courtesy of a private initiative: VEV-Komitee Brussel (present-day Voka, Flemish association of entrepreneurs). It took place only steps away from our National Library, but oh, what a landing - on Grote Markt/Grand Place 19 in Brussels.

Compilers of worthwhile data from 147 books from 25 collections back then were Hilda van Assche, Richard Baeyens and Elly Cockx-Indestege. Ludo Simons wrote the introduction about 150 years of bibliophile editions of Flemish authors.

Our Royal and National Library did follow suit with two similar exhibitions, in 1991 and in 2004. For Flemish production a follow-up since 1988, but for our National Library a covering of book production according to its mission: nationally.

The first exhibition at the National library was in 1991 with catalogue: Bibliofiele uitgaven in België 1985-1990. Tentoonstellingscatalogus - Editions bibliophiliques en Belgique 1985-1990. Catalogue d'exposition. Myriam Buyst and Jo Depuydt. Introduction by Elly Cockx-Indestege. Brussels, 1991 (ISBN 90-6637-053-X; 2-87093-056-9).

The follow-up exhibition at the National library from 1994 was documented in Belgische bibliofiele uitgevers - Éditeurs belges de bibliophilie 1991-2003. Brussels, 2004 (ISBN 2-87093-150-6).

And at the end of the 1990s let's not forget the role of DRUKsel, a small book fair held at the city of Ghent devoted to beautiful books, with a varying degree of artisan publishers and printers from this country and broad. In its approach it defied categorization - DRUKsel was not devoted to bibliophily only, certainly not to bibliophily in a narrow sense. Who knows, perhaps the fair's fraying margins also contributed to its demise some years later.

Curator of Liefde voor het boek is Ludo Raskin, a former arts director to the province of Limburg and the city of Hasselt. The occasion is the Virga Jesse Feast 2010, a procession with religious roots occurring every seven years in Hasselt. Raskin's aim is an ambitious one - to select highlights from one entire century, in this case the 20th.

The exhibition saiys to reserve room for the work of artists who are strongly linked to bibliophily: Henry van de Velde, Max Elskamp, Frans Masereel, Jozef Cantré, Henri Van Straten, Edgard Tytgat and Paul Van Ostayen. It also highlights artist books of Roger Raveel, Hugo Claus, Jan Vanriet, Paul Ibou, which came about courtesy of many Flemish private presses. The curator also chose to shed light on specifically regional output from Limburg.

Venue:
Cultuurcentrum Hasselt
Kunstlaan 5
B-3500 Hasselt
www.ccha.be

Opening hours:
Tue-Fri 10 a.m. - 5 p.m, Sat-Sun 1-5 p.m.
Special opening hours:
Sat 14 / Sun 15 / Thu 19 / Sun 22 / Tue 24 / Sat 28 August: 7-10 p.m.

Catalogues:
-A catalogue, “Liefde voor het boek” (22,5/22,5 cm, 120 p) illustrated, with books from 70 artists and an introduction by Ludo Raskin. Edition of 500 copies. Price: € 15.
-A bibliophile edition “De Laatste Weg – Via Crucis. Een kruisweg in beeld en woord” with sculpture by Vincent Van Den Meersch and poems selected by Piet Thomas. Edition of 50 numbered copies (29,7 x 42 cm, 76 p). Price: € 100.

EHC's changed hours for users

2010-08-23T09:13:00.008+02:00

Users of readers' room facilities at EHC - Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience at Antwerp, take heed: EHC is soon having some on-site construction, which will eventually result in a renovated, separate room for microfilm use.

To this effect, the general reading room will close completely between 6 and 10 September 2010, and it will be open with reduced capacity (limited photocopying, scanning and microfilm access) between 13 and 17 September 2010. Normal access is to be expected from 20 September 2010 onwards.

Inter Library Loan will still be possible during this time. The entrance at Korte Nieuwstraat-2000 Antwerpen will be transformed into an information desk. Newspapers will be available there.

For more information, contact Peter Roegiest, Head of Reading Room Facilities at phone +32 3 338 87 31 or consciencebibliotheek@stad.antwerpen.be.

iPad

2010-05-01T12:52:00.002+02:00

Mountain View, Computer Science Museum. A man and his iPad.

The Masters' and the Forgers' Secrets

2010-03-10T11:24:00.011+01:00

An announcement slightly out of category, as we don't usually deal with art history in these pages, but of a publication which may interest this readership: art historian Roger Marijnissen's final legacy of lifelong work: x-raying great works of mostly Netherlandish art.

Marijnissen started x-raying art works in 1950. Even though the author's name features prominently on the cover (the publisher's decision), this work has been executed as much by Guido Vandevoorde, Leopold Kockaert, Roger Van Schoute, and Francis Cuigniez. Sixty years later, their work is published in The Master's and the Forger's Secrets. X-Ray Authentication of Paintings (Mercatorfonds, 2009 - ISBN 978-90-6153-929-2).

The author has been much maligned here in this country, as he always has been a staunch defender of leaving precious works exactly where they are, thus blasting any blockbuster exhibition. He's been known to say to many an obtuse colleague that even the slightest transportation can damage these works irreparably.

He has also become isolated with this technique, even though this team of researchers do state very honestly if and when x-raying remains inconclusive. However, there aren't many art historians today who possess either the knowledge about x-ray technology nor the practical lore of how the old masters prepared a canvas.

For non-specialists too, this work is alluring, because it is an invitation to learn how to see.

R.H. Marijnissen. The Master's and the Forger's Secrets. X-Ray Authentication of Paintings (Mercatorfonds, 2009 - ISBN 978-90-6153-929-2). Numerous black and white and color illustrations. 431 p.

Ardent Endeavor: un délice du Pays de Liège (part I)

2010-02-25T16:33:00.013+01:00

Are book collectors and book curators worlds apart? The former might well be hoarding books since the age of 15. A he could have stored books under the beds of his children, and a she could have been briskly bidding at auction unbenownst to her husband. The book curator meanwhile may have prudently acquired a few precious items, and studied many more in the silence of the university library.

A collector is capable of pulling out each precious treasure in a sequence that would rival artillery fire, but rarely jots down basic information on so much as a notecard. The book curator or historian is able to x-ray a book, present it under peer review in the shape of statistical, material and bibliographic facts, which isn't to say that he or she remains obtuse to its beauty, or doesn't know a jolly good story or two.

United by their love of a similar object, the twain do meet: in bibliophile societies. Book historians may deliver the acumen for membership publications, whereas venerable collectors may bring up the memory of Baron such and such, and may have seen every elegant drawing room and château with a library.

Recently, an elegant mingling of both worlds has taken place in the city of Liège (Luik) and within the Société des Bibliophiles Liégeois, which resulted in a sumptuous publication: Florilège du livre en principauté de Liège du IXe au XVIIIe siècle (2009, ISBN 978-2-9600900-0-0).

This is merely the announcement; we hope to come back to the contents of this volume in the next two weeks.

Details:
Florilège du livre en principauté de Liège du IXe au XVIIIe siècle. Société des Bibliophiles Liégeois, 2009. 560 p. numerous color illustrations. Hard cover and colored dust-jacked. ISBN 978-2-9600900-0-0. Paul Bruyère and Alain Marchandisse, Scientific Editors. Available by subscription from the Société des Bibliophiles Liégeois.

Sounds of the city 18: Conference on and Festival of 18th-century music (Antwerp, 11-14 March 2010)

2010-02-18T11:33:00.007+01:00

Among my acquaintances I have someone with an extensive collection of operas on vinyl, from Monteverdi to this day. While he was leafing through his operas all placed in chronological order, I was struck not to know that our own Belgian composer of opéras comiques, André Ernest Modeste Grétry (Luik/Liège 1741-France 1813), was Mozart's contemporary.

Grétry's name will be dropped in the upcoming conference, in English, at Antwerp devoted to 18th-century music culture in an urban environment, entitled Stadsklanken 18 - Sounds of the city 18, the 18 referring here to the century under scrutiny.

Not only is the eighteenth century in Flanders a blind spot on my personal map, studies related to this century in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium seem scarce to me. In the Taalunie’s prestigious book series on the history of Dutch literature, emeritus professor Joost Kloek has yet to publish the volume related to the 18th century. Or is it a false impression? And did our regions know its share of book dealers and other savants discussing the local epistolary novel, prince de Ligne and Voltaire?

Stadsklanken 18 – Sounds of the City 18 is looking at the music culture of the city of Antwerp in the 18^th-century. Several aspects of music culture – private music, church music, song books, music and spectacle, performance practice for historical music, – are held against the light of a broader picture of music culture in Western European cities at that time.

The conference is interdisciplinary, as musicologists, musicians, (book) historians and concert organizers mingle on the subject in lectures and panel talks.

The conference is accompanied by a choice selection of concerts: the performance of an opera called Sinjoôr in China performed in Kasteel d’Ursel in Hingene, church music, organ music, a Sunday concert of carillon music, and the performance of eighteenth-century dance music and historical dance by specialist in the field Lieven Baert.

Members of Vlaamse Werkgroep Boekgeschiedenis, the Dutch-speaking chapter of book historians in this country, are delivering talks. Timothy De Paepe has a talk called “Les opéras étaient en vogue” (Friday 12 March 2010, morning session 10.00 a.m. - 12.30 p.m.), and Maartje De Wilde tackles “Merriness and Misfortune in Songbooks” (Friday 12 March, afternoon session 1.45-3.45 p.m.).

Registration for conference and concerts is mandatory, but some activities are free.
All details here: Stadsklanken 18 – Sounds of the City 18. Date: 11-14 March 2010. Venue: Cultureel Congrescentrum Elzenveld, Antwerp, as well as other locations.

VWB Lectures 2010: Belgium’s First Printers (24 February) - Color on 15th-century Title Pages (28 April)

2010-02-18T10:54:00.008+01:00

Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience at Antwerp –formerly Stadsbibliotheek - I am constantly using EHC now to refer to this heritage library, and I invite my readership to do the same – has the biggest collection of rare books and documents in the Dutch speaking part of this country (not counting our Royal Library at Brussels). And this library has the added advantage of being located in proximity of the Museum Plantin-Moretus.

EHC fittingly took it upon itself to embrace the VWB lectures series, VWB as in Vlaamse Werkgroep Boekgeschiedenis, society of book historians in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. These lectures on current themes in book history have become part and parcel of EHC’s calendar.

Venue 4 times a year is Wednesday at 5 pm in EHC’s Nottebohmzaal, a 19^th-century hall filled with books which for every tourist in Antwerp is a must see.

Too much related to paper heritage in this country is still a best kept secret, and these pages are vibrantly trying to get much out of that category. We have in this country a paper heritage so fine, that I think foreign visitors should travel to us to become acquainted. Just like one should travel for Old Masters - Old Masters shouldn’t travel for us.

Now on to the first VWB lectures in 2010. On Wednesday 24 February, Renaud Adam, from the Rare Books Department at Belgium’s Royal Library (Brussels), is holding a lecture in French on Belgium’s first 15^th-century printers, entitled “Alost, le berceau de l'imprimerie en Belgique? Retour sur l'atelier de Jean de Westphalie et Thierry Martens (1473-1474).”

We have previously mentioned the new census on Dirk Martens that Renaud Adam and Alexandre Vanautgaerden have published (ISBN 978-2-503-53112-0 ; jointly with Passeurs de textes: 978-2-503-53118-2). Next to well-known bibliographies for incunabula and Van Iseghem for Martens, Adam & Vanautgaerden should become a new staple in reference libraries.

On Wednesday 28 April, Rémi Mathis (Bibliothèque de l'Université Paris Descartes/CNRS) will hold a talk in English entitled “Red in a black and white world. Coloured title-pages in early printed books.” He will no doubt summarize the most important findings about the use of colored ink on title pages in the earliest days of hand-printed books.

Venue: EHC – Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience - Hendrik Conscienceplein 4, 2000 Antwerp – Wednesdays, 5.00-6.30 pm. Entrance is free.

Prestigious American Prize for Seminal Study on Plantinian Illustration

2009-11-20T09:45:00.006+01:00

On a day when a Belgian prime minister is receiving accolade for becoming the first President ever of the European Counsel, we are pleased to announce that the book Christopher Plantin and Engraved Book Illustrations in Sixtieenth-Century Europe, by Karen L. Bowen and Dirk Imhof (Cambridge UP, ISBN 978052185276-0), has received the Roland H. Bainton Book Prize.

The Roland H. Bainton Prize was named after a professor of church history at the seminary of Yale University, and is awarded yearly for best books in Art and Music History, History/Theology, and Literature.

The news has yet to be announced by Sixteenth-Century Society & Conference (SCSC), which appoints the committee who chose this year's winners. We previously announced publication of this study here.

Bowen and Imhof's study borrows heavily on archival research to document how Plantin's choice for etchings influenced a change in taste with regard to book illustration at the time. Their book is to date the most comprehensive monograph on 16th-century intaglio production and trade for our region, and a must-have for any serious research library.

Theodoricus Martinus Typographus (Erasmus House Museum, 23 October-6 December 2009)

2009-10-20T16:14:00.006+02:00

One would think that by now scholars would have unearthed everything about the origin of printing. Not quite. For more than three centuries, Paul Needham wrote in The Invention and the Early Spread of European Printing As Represented in the Scheide Library (2007), antiquaries and scholars have been trying to identify and pin down the earliest survival of printing. An attempt Needham still defined as "not banal."

Two Belgian scholars have placed themselves in that tradition: Renaud Adam and Alexandre Vanautgaerden, with their recent study "Thierry Martens et la figure de l'imprimeur humaniste. (Une nouvelle biographie)," Brepols, 2009, ISBN 978-2-503-53112-0. Theodoricus Martinus or Dirk Martens is none other that Belgium's first printer: every child is taught at school that Martens printed the first book at Aalst (Alost).

When the Low Countries -Belgium and Holland- celebrated the 500th anniversary of printing in 1973 -with a catalogue from Belgium's Royal Library that became an instant classic- the prototypographi were, as was admitted, chosen by convention, and differently so along national borders, with Martens as first printer for Belgium. Streamlining festivities even more, both countries were letting printing begin in 1473.

As Adam & Vanautgaerden write, a partnership between Dirk Martens and the German Joannes van Westfalen comes closer to the truth of the first printed book at Alost. Already in 1474, Joannes van Westfalen would be a very succesful printer in the city of Leuven, and the first activity of Martens at Alost was short-lived. Whether both men actually did meet in Venice, as their first printing material seems to betray, and who was actually printing at Alost, are just two of many questions laden with mystery.

Still, the new census by Adam & Vanautgaerden of 269 editions attributed to Dirk Martens also reveals that there is a good reason to shed light anew on our first printer: more so than Joannes van Westfalen, Martens was successful at experimenting with and introducing new language and character sets, and therefore deserves to be celebrated as first typographer.

The exhibition "Theodoricus Martinus Typographus" looks at Martens as graphic designer. It also puts ancient and contemporary typography in juxtaposition. The exhibition is in the hands of a graphic design studio from Brussels, Sign, which has signed every card or web page of the Erasmus House Museum in the last 15 years.

Details: Theodoricus Martinus Typographus. Exhibition. Erasmus House Museum, Anderlecht (Brussels). 23 October - 6 December, 2009.

VWB Lecture at Antwerp (28 October 2009): The Jesuits in China

2009-10-06T16:11:00.007+02:00

It's official: Vlaamse Werkgroep Boekgeschiedenis (VWB), test riding last Spring with lectures in book history, now has its foot in the door at Antwerp's largest heritage library, Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience at Concienceplein. Two lectures are planned before Christmas; 4 lectures are held each year.

VWB aims at acquainting a larger public with scholars from this country and abroad who present ongoing research or current topics in the history of books.

Venue for these Wednesday lectures is the -must-see- Nottebohmzaal. Starting time is 6 p.m. On Wednesdays, the Hendrik Conscience Library is open until 8 p.m. Each lecture is followed by a Q&A from the audience. Entrance is free.

Two lectures are planned before Christmas. On Wednesday 28 October 2009 Professor Noel Golvers from the Ferdinand Verbiest Instituut (KU Leuven) will hold a lecture entitled The Jesuits in China in the 17th and 18th centuries: the ‘Ultima Thule’ of the European book distribution.

Note: by exception, Golvers' lecture will start one hour earlier: 5 p.m.

In fact, professor Golvers is test riding as well. He will dwell on recent research on this theme at the Jesuitica Conference at Leuven (3-5 December 2009). More on that in a future post.

Golvers has also written about a corpus of 5000 books that was known as the last Western library in Beijing in the 19th century, the Beitang Library. See Noël Golvers, "De jezuïetenmissie in China (17de-18de eeuw): (Ook) een kwestie van Westerse boeken en bibliotheken," in De Gulden Passer 83:2005, p. 201-221. This library was deemed lost, but its holdings have been incorporated by the Peiching Tushuguan library in Beijing.

Picture: The Nottebohmzaal.

Scripta manent

2009-07-28T10:46:00.004+02:00

The thick of summer permits an off-track musing. The New York Times obituary for Merce Cunningham has a beautiful quote by the choreographer on the impermanence of dance:

"[Dancing] gives you nothing back, no manuscripts to store away, no paintings to show on walls and maybe hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that single fleeting moment when you feel alive."

Illustration: Illuminated initial, Responsoriale, Crosiers, Pays de Liège, 1504. Collection Cultura Fonds.

Marie-Claude Felton: To Publish and Perish: The Misadventures of Self-Publishing Authors in 18th Century Paris (Antwerp, 24 June 2009)

2009-06-18T09:38:00.008+02:00

Vlaamse Werkgroep Boekgeschiedenis has the pleasure to announce its second lecture in book history: "To Publish and Perish: The misadventures of self-publishing authors in 18th-century Paris." Speaker is Marie-Claude Felton (EHESS, Paris/UQAM, Montreal).

Ms. Felton's abstract: In 18th-century Paris, the booksellers' guild maintained a well-established monopoly over the publishing business: no book was to be printed or sold by anyone outside of their corporation. During a century when authors sought more independence and began to assert their authority and rights over their work, however, some writers tried to get published on their own terms without having to relinquish their rights to a bookseller (and publisher), which was then the rule. The study of these authors' multiple endeavors allows us to examine the tensions that subsisted between authors and publishers in a world still dominated by privileges, and to realize just how far some writers would go to see their talent and knowledge be immortalized in print.

Venue: Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience, Hendrik Conscienceplein 4, 2000 Antwerpen (Nottebohmzaal). Wednesday 24 June 2009 at 5 p.m. (until 6.30 p.m.).

Entrance free, but advance notification preferred. Lecture followed by drink. Notification: via Boekgeschiedenis.be, joint site of the Flemish chapter of Book researchers and practitioners, and of the Bibliophile Society at Antwerp.

Happy Birthday, STCN!

2009-06-04T11:10:00.007+02:00

Short-Title Catalogue Netherlands or STCN (www.kb.nl/stcn), is the online retrospective bibliography of books published between 1540-1800 in The Netherlands, and of Dutch books printed abroad. The project will be celebrating its completion on 25 June 2009.

Occasion for these wishes is the festive closure of the STCN-project at Leiden, today, 4 June, 2009, with an exhibition, Vreemdigheden en rariteyten; zeldzame boeken uit de Leidse collecties, set to illustrate the diversity of book production at Leiden. The contribution of Leiden imprints at University of Leiden to STCN is vast: 70.000 titles and 90.000 copies. But Leiden gained prominence around 1575, when the oldest still existing university of The Netherlands was founded.

In all, 170,000 (190,000) titles and 420,000 (500,000) copies have passed review. A total of 22 Dutch libraries and 2 libraries overseas, in London - holdings at BL and University of Londen, more precisely the Elzevier collection – have been receiving collaborators of the bureau of the STCN, who examined holdings.

Let’s recap. STCN kicked off in 1982. Phase 1 took 5 years, until 1987, and knew the input of 6 collaborators. Result was the description of all printed books before 1701 at the Royal Library in The Hague (KB Den Haag).

1988 marked the beginning of a phase 2, which was finalized in March 1997. All books in libraries in Amsterdam and Leiden were scrutinized. More collaborators got involved. In 1995, the last 100 years 1701-1800 were included, and the bureau got a foothold at KB Den Haag.

Phase 3, devoted to the period 1701-1800, saw completion in 2000, but was extended by 2 years. In 2002, at the end of phase 3, the database counted 123,000 entries.

For celebrations, and for another reason we’re glad to look extra muros.

In 1800, no “The Netherlands”, no “Belgium” existed. Willem I reunited what had been “Belgicum”, “Flandres”, “Paesi Bassi”, “Het Nederland” or “De Nederlanden”, as seen from Burgundy’s seat in France in the 15^th century and from Madrid the next.

Despite the Treaty of Münster in 1648, which ended a battle for political and religion differentiation, and which led to the 17 provinces of “Olanda” in the North, and the Spanish-Austrian provinces in the South, a mental separation took longer to take effect.

France later reunited les départments Belgiques, and so did Willem I. According to Hugo De Schepper, a North-South fissure did happen in Willem’s assemblée, due to the seating system.

So STCN has a sibling for Dutch editions printed in Belgium: STCV, Short Title Catalogus Vlaanderen.

STCV is younger: born in 2000, with a cradle at University of Antwerp and use of the university’s software. There's the input of 2 collaborators, and a description of editions in Dutch printed in Flanders in 1601-1700, at first not opting to ruffle the feathers of Belgica Typographica (BT). The approach slightly deviates from that of STCN.

Phase 1 lasted until 2003, and resulted in 6226 seen copies and 4850 entries. Phase 2 included other languages, and editions printed before 1601. Flemish government support –culture and education are regionalized in Belgium- was garnered along the way.

Today, Diederik Lanoye, STCV’s collaborator, is working at the Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience in Antwerp to cover lacunae for the 17^th century.

In the course of this year, STCV will be incorporated in the association of 6 Flemish heritage libraries or Erfgoedbibliotheken Vlaanderen. The bureau hopes to examine 2,400 copies per annum. Presently, the counter reached 10,000 entries.

2 New Portals for Bibliophily and Book History: Part 2

2009-05-13T14:35:00.010+02:00

They're not twittering, but two Belgian bibliophile societies with seats at Antwerp and Brussels are sounding new drums online. And the portal for book history in the Dutch-speaking part of the country became fresh-faced as well.

Part II
Contrary to Brussels, the bibliophiles at Antwerp have not opted for an individual portal. Issued from the Flemish (Dutch-speaking) northern part of this country, there is now 1 single portal for news about rare books: Boekgeschiedenis.be.

[picture to follow]

Boekgeschiedenis.be is the joint portal (and more) for Vlaamse Werkgroep Boekgeschiedenis (society for book historians in Flanders) and Vereniging van Antwerpse Bibliofielen, bibliophile society at Antwerp, with its seat at the Plantin-Moretus Museum.

Plenty of book historians of the Werkgroep being members of the Antwerpse Bibliofielen, and many of them sitting on the editorial board of De Gulden Passer, journal of the Vereniging van Antwerpse Bibliofielen, seem to be the main reasons behind this.

Members of both respectively can access the pages related to their society. Both already worked with memberships, and retain access to certain pages as a privilege for members. New visitors can easily become new members.

Boekgeschiedenis.be is available in Dutch only. It is work in progress, but the bonus lies in centralized access via Boekgeschiedenis.be to both De Gulden Passer, with future promises of digitization, and Kroniek van het gedrukte boek in de Nederlanden, searchable book reviews of books on books.
De Gulden Passer has turned into the journal of book history available from Flanders. Published as a yearbook, it will soon accelerate pace, and publish 2 issues a year.

Kroniek van het gedrukte boek in de Nederlanden is the chronicle of book reviews that since 1971 has been appearing in Archives et bibliothèques de Belgique = Archief- en bibliotheekwezen in België, paper journal edited at the Royal Library of Belgium.

In 2002, Johan Hanselaer performed the herculean task of bringing all book reviews online separately, known simply as "de Kroniek". Dutch only, and search options still limited, but this is an easy tool for anyone looking for recent literature or studies about the subject of the book.

2 New Portals for Bibliophily and Book History: Part I

2009-05-13T12:05:00.022+02:00

They're not twittering, but two Belgian bibliophile societies with seats at Antwerp and Brussels are sounding new drums online. And the portal for book history in the Dutch-speaking part of the country became fresh-faced as well.

Part I

The Société royale des bibliophiles et iconophiles de Belgique (SRBIB) presented its new website, Bibliobel.be, officially to its members on 1 April 2009. In 3 languages: French, Dutch and English. Access for members and non-members alike, but members have a closed section related to activities.
The journal of the SRBIB is called Le livre et l'estampe. For all 162 issues that have appeared between 1954 and 2004, the website provides indices on subject and author in printable documents. No hyperlinks; full text for the journal is not digitized, and remains a privilege to subscribers and institutional members.
The occasional visitor can however glean through the list of catalogues and publications that this society has published, and can easily order the items that are still available.

The SRBIB is looking forward to its 100th anniversary in 2010, and is preparing a sumptuous exhibition with treasures by its members at the Royal Library at Brussels called Belgica nostra.
More on that event later.

Vlaamse Werkgroep Boekgeschiedenis kicking off lecture series at Antwerp (29 April 2009)

2009-04-29T10:30:00.008+02:00

Vlaamse Werkgroep Boekgeschiedenis, the society uniting every person who takes a keen interest in rare books and manuscript research in the Dutch-speaking part of this country, is premiering a new international lecture series at Antwerp, in collaboration with the UA, University of Antwerp, and the EHC, Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience.

Venue is the historical Nottebohmzaal of the Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience (formerly Stadsbibliotheek), on Wednesdays, at 5 p.m.

The idea is to invite researchers from abroad who are in this country for research to deliver a talk about their current projects. Kicking off today, Wednesday 29 April 2009, is Professor Paul Dyck of Canadian Mennonite University, with "Picturing the World: Antwerp Biblical Illustrations at Little Gidding."

Professor Dyck will explain how a family from Little Gidding near Cambridge devised a cut and paste method to combine Prostestant New Testament text to Catholic imagery, largely biblical illustrations originating from Antwerp, resulting in 17th century illustrated Bibles.

Details: Wednesday 29 April 2009 from 5-6.30 p.m. Nottebohmzaal, Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience, Hendrik Conscienceplein 4, 2000 Antwerpen. Free access.

The next lecture, to be announced, will be held on 24 June 2009, same venue, same time, by Marie-Claude Felton (EHESS Paris - UQÀM, Montreal).

Erasmus's Social Network: Talk at Erasmus House (30 April 2009)

2009-04-29T09:58:00.012+02:00

2.0., Netlog, Facebook: sometimes one wonders how Vives and Erasmus would have dealt with these means of social networking. It's all the more exciting however to learn how a researcher today succeeds in unearthing the intellectual network of a humanist who lived 500 years ago.

Tomorrow, 30 April 2009 at 7.30 p.m., Franz Bierlaire, professor at ULg, University of Liège, and at the ULB , University of Brussels, delivers a talk, in French, at the Erasmus House at Brussels entitled "Le carnet d'adresses d'Erasme" or "Erasmus's address book".

Primary source is Erasmus's correspondence. Bierlaire will show to what extent the humanist's network helped to shape his writings.

Venue: Rue du Chapitre 31 Kapittelstraat 31, 1070 Brussels (Anderlecht). Metro: Saint-Guidon/Sint-Guido.

A Thing of Beauty at Ghent: Henry van de Velde's Book Designs (Design museum Gent, 21 March - 1 June 2009)

2009-04-21T15:11:00.021+02:00

April is not the cruellest month for book lovers and bibliophiles: the weather is good, and suddenly book-related activities abound in libraries and institutions.

Take a stroll around the city of Ghent, into the footsteps of designer and architect Henry van de Velde (Antwerp, 1893 - Zürich 1957). Literally so, by climbing the university library's Boekentoren / Tower of Books, and by taking a visit to the building that van de Velde designed.

The building dates from 1934 , the period during which van de Velde was teaching applied arts and architecture at the university (University Library, Rozier 9, 9000 Gent). While Google Books is currently ploughing away in some secret corner of this building, architects Robbrecht & Daem are planning its renovation.

Belgian by birth, but European by career, van de Velde was formed as a painter at Antwerp and Paris, but quickly relinquished this path in favor of the applied arts: he underwent some influence by the Arts & Crafts Movement, and started to design tableware, silverware, textiles, and on to furniture and buildings, among others his own house Bloemenwerf at Brussels.

As an architect, he had building contracts in Germany - Folkwangmuseum in Hagen, the Nietzsche Haus and the Kunstgewerbeschule in Weimar, Switzerland, Holland -the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, and Belgium - the University Library Ghent and the current Municipal Library "Tweebronnen" at Leuven. In Brussels, van de Velde was the first director of the Art School I.S.A.D., better known today as La Cambre.

Design museum Ghent, which houses items by van de Velde in its permanent collection, now hosts an exhibition highlighting book designs by van de Velde: "Henry van de Velde: Boekontwerp tussen art nouveau en nieuwe zakelijkheid."

What we see is a generous and beautiful amount of mostly morocco bindings with great variation in well-chosen, but tempered gilt decor. Sketches, drawings, photos, applied art and page designs -van de Velde did the page design for the monumental 1908 edition of Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra at Insel Verlag- provide some context. The only information missing is that of the binders and gilders, but surely the monograph lists that.

The exhibition was curated by John Dieter Brinks, owner of Triton Verlag, and was hosted in 2007 by Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum in The Hague in 2007, and from Ghent it will travel on to Berlin this fall. This European tour also serves to draw attention to a future sale.

"Henry van de Velde: Boekontwerp tussen art nouveau en nieuwe zakelijkheid." Design museum Gent, Jan Breydelstraat 5, 900 Gent (21 March - 1 June 2009). No catalogue, but a monograph by the curator: "Denkmal des Geistes: Die Buchkunst Henry van de Veldes", ISBN 3-935518-72-9, 461 pages, 180 euro, to be ordered directly at Triton Verlag.

Albertine disparue: digitization at Belgium's National Library

2009-02-27T16:29:00.008+01:00

KBR, Belgium's National Library or Royal Library Albert I, is just about to present to the public its portal for access to its digitized holdings. The project is called Belgica and can be accessed here, under Belgica.kbr.be. Exactly 40 years after the inauguration of the new library premises on Kunstberg/Mont des Arts in Brussels.

On Thursday 5 March 2009, at 18 pm, the Royal Library will highlight this evolution in an exhibition by invitation called Veertig jaar verzamelen. Van de Albertina tot Belgica. Quarante années d'acquisitions. De l'Albertine à Belgica (Forty Years of Collecting. From Albertina to Belgica) (Nassau Chapel).

In comparison to its vast holdings, these beginnings are modest. But the present contents of the portal do show the variety of the institution's holdings: from manuscripts to rare books, reference works and newspapers, music, coins and medals, over maps and plans, prints, etchings, and drawings. Each section lists a number of works that have been made available.

Under Reference works so far we find several of the library's own reference catalogues to the library's manuscripts. The manuscript holdings themselves number around 25,000-30,000. In Reference, the project aims to digitize Belgicana, works pertaining to Belgium and Belgian publications.

Belgica also establishes ties to a larger-scale digitization project for newspapers that was started in 2004 and that involves collaboration between a number of public institutions. Belgica has two searchable newspapers available today: L'Avenir de Luxembourg and L'Indépendance Belge. Other digitized newspapers can be accessed when visiting the library in person.

We hope to come back to this project and make it a first instalment in a series on digitization of rare books and manuscripts around the country today.

Le bon plaisir: catalogue details, current exhibition at Bibliotheca Wittockiana (Brussels, until 28 February 2009)

2008-12-16T12:09:00.010+01:00

Here is bibliographical detail about the catalogue to the current exhibition at Bibliotheca Wittockiana, the museum in Brussels devoted to bookbindings:

Une vie, une collection. Cinq siècles d'art et d'histoire à travers le livre et sa reliure. Exposition à la Bibliotheca Wittockiana du 10 octobre 2008 au 28 février 2009. Dijon, Editions Faton (Arts & Métiers du livre), 2008. ISBN 978-2-87844-118-5. Texts by Michel Wittock, Paul Culot, Annie De Coster, and Jérôme Callais.

The exhibition not only presents bookbindings from 5 centuries, but also highlights 25 years of bibliophile passion and collecting by the Bibliotheca Wittockiana's founder, Michel Wittock.

The bibliophile visitor who was thinking of a nice getaway might consider Brussels, and instead of letting a myriad of lights blind him or her at overcrowded Chrismas markets, might consider taking a stroll to an elegant corner of town, and being overwhelmed by these riches. During this exhibition, the museum will also be open on Sundays.

Bicentenary at Tournai: Collection of the Great Seminary (1808-2008)

2008-10-30T16:46:00.016+01:00

As places of learning, intended for the formation of clergy, Great Seminaries were also known for their cultural heritage. That is, if history had not been too unkind. And in the case of Tournai, it hasn’t.

On 10 November 2008 the Great Seminary is celebrating its 200^th year in the same premises since 1808. It was founded thanks to an obstinate bishop, François-Joseph Hirn, originally from Alsace, and with a little help of Napoleon Bonaparte.

The premises had then seen at least 3 previous owners, and 2 centuries of construction and restauration. At the end of the 16^th century, the Jesuits organised a college and a noviciate in them. When the order was abolished in 1773, the buildings remained empty. A few years later, the canons regular were the new owners, until they had to vacate in 1794 and give way to an administrative office under the French republic.

The Great Seminary today can take pride in a library of more than 100,000 volumes, comprising medieval manuscripts and archival documents, incunables, etchings, and many precious bindings. And one of its abbots in the 20^th century took care to establish a small museum for several artefacts, including oil panels.

The collections mostly have religious provenances. A few go back to the Jesuits and the canons regulars, but most were the scattered holdings of other abolished religious institutions in and around Tournai. For these artefacts, the foundation of the Great Seminary, not long after the abolishment of religious orders in general, proved fortuitous.

The bicentenary has occasioned a new and richly illustrated monograph about the building, the garden, and its collections, which have also been catalogued with text and image. The project has benefited from a close collaboration with the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage at Brussels (IRPA-KIK).

The notes on manuscript, etchings, bindings and rare book holdings have been authored by P. Bogaert osb, Annie De Coster, J.-B. Lebigue, J. Leclercq-Marx, E. Livens, L.Reynhout, F. Tixier, Dominique Vanwijnsberghe, Renaud Adam, Ph. Desmette, and A. Delvingt.

Details: Séminaire de Tournai, Rue des Jésuites 28, 7500 Tournai (Doornik). Press release to be obtained by Monique Maillard-Luypaert, curator of the Great Seminary Library. On 15 and 16 November 2008, Mrs Maillard will be present at a cultural event called Tournai La Page (Halle aux draps, Tournai).

Book: Monique Maillard-Luypaert, et al., Séminaire de Tournai. Histoire – Bâtiments – Collections. Leuven, Peeters Publishers, 2008 (forthcoming). 360 p. 251 illustrations. ISBN 978-904292169-6. Price: 75 €.

Photo credit: M.Maillard-Luypaert

Stradanus exhibition: a son of Bruges hailed back in his birth town

2008-10-29T14:39:00.013+01:00

If having Honorary Tuscans were a practice in Florence in the early 17th century, Johannes Stradanus (Brugge, 1523- Florence 1605) would have been a serious candidate. He was born here, but died as a Florentine.

Today the draughtsman is celebrated in birth town Brugge (Bruges) with an exhibition: "Johannes Stradanus, hofkunstenaar van de Medici" (Court Artist of the Medici).

Stradanus received training as an artist at Antwerp, and he was found registered there as a member of its famous St Luke's Guild in 1545. Around that time he travelled to Italy to confront his own draughtsman skill with Italian art.

His encounter with a fellow countryman who had been put in charge of the de Medici tapestry production, which aimed at taking the wind out of the sails of Flemish tapestry making, proved decisive. A full career ensued: Stradanus became a commissioned designer for media as varied as tapestries, paintings, single pieces, altar pieces or murals -Francesco de Medici's Studiolo in Palazzo Vecchio for instance, prints, and of course the drawings.

But drawing for prints took center stage in Stradanus' output as of 1576, which explains why the core of the exhibition consists of 122 prints and drawings, placed together in a complementary way. There are borrowings from the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, the Royal Library at Brussels and Windsor Castle. The richness of detail warrants that the spectator gives this enough viewing time.

Perhaps most famous, and documenting craftsmanship in the arts and science in the Late Renaissance, is the series "Nova Reperta" from 1588-1589, consisting of 19 prints. To depict themes such as the invention of oil paint, and the determination of longitude at sea, Stradanus consulted a fair amount of reading material, the literature of his day. But while glorifying discovery, it was not beneath him to color historical fact with his own glasses.

The exhibition also has sculpture, for instance by fellow émigré Giambologna, paintings by Italian artists such as Vasari, who counted on Stradanus as a close collaborator, and three Italian tapestries.

Details: Johannes Stradanus, hofkunstenaar van de Medici, exhibition, Groeningemuseum, Dijver 12, 8000 Brugge. From 9 October 2008 until 4 January 2009. The Groeningemuseum is part of the 1 Euro Museum initiative. Youngsters under the age of 26 pay an entrance fee of 1 Euro.

Photo credit: courtesy of Groeningemuseum. The Hunt for Wild Cats, borrowing from Palazzo Pitti, Florence, after a carton by Stradanus.

Catalogues:
Exhibition manual: Sandra Janssens, Stradanus 1523-1605. Hofkunstenaar van de Medici. No ISBN. Depot D/2008/0546/1. 63 p. Text, color illustrations. Price: 6 Euro.
Scientific study: Stradanus (1523-1605), Court Artist of de Medici. Contributors: Alessandra Baroni Vennucci, Alessandro Cecchi, Albert Elen, Sandra Janssens, Marjolein Leesberg, Lucia Meoni, Manfred Sellink, Gert Jan van der Sman. Brepols, 2008. ISBN 2-503-52996-7. Price: 60 Euro.

Two new exhibitions at Antwerp and Brussels (9 October 2008)

2008-10-07T09:17:00.014+02:00

On Thursday 9 October 2008, book lovers in Belgium have what in French is called an embarras du choix: two exhibitions will then be inaugurated, one at Antwerp, the other at Brussels.

The Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience (formerly Stadsbibliotheek or SBA) at Antwerp plays host to an exhibition that was produced in France by the Médiathèque de Strasbourg: Meesters van licht en schaduw. Boekillustraties uit de vijftiende eeuw (Masters of light and shadow. Book illustrations from the 15th century).

Forty-five incunables are shown, illustrating the techniques available to printers in the 15th century.

Three contemporary artists, Pierre Gaucher, Charles Kalt, and Caroline Schwoebel, were asked to produce works in juxtapostition to these book illustrations.

A special event is taking place on 18 October 2008 at 4 pm: a concert of classical music with texts inspired by the poems of Hadewych, and music from the Rhineland from the 15th and 16th centuries.

Details:
Nottebohmzaal, Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience
H.Conscienceplein 4, Antwerpen
From 10 October 2008 until 9 November 2008.
The Bibliotheca Wittockiana has a new reason to celebrate: this museum of private origin, dedicated to the binding, is celebrating its 25th anniversary with an exhibition "A Life, A Collection. 25 Years of Shared Passion".

The passion in question is that of founder Michel Wittock, who started off as a private collector to create a museum later. Although Wittock has handed the helm of the institution to his son Charly a few years ago, he personally selected 250 bindings from a total of about 5,000 holdings.

The selection is set to illustrate some chapters of Wittock's collecting. An evolution of style periods will show what kept the founder in thrall over the past 25 years.

On Thursday 9 October 2008, H.R.H. Princess Mathilde will inaugurate the exhibition.

Details:
Bibliotheca Wittockiana
Rue du Bemel/Bemelstraat 23, 1150 Brussels
From 10 October until 28 February 2009.

Fortsas and perfume: Journées de Mariemont (4&5 October 2008)

2008-09-26T10:23:00.008+02:00

The Royal Museum of Mariemont (Musée royal de Mariemont) at Morlanwelz –56 km south of Brussels and 28 km east of Mons – has an attractive roster of activities year-round, as can be inferred from its information bulletin called Bulletin d’information trimestriel (published every three months, free on request).

If anything in this country comes close to the J. Paul Getty Museum, it's Mariemont. The name (‘Mary’s hill’) refers to Charles V’s sister, Mary of Hungary, who built a castle in 1546. The ancient history of this noble abode stopped with a fire in 1794.

In the 19^th C, a family of industrialists called Warocqué, owners of coal mines in the immediate vicinity, built a new stately home amid facilities for their workers. One of the most prolific collectors of this family was Raoul Warocqué, whose collection became the basis of a state-owned museum.

Warocqué’s collection comprised old archeological finds from the region, as well as artefacts from Egypt, the Far East (China, Japan), and the Greek and Roman period, and porcelain from Tournai, now placed in juxtaposition with contemporary ceramics. There is also the arboretum around the museum, dotted with statues, such as Rodin’s Burghers of Calais.

Raoul Warocqué was a bibliophile collector, and Mariemont houses a library of rare printed books, bindings, artist books and original editions, ranging in date from the 15^th until the 21^st century. It also comprises almost 10,000 autograph letters, medals and prints, among others nearly 600 by Félicien Rops.

This year, the Museum opens house on Saturday and Sunday 4 & 5 October 2008 to present the collections from an olfactory standpoint. Les parfums de Mariemont is the organizing theme.

The museum is currently hosting an international exhibition (until 30 November 2008) related to perfume in Antiquity: Parfums de l’Antiquité. La rose et l’encens en Méditerranée. The exhibition shows artefacts from numerous institutions abroad, and has a catalogue that promises new scientific findings.

But back to the Activity Days, which can count on the collaboration of three curators with ties to rare book holdings: Bertrand Federinov, Claude Sorgeloos, and Frédéric Van de Vijver.

Bertrand Federinov is director of the Rare Books Department at Mariemont. Frédéric Van de Vijver is librarian at Mariemont. Both serve as guides on visits to the collection.

Federinov hosts a visit entitled ‘Sentir les livres. Approche olfactive des collections de la Réserve Précieuse.’ (Sunday, 5 October, 3 p.m.) Recently, Federinov compiled a catalogue of imprints from Mons from the Mariemont holdings: Quatre siècles d’imprimerie à Mons. Catalogue des éditions montoises (1580-1815) du Musée royal de Mariemont (monograph no. 12 of Musée royal de Mariemont, no ISBN, legal depot no. D/2004/0451/102).

Van de Vijver hosts two kinds of tours to the holdings. One is ‘Galanterie et raffinement capiteux des livres de la marquise de Pompadour, la comtesse du Barry, Marie Leszcynska et Madame Victoire’ (Saturday, 4 October at 2 p.m., repeated on Sunday at 11 a.m.) and the other is ‘Encens et souffre entremêlées aux parfums libertins dans les salons du Siècle des Lumières. L’encyclopédie de Diderot et d’Alembert, un diffuseur de savoir et d’idées révolutionnaires.’ (Saturday, 4 October at 5 p.m.)

Claude Sorgeloos, director of the Rare Books Department at Belgium’s Royal Library, will guide a tour to the exhibition ‘Renier Chalon, alias Fortsas.’ He will approach it with ‘L’odeur facétieuse du cochon.’ (Saturday 4 October, 4 p.m.)

Sorgeloos is one of the curators of the Fortsas exhibition, which has been running at Mariemont from 5 July 2008 onwards, and which is closing 5 October 2008. So the weekend at Mariemont is the last chance to see it.

Subtitle to the exhibition ‘Renier Chalon, alias Fortsas’ is: ‘Le canular en Belgique: toute une tradition!’ (the hoax in Belgium: an entire tradition). The museum’s website refers to a recent hoax called ‘Bye Bye Belgium’, presented about a year ago by the news department of the state-owned French speaking television network, which caused quite a stir in prime time.

Renier Chalon (1802-1889) was an avid collector of coins and rare books. He was born in Mons, but a quiet administrative career brought him to Brussels, where he was at leisure to pursue his numismatist and bibliophile predilections, as well as his passion for pranks.

Chalon fathered a hoax known under the name of Fortsas, short for a soi-disant Comte de Fortsas, and an equally fictitious sale of the library of this elusive count, which, with catalogue and all, was promised to be held at Binche, on 10 August 1840. Book collectors from all over Europe descended there in vain.

A few other blogs have recently referred to Fortsas, here and here, both without mention of the exhibition at Mariemont, which is said to paint a far more complex picture of Chalon, and which provides a Belgian history of the prank from the 19^th century until this day.

Mariemont has published the following monograph on Chalon: Reinier Chalon alias Fortsas: un érudit malicieux au mitan du XIXe siècle (Monographies du Musée royal de Mariemont no. 16, publishing year: 2008). Authors: François de Callatay, Claude Sorgeloos. ISBN: 2-930469-19-6.

New University Library website and Piranesi exhibition, both at Gent

2008-09-25T17:01:00.007+02:00

The University Library of the city of Ghent ("Gent") is as of today (25 September 2008) presenting a newly formatted website.

Noteworthy is the link called 'Schatkamer', where some of the collection's treasures are presented in digitized form, but the holdings are far richer than that.

Around its collection of etchings by the Italian architect Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) now runs an exhibition, in part curated by the Department of Architecture of the university, with the help of the Royal Library at Brussels.

"Piranesi" opened on 20 September, and runs until 18 January 2009 at the Museum voor Schone Kunsten.

Hora est! The Fate of Jesuit Libraries in the Southern Netherlands (1773-1828)

2008-09-23T12:29:00.008+02:00

In our previous post on current Ph.D research (6 June 2008), we were not yet able to provide the exact details for Bart op de Beeck, director at the Rare Books Department of Belgium's National Library. Here there are.

Op de Beeck will defend his Ph.D at the University of Leuven, Faculty of Arts, in Dutch. The title is: Jezuïetenbibliotheken in de Zuidelijke Nederlanden. De liquidatie 1773-1828.

Op de Beeck attempts the reconstruction of the libraries of one religious institutional order, from 1773 onwards, when the Jesuit order was abolished in the Southern Netherlands, and their book and manuscript holdings became subject to dispersal.

According to Op de Beeck, book catalogues of Jesuit libraries, monasteries and colleges from the 16-18th centuries hardly have been examined. His research attemps a reconstruction of three great Jesuit library holdings: at Brussels, Antwerp, and Louvain, and of two smaller ones, at Halle and Aalst.

Op de Beeck studied provenance markings on some 24,000 books. Many dispersed Jesuit holdings ended up at our National Library, but had never been the subject of extensive study.

Promotor is Dr. Jan Roegiers, former Head of the University Library at Leuven. The board of examiners among others counts professors Chris Coppens (Leuven), Pierre Delsaerdt (Antwerp), and Paul Hoftijzer (Leiden).

Venue: Thursday 25 September 2008, at 2 p.m. Promotiezaal van de Universiteitshal (Naamsestraat 22, 3000 Leuven).

Women Latinists of Renaissance England (Lecture at Leuven, 24 September 2008)

2008-09-23T09:57:00.006+02:00

Neo-Latin scholars at the University of Leuven recently informed their fellow members at IANLS - International Association for Neo-Latin Studies - of a lecture, to be held at Leuven tomorrow, by Professor Brenda M. Hosington (University of Warwick): ' "Minerva and the Muses". Women Latinists of Renaissance England'.

This lecture both serves as the third Jozef IJsewijn lecture, and as the opening of the 2008-2009 Master in Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the University of Leuven.

Jozef IJsewijn (1932-1998) was professor of Neo-Latin at Leuven. In 1966, he founded the Seminarium Philologiae Humanisticae for the study of Neo-Latin language and literature, and somewhat later, a journal called Humanistica Lovaniensia.

Related to the journal, Leuven University Press publishes a publication series called Supplementa Humanistica Lovaniensia. Number 16 in this series was a volume of essays edited by Dirk Sacré and Gilbert Tournoy in honor of Jozef IJsewijn: Myricae. Essays on Neo-Latin Literature in Memory of Jozef IJsewijn (Leuven, 2000, ISBN 978-90586705-40).

The Master in Medieval and Renaissance Studies is an interdisciplinary, post-initial Master's degree ('Manama') on offer in English at the university of Leuven. Various research centers participate in it: the Seminarium Philologiae Humanisticae; Illuminare or the Center for the Study of Illumination; the 'Aristoteles Latinus' project; the De Wulf-Mansion Centre (philosophy); the Research Unit History of the Middle Ages, and the Institute for Medieval Studies.

Details Prof. Hosington's lecture: Lipsiuszaal, Faculty of Arts (Blijde-Inkomststraat 21, 3000 Leuven), 5 p.m. Lecture followed by a reception. Organisation: Seminarium Philologiae Humanisticae, KU Leuven.

Talk on manuscript illumination at Public Library Bruges (18 September 2008)

2008-09-09T17:10:00.012+02:00

In libraries in the Dutch-speaking part of this country, the term stadsbibliotheek (City Library) is falling in desuetude. At Antwerp, Stadsbibliotheek Antwerpen (SBA) has become Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience. We also should stop saying Stadsbibliotheek Brugge to Openbare Bibliotheek Brugge (Public Library).

In Bruges, the main building in the public library system is also called Hoofdbibliotheek 'Biekorf' (beehive). Now its Friends, Vrienden van de Biekorfbibliotheek vzw, are the organizers, about twice a year, for public events related to its older holdings.

The Biekorf now welcomes the public for a talk by Dutch illumination specialist Saskia van Bergen, in Dutch, entitled Een Brugs handschriftenatelier in de late middeleeuwen, which is based on the results of her doctoral research.

Van Bergen completed a PhD at the University of Amsterdam in 2007 with a thesis called
De Meesters van Otto van Moerdrecht. Een onderzoek naar de stijl en iconografie van een groep miniaturisten, in relatie tot de productie van getijdenboeken in Brugge rond 1430.

The Biekorf holds manuscripts, including books of hours by Bruges facture, but none, so far as we know, by the so-called Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht.

Van Bergen will no doubt explain who Otto van Moerdrecht was, but via this case study of a workshop around 1430 also show how vast an illumination and manuscript industry, solely working for export, was at Bruges.

Details: Hoofdbibliotheek Biekorf (Reading Room), Kuipersstraat 3, 8000 Brugge, 18 September 2008, 8.pm. Entrance fee: 3 € (free entry for Friends of the Biekorf).

Photo: Christ before Pilate, illumination from Book of Hours, use of Bruges (late 16th C). Illuminations on the verso side of interfoliated leaves. Cultura Fonds Collection.

Symposium 'De tuin der talen: taalkennis en taalkunde tijdens de renaissance in de Lage Landen' (Antwerp, 18-19 September 2008)

2008-09-01T17:28:00.008+02:00

Is ‘gale 8, perhaps severe gale 9 later’ the forecast to be issued for the state of Dutch as a standard language -the language shared by, among others, the Dutch in Holland and the Flemish in

Belgium

Yes, said Joop van der Horst, professor of Dutch at the University of Leuven. Need we despair? No, he says, and in a book, entitled Het einde van de standaardtaal (The end of standard language)(Meulenhoff, ISBN 9789029082655), he is willing to explain why.

According to van der Horst, the last tidal language change of this kind harks back to the transition from the Middle Ages to the renaissance.

Let’s keep this in mind at the conference 'De tuin der talen: taalkennis en taalkunde tijdens de renaissance in de Lage Landen' (the garden of languages: language knowledge and linguistics during the renaissance in the Low Countries), held in… Dutch.

The format is a line-up of ten short papers, presented in 20-25 minutes, and followed by discussion. The speakers include both formidable and young promising researchers from both French and Dutch speaking universities in Belgium as well as universities in the Netherlands, some carrying on research in other countries.

Talks will be presented around four big themes: plurilingual aspects and book history; the standardization of Dutch, the presentation of a Wiki about the ‘Garden of languages’, and lastly, Semitic language study.

A concluding talk will be delivered by... Joop van der Horst on nothing else but the end of a renaissance language culture.

All details can be found under http://tuindertalen.short.be/

Notice of attendance: best before 10 September 2008.

Venue: Nottebohmzaal, Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience, Antwerp (formerly known as Stadsbibliotheek Antwerpen), Flanders’ biggest heritage library.

Organizers: Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience; Center for the History of Linguistics at University of Leuven (Centrum voor de Geschiedenis van de Linguïstiek)

Coordinator: Dr.Toon van Hal, who recently graduated with a PhD thesis about comparative linguistics in the 16th and 17th century. We hope to come back to that later.

Recent Lipsius studies: Iusti Lipsi Epistolae (ILE)

2008-08-29T15:26:00.012+02:00

Last June, Princeton-based professor Anthony Grafton was seen conversing, at the “The Jewish Book in a Christian World” conference at Antwerp (19 June 2008 post), with Dirk van Miert, the Dutch Neo-Latin scholar, based at London, with whom Grafton is collaborating on a critical edition of Joseph Scaliger’s collected letters.

In 2002, Grafton became a recipient of the prestigious Balzan Prize. Prize winners are required to spend half of the prize to finance research in their field, preferably by young scholars. Grafton chose the critical edition of letters written by or addressed to Joseph Scaliger, a project carried out at the Warburg Institute in London. The Scaliger Institute at the University of Leiden Library is co-sponsoring.

The result will be a 7-volume opus covering about 1,400 letters. The project’s aim is to provide “crisp, reliable” transcripts, according to the Balzan Prize website, and to present the letters both electronically and in print. Initially, the editors thought the corpus to encompass some 1,000 letters. To their surprise, their thorough work yielded much more fruit, and far exceeds the initial estimate.

Along similar lines, how is ILE?

Short for Iusti Lipsi Epistolae, Belgium’s own critical edition of the collected letters of a humanist, Justus Lipsius (1547-1606)? ILE was initiated in print in 1978, with the publication of a first part, which covered the letters written by Lipsius in the period 1564 until 1583. Aloïs Gerlo, M.A. Nauwelaerts and H.D.L. Vervliet served as editors.

Ten years earlier, in 1968, Gerlo, Nauwelaerts and Vervliet had made an inventory of letters to and from Lipsius. According to their estimate, the corpus consisted of 4,300 letters. Meanwhile research for ILE has yielded more letters, including overlooked scrap versions, so that the editors see the first estimate augmented by almost two hundred. ILE has set rules to define the corpus.

As longstanding publication series, Iusti Lipsi Epistolae is the pride of the Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschappen en Kunsten (KVAB) at Brussels. The complete set can be ordered directly via the KVAB website.

So far, the following parts have been published:

-part I, covering 1564-1583, published in 1978;

-part II (1584-1587), edited in 1983 by M.A. Nauwelaerts with the help of S.Sué;

-part III (1588-1590), edited in 1987 by S.Sué and H. Peeters;

-part V (1592), edited in 1991 by Jeanine De Landtsheer;

-part VI (1593), edited in 1994 by Jeanine De Landtsheer;

-part VII (1594), edited in 1997 by Jeanine De Landtsheer;

-part VIII (1595), edited in 2004 by Jeanine De Landtsheer;

-part XIII (1600), edited in 2000 by Jan Papy;

-part XIV (1601), edited in 2006 by Jeanine De Landtsheer.

Other parts are well on their way to see printed form as well. Four have been or will be the subject of a PhD thesis. Part [IV], covering the year 1591, has been the subject of a doctoral thesis in 1974/5 by S.Sué. PhDs have been defended at the university of Leuven on part [IX], covering 1596, by Hugo Peeters (2007), and part [XVI], covering 1603, by Filip Vanhaecke (2004). In 2009, Tom Deneire will present his work on part [XI], covering the year 1598.

In all likelihood, ILE will count not nineteen, but twenty volumes. Part XIX will conclude the series, and promises to include all newly found letters pertaining to older parts, a general index, and a general concordance table. Part XX will offer a separate treatment of fictional letters.

Standard quotation is ILE, followed by roman letters, followed by a comma and three 2-digit numbers for year, month, and day respectively for the dates. Example: ILE V, 92 02 01, or a letter in ILE, part V, dated 1 February 1592, in which Richard Stanihurst gives Lipsius the full story of a trip to Spain. Whenever a newly found letter is accounted for in the inventory from 1968, has yet to be published in the series, but has been referenced in print, the roman numeral stands between square brackets.

Recently, an unknown letter by Richard Stanihurst to Lipsius, written on 29 October 1583 resurfaced at the Maurits Sabbe library within the University of Leuven system. An exciting discovery for Jeanine De Landtsheer, ILE’s prime editor, who was preparing the exhibition about Lipsius held there in 2006. She published the letter in the 2006 yearbook of De Gulden Passer, scholarly publication of the Vereniging van Antwerpse Bibliofielen (bibliophile society at Antwerp) (De Gulden Passer, ISSN: 0777 5067), which was entirely devoted to Lipsius. We discuss its contents in another post.

The Scaliger and the Lipsius projects overlap, as both scholars were professors at Leiden, albeit at different times. They established epistolary contact by the intermediary of Antwerp printer Christophe Plantin. We also briefly mention the Clusius project, instigated at Leiden in 2004 for the publication of letters by Carolus Clusius (1526-1609) and a mapping of his network, which included Scaliger and Lipsius.

For Scaliger at Leiden, see Paul Hoftijzer, Adelaar in de wolken. De Leidse jaren van Josephus Justus Scaliger 1593-1609. Scaliger Instituut/Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, 2005 (Kleine publicaties van de Leidse universteitsbibliotheek, ISSN 0921 9293, no. 69). Contributions by R. Bruegelmans, W.P. Gerritsen, H.J. De Jonge, Chris Heesakkers, Dirk Van Miert, Jeanine De Landtsheer, and Kasper van Ommen. This publication has Jeanine De Landtsheer’s article “Justus Lipsius en Josephus Justus Scaliger” (p.59-92).

For Lipsius at Leiden, see Jeanine De Landtsheer, Lieveling van de Latijnse taal. Justus Lipsius te Leiden herdacht bij zijn vierhonderdste sterfdag. Scaliger Instituut/Universiteitsbibliotheek Leiden, 2006 (Kleine publicaties van de Leidse universteitsbibliotheek, ISSN 0921 9293, no. 72). Contributions by Hans W. Blom, Chris Heesakkers, Robert-Jan van den Hoorn, Nicolette Mout, and Kasper Van Ommen.

Lipsius’s arrival at Leiden in 1578, similar to that of Scaliger, was somewhat of a ‘Joyous Entry’ for the recently inaugurated university. Lipsius abandoned his professorial chair somewhat furtively in 1591. Ties between Leiden and Leuven –Lipsius’s final destination- were not too greatly shaken, as Chris Heesakkers, who documented Lipsius’s circle of friends at Leiden, concludes.

In 2006, the 400^th anniversary of Lipsius’s death was marked by two exhibitions, one at Leiden, with the catalogue Lieveling van de Latijnse taal, and one at Leuven, entitled Justus Lipsius (1547-1606). Een geleerde en zijn Europese netwerk. It was also marked by the yearbook of De Gulden Passer (Antwerp). The recurrence of scholars writing contributions for all three manifests a similar spirit of friendship.

Belgian blog about maps

2008-07-29T10:57:00.006+02:00

We are adding a new blog to the links to the right in our pages: Maps and More.

Author is Joost Depuydt, curator of Maps, drawing and prints at the FelixArchief, the new name for Antwerp's City Archive.

The municipal archive at Antwerp used to be located in Venusstraat, but its holdings got so crammed, that the entire service has moved to a port warehouse north of the city center, the so-called Sint-Felixpakhuis at Oudeleeuwenrui 29, 2000 Antwerp.

Photo taken from www.felixarchief.be.

Summer is precious (reading) time

2008-07-01T12:33:00.008+02:00

Traffic in these pages may become a bit slow in the next few weeks. Not because this curator can be spotted on a beach somewhere, but because these sunny months are a good time to catch up on some reading, done to better serve these pages. Perhaps for some this could be an ideal time to visit our library in person. We'll be back with feature articles, but intermittently, at a slower pace. Happy summer.

"The Jewish Book in a Christian World": International Conference at Antwerp (25-27 June, 2008)

2008-06-19T11:18:00.016+02:00

With the recently inaugurated exhibition "Hebraica veritas: Sprak God Hebreeuws? (did God Speak Hebrew, see our April 25, 2008 post)" up and running until August 17, 2008, the Plantin-Moretus Museum (MPM) is about to close its Spring season festively with the international conference "The Jewish Book in a Christian World" (25-27 June, 2008).

Apart from MPM and the University of Antwerp's IJS (Institute of Jewish Studies), co-organizers are the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA), and the Universitair Centrum Sint-Ignatius at Antwerp (UCSIA).

Keynote lecturer at 5 pm on Wednesday at the City Hall of Antwerp is Princeton professor of Renaissance history and the history of scholarship, Anthony Grafton. Grafton's first book was an intellectual biography of Joseph Scaliger. He's been a frequent visitor at the University of Leiden, where he received an honorary doctorate in 2006, and where he has found colleagues to edit Scaliger's collected letters. The University of Leiden Library has a Scaliger Institute to promote research of its holdings.

This blogger has some interesting links in connection with Grafton's latest book, Codex in Crisis. It's a bibliophile edition limited to 250 copies based on an article from the New Yorker in which Grafton expresses to what extend some reserve is due about digitization.

On Thursday June 26, 2008, two sessions will be held at this conference: "The Printing of the Hebrew Bible and Judaica in Antwerp and the Low Countries" (morning) and "Christian Publishers and Readers of Hebrew Literature (afternoon). Location is the Print Room at the Plantin-Moretus Museum (morning) and University of Antwerp's Hof van Liere (afternoon).

A morning session on Friday June 27, 2008 will close the conference: "The Impact of Print on Jewish Culture." Location that day is the University of Antwerp's Hof van Liere. The conference will be held entirely in English. Admission is free, but registration is mandatory.

Illustration: cover of the exhibition catalogue of Hebraica veritas. Book design of the catalogue by Louis van den Eede, who drew the front cover's design by hand. Details: Hebraica veritas. Christoffel Plantijn en de Christelijke Hebraïsten. Catalogus bij de tentoonstelling: Hebraica veritas. Sprak God Hebreeuws? Antwerpen, Museum Plantin-Moretus/Prentenkabinet, 16 mei-17 augustus 2008. No ISBN. Inquiries should be made at the museum.

Exhibition "Florent Rousseau" at Bibliotheca Wittockiana (24 May-30 August, 2008)

2008-06-19T09:10:00.015+02:00

The Bibliotheca Wittockiana grew out of the private collection of bookbindings of Belgian bibliophile and collector Michel Wittock. It was turned into a museum, devoted to the binding, with opening hours, at one of Brussels' most leafy boroughs.
The best source about this collection is the Festschrift Bibliophilies et reliures. Mélanges offerts à Michel Wittock (2006) in the museum's own Studia series (no.6). 520 pages, cloth. No ISBN. Inquiries can be made at the museum.

Wittock gathered a collection of rare books and bindings, but the contemporary binding, increasingly a focus in his collecting, has always been a particular focus for exhibitions. Here is Florent Rousseau. Reliures de creation 1998-2008. It opened May 24, 2008, and runs until August 30, 2008. A selection of bindings from French bookbinder Florent Rousseau’s production are shown.

In the second half of 2007, the periodical of the Société royale des bibliophiles et iconophiles de Belgique (SRBIB) -this is the Royal Society of Bibliophiles and Iconophiles of Belgium, based at Brussels- published an article of Florent Rousseau's, actually a talk that he had delivered at Tournai in 2006: Etat actuel de la reliure en France. In Le livre et l'estampe (2007), vol.53 no.168, p.127-159 (BE ISSN 0024-533 x). It's an excellent article: clear, informative.

Florent Rousseau founded AIR neuf, Association internationale de relieurs, in 1995, and today he initiated a new group called APPAR, Association pour la promotion des arts de la reliure. With APPAR, he responds to a rift that he detected between amateur bookbinders and professional ones, on the one hand, and to attitudes pro or counter the classical French heritage of bookbinding on the other.

Starting with Marius Michel at the cusp of the 20th century, Rousseau gives an overview, in which all the famous bookbinders from a golden age of French bookbinding are mentioned. The period of Decorative Arts yielded an intense collaboration between famous French authors, artists, bookbinders, and their collectors. Most of the bookbinders then were like fashion designers: no craftsmen, but responsible for the concept. One of them, Paul Bonet, was both: fashion and binding designer. Collaboration with separate doreurs or gilders was customary.

Ironically, collectors are deemed responsible by Rousseau for a turn away by bookbinders from a tradition that had become somewhat stilted. Collectors had demanded too much of a good thing, a binding with sleeves and etui that continued to be influenced by the same arts, and that had become "purely academical".

There was a tendency among the binders who did ply their craft in person, starting from the late 1970s, to reject tradition altogether. New currents came into existence with no link to tradition. With AIR neuf, Rousseau wanted to provide a typology for the innovations. Collectors meanwhile did not place orders with just any adept of radical change. But exploration of the binding by the artisan bookbinder did yield some technical riches for the craft.

Structure became the magic word. Binders showed the construction of the book, no back, no carton, no more guards. No gilding. No hierarchy as to types of leather, and a turn to less expensive kinds of leather. No more sleeves, no étui, but boxes, and use of wood. But little by little, new references to tradition were made, but by artisans adept with paper and decors who were able to improvise, to work with color and contrasts. Rousseau is one of them.

Over time, amateur bookbinders got more limelight than the professional craftsmen, but only because their work rarely is the subject of exhibitions. In APPAR, Rousseau is hoping to unite both. French bookbinding is pretty vibrant these days, and Rousseau is adamant to keep it that way.

24 hrs in Brussels "boring"? Not so for book lovers.

2008-06-17T12:53:00.023+02:00

Last March, Brussels was voted most boring city on a layover. One thing is fairly certain: the international travelers coming to this conclusion have no predilection for the book.

We have reported about the current exhibitions at the Royal Library of Brussels (KBR) and the Erasmus House. We suggest a day of sightseeing for the book lover or bibliophile (who can furthermore contact this curator to inquire about stops at bookstores and eateries).

We suggest that the book lover starts the day at the Erasmus House in the morning, with a visit to the exhibition "The Anatomy of Vanities" and its beautiful garden (see June 6, 2008 post). This exhibition was initially running until July 13, 2008 only, but word reached this curator that it has been extended. It now runs until the end of August.

By metro, the book lover travels to the center and to the Royal Library for the exhibition in the Nassau Chapel about 20 eminent historical collectors whose books became part of the holdings (see our April 24, and March 10, 2008 posts). It runs until August 24, 2008.

In the afternoon, the book lover takes the metro to Montgomery Square, and strolls along a district reminiscent of Paris 16 to Bibliotheca Wittockiana, a private museum devoted to bindings (this curator can be contacted about an ice cream parlor nearby - reward after a satisfying day).

See our next post for coverage of its current exhibition with bindings by French bookbinder Florent Rousseau. Illustration: binding by Florent Rousseau (courtesy of the Wittockiana). Below: a book lover, caught reading by the window in uptown Brussels.

Museum Plantin-Moretus to initiate TORAD, an image bank of ornamental typography for Antwerp printers 1541-1600

2008-06-12T10:09:00.013+02:00

The Museum Plantin-Moretus / Prentenkabinet at Antwerp has received government funding to initiate a project called TORAD, short for Typografische Ornamenten Repertorium van Antwerpse Drukkers 1541-1600. (Our source for this post is the Museum's press release in Dutch).

The TORAD project, which runs over the next three years, aims to create an image bank of the typographical ornamentation and ornamental letters that printers at Antwerp used between 1541 and 1600.

The historical context is a period rife with political and religious instability in the Spanish Netherlands, with a serious likelihood for printers to be persecuted for their output. Many publications appeared anonymously. Often they mention a publisher, but no printer, which begs the question for book historians which printer delivered the goods.

A repertory will help researchers to identify the anonymous titles. A similar project in Holland could identify the right printer for 70% of the anonymous output, and 99% of the editions for which publishers were known, could be matched to a printer. The Antwerp project is hoping to achieve a similar succes rate.

Illustration: Initial (51mmx51mm) cut by Anton Van Leest, used in Petrus Bizarus, Senatus populique genuensis rerum. Antwerpen, Christoffel Plantijn, 1579. Initial used in Museum Plantin-Moretus press release, but here taken from our own library copy (Labore et constantia 155).

On an Anjou Bible, book surgeons and funding

2008-06-11T17:13:00.028+02:00

Our cultural heritage is a commodity, one that draws researchers and tourists from abroad to our country. A source of pride, admiration and, come on, let's not be coy, envy. It is our country's duty to see economic value in that, a ruse to foster technical expertise long-term. Not only to keep know-how in our country to preserve this heritage in the most appropriate of ways, but perhaps also to offer expertise internationally as a viable enterprise.

This was more or less Professor Jan van der Stock's plea in 2005, at the inauguration of the "Van der Weyden Chair - Paul and Dora Janssen" for research on illumination. Jan Van der Stock is an able mix of the professorial with the entrepreneurial -to our knowledge, he's the only professor ever to have realised a named chair in Humanities, at least at Leuven.

We are very pleased that civic duty did not fall on deaf ears at the Inbev-Baillet Latour Fund. Recently, this Fund has awarded 80.000 € to a restauration project on the "Anjou-Bible", a mid 14th-century precious manuscript, kept in a vault at Leuven. In matters of culture, the Fund has chosen restoration projects as its focus.

Today's issue of Campuskrant, the magazine of the University of Leuven (KUL) (June 11, 2008, 19th year, no.10), opens with the story. We see color pictures of the richly illuminated manuscript, and of the conservator, Lieve Watteeuw, beaming.

The manuscript, we gather, was executed at the behest of Robert I of Anjou. In the early 16th century, the manuscript came to the Arras College of the university at Leuven, by the doings of the bishop of Arras. And today it still belongs to the university, as it is preserved at the Maurits Sabbe Library (Theology Department).

The conservation project is a co-production between llluminare at Leuven and KIK-IRPA, the Royal Institute for the Study and Conservation of Belgium's Artistic Heritage, based at Brussels.
For Illuminare, Jan Van der Stock will supervise, and Lieve Watteeuw will execute.

The manuscript will receive a new conservation binding. All folia will be taken out of the old early 20th-century binding that was too tight and detrimental to the manuscript. The folia will be cleaned, and the color layers will be stabilized. Here are a few photos of damage to miniatures on Illuminare's website. The folia will also be digitized. Leuven plans to put the manuscripts on show in 2011 in the newly planned city museum "M" (Museum Leuven), where visitors will be able to leaf through the digital copy.

Lieve Watteeuw is one of these conservation specialists, whose importance can hardly be overrated, especially when they happen to be rather few. A "book surgeon", at home with parchment, paper, illumination and leather bindings, and it was excellent news that she received public accolade on February 21, 2005 in the shape of the Flemish Community Prize 2004 in the category of Cultural Heritage.

We planned to dwell somewhat longer on Watteeuw's doctoral thesis at Leuven (see June 6, 2008 post, "Hora est"), entitled "The Touch of Chronos: Caring for the Medieval Manuscript (1731-1937)." Our source is the recently promoted researcher's own summary.

Watteeuw undertakes investigation of how the material aspect of the medieval manuscript has been treated and altered throughout the ages, and how it was been viewed by art and library historians, and conservators-restorators. Apparently, it wasn't until recently that the link between the material appearance of a codex and its contents has been taken into account, which explains "complete acts of destruction", for instance when codices were rebound, and their old covers done away with, over a period of the last two hundred years.

Watteeuw's thesis has three parts. Part I offers a history of the preservation and restauration practices of manuscripts, bindings and miniatures, from the Middle Agens until the 19th century. Watteeuw is using traces of book care in archival material, the inventories of the Burgundian Ducal Collection at the Royal Library at Brussels, and the Chapter of the Church of Our Lady at Antwerp. This history touches upon a historiography of mentalities, to explain why certain practices were favored in certain epochs.

In no period has the medieval manuscript suffered so much as at the hands of the 19th century antiquarians, who nevertheless rekindled an interest in the Middle Ages. Part II explores the heritage conservation practices or that era. Watteeuw also develops a methodology for the intervention on book and manuscripts for this day. She does this at the hand of one single, very famous corpus at the Royal Library of Belgium: the 280 surviving manuscripts, out of an original 900, once in the library or librije of the Court of Burgundy. Watteeuw investigates the fate of this collection from 1731 onwards, when the Burgundian Library fell into desuetude, until 1937, marking the end of the career of Charles Weckesser as bookbinder in the service of the Royal Library.

In Part III, entitled "Fight Against Chronos," Watteeuw takes the material fate of four medieval manuscripts as a starting point to gather the contrasting responses of bookbinders, restorators, antiquarians, archivists and librarians to them. Both the exterior book cover as the interior illumination are considered. Watteeuw also discusses what present-day manipulations such as exhibiting and making photographic facsimiles do to such artefacts.

Jan Van der Stock is quoted in today's Campuskrant as saying that the history of how the Anjou-Bible actually originated at a French court, reads like a thriller. We have the feeling that in Watteeuw's PhD material sits a book that does too.

Hora est!

2008-06-06T14:34:00.021+02:00

In 2008, quite a number of Belgian researchers in the fields of history, as well as in history of art, literature and the book, defended a PhD thesis or are about to. A short overview.

On February 5, 2008, Alexandre Vanautgaerden, Director of the Erasmus House at Brussels, defended a thesis on Erasmus and typography as a rhetorical instrument in the 16th century: "Erasme typographe. La mise en page, instrument de rhétorique au XVI siècle", towards a PhD in history, art and archaeology at the ULB (Université libre de Bruxelles).
Promotors were Sylvia Deswarte-Rosa (CNRS-Université Lumière-Lyon) and Alain Dierkens (ULB). The jury consisted of Franz Bierlaire (ULB-Université de Liège), Wouter Bracke (ULB-KBR), Jean-François Cottier (Université de Montréal), and Michel Magnien (Université de Paris III-Sorbonne nouvelle).
Vanautgaerden has edited, with Jean-François Gilmont, a study called La page de titre à la renaissance (Brepols Publishers, 2008), ISBN 978 2 503 52669 0. See our June 2, 2008 post

On April 18, 2008, art historian Lieve Wattteeuw presented "The Touch of Chronos: Caring for the Medieval Manuscript (1731-1937)", in defense of her PhD at the KUL (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven). Promotor was Prof. Jan Van der Stock, Director of the Center of the Study of Illumination, Illuminare. Watteeuw can easily be regarded as one of the (alas, too) few authorities (Dutch-speaking research), on the conservation on paper, parchment, and bindings. We will dwell somewhat longer on the contents of this thesis in a next post.

On May, 27, 2008, Kevin Absillis defended his PhD at the University of Antwerp, with research conducted about an episode in the history of Manteau, a Dutch-language Belgian publishing house founded by Angèle Manteau (1911-2008): Literaire kwaliteit uit Arm Vlaanderen. Uitgeverij A.Manteau en de verzelfstandiging van het literaire veld (1932-1971). Professor of Dutch Literature Kris Humbeeck was promotor. Absillis will publish this thesis in edited form at Meulenhoff/Manteau early in 2009. He has already published on the rather complex history of this publishing house:
-Kevin Absillis, Een kleine uitgeverij van stand. Fondslijst uitgeverij A.Manteau/Les Editions Lumière 1956-1970 (250 numbered copies). L.P. Booncentrum/Demian, 2005. ISBN 90 804548 8 5.
-Kevin Absillis and Katrien Jacobs, eds, Van Hugo Claus tot hoelahoep. Vlaanderen in beweging 1950-1960 (Literatuur in veelvoud-series, no. 17). 282 p. Maklu/Garant, 2007. ISBN 978 90441 201 89.

On May 29, 2008, Gerrit Verhoeven defended his PhD at the Department of History of the University of Antwerp: "Anders reizen? Evoluties in vroegmoderne reiservaringen van Hollandse en Brabantse elites (1600-1750)." Promotors were Professors of History Guido Marnef, specialist of the history of the Netherlands in the 16th and 17th centuries, and Bruno Blondé, who heads a research unit called History of Cities (University of Antwerp).
According to Verhoeven, historical research on travel in the early modern period all too often limits itself to study of the Grand Tour as carried out by British noblemen, with the occasional foray into the travel habits of French and German nobility, but with the Netherlands entirely out of scope. Unjustly so: travel in the early modern period in the Netherlands showed more variation and was subject to greater changes than is known to current research.
Verhoeven consulted diaries and fringe documents in libraries and archives in Holland and Brabant, and chose the quantification of thousands of data as his gauge for how travel exceeded the utility aspect of the Grand Tour, what the means of travel were and the destinations, and what the social profile of travellers was.

On June 20, 2008, Dirk Imhof, Curator of the Museum Plantin-Moretus, will defend his PhD in History with a study of the publishing activities at the Plantinian house of Jan I Moretus: "De Officina Plantiniana ratione recta: het uitgeversfonds van Jan I Moretus (1589-1610)," at the University of Antwerp. Professor of History Alfons Thijs and Professor of Dutch Literature Hubert Meeus serve as promotors.
Imhof, with Karen Bowen, recently published Christopher Plantin and Engraved Book Illustrations in Sixteenth-Century Europe. Cambridge Univesity Press, 2008, ISBN 978 0 521 85276 0.
Regarding Plantin's successors, the Moretus family, see also, amongst others, Imhof's introduction to Le rayonnement des Moretus, a 2006 exhibition catalogue of the Bibliotheca Wittockiana, edited by Bruno Liesen and Claude Sorgeloos.

On June 24, 2008, at the University of Antwerp, Department of Dutch Literature, Goran Proot defends a PhD on Jesuit school plays: "Het schooltoneel van de jezuïeten in de Provincia Flandro-Belgica tijdens het ancien régime 1575-1773." Promotor is Professor of Literature Hubert Meeus. Goran Proot has been a bibliographer at the STCV, the Short Title Catalogus Vlaanderen. Regarding Jesuit plays, recent articles of his are:
-Goran Proot and Leo Egghe, "Estimating editions on the basis of survivals: Printed programmes of Jesuit theatre plays in the Provincia Flandro-Belgica before 1773. With a note on the 'bookhistorical law'" in The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, vol. 102, no.3 (2008).
-Goran Proot, "Gebruikssporen in programmaboekjes voor het collegetoneel van de jezuïeten in de provincia Flandro-Belgica 1575-1773," in Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis 15 (2008), p.71-91.

Lastly, Bart Op de Beeck Curator of the Rare Books Department of the KBR (Royal Library of Belgium), who's been working for years on the library holdings of Jesuits, is finally presenting his PhD thesis at the University of Leuven in September 2008. As Op de Beeck has been working on this for over 10 years, and as he has closely scrutinized up to 24,000 copies out of Jesuit collections, if not more, his work is expected to be.. weighty. Serving as promotor is the former head of the University of Leuven's Central Library, Jan Roegiers.

Illustration (to follow): woodcut on the titlepage of Francisco Del Tuppo, La Uita De Esopo Hystoriata. S.l. [probably Venice], s.d. [15..]. Page: 149x94 mm; typesetting: 122x72mm.
See no.4 in our second catalogue: Claude Sorgeloos, La bibliothèque du Cultura Fonds: acquisitions 1991-1999 (See label: Our catalogues).

Exhibition "The Anatomy of Vanities" (Erasmus' House, Brussels, April 24-July 13, 2008)

2008-06-06T14:31:00.019+02:00

The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton got published in 1621, and the Erasmus' House in Brussels currently has an exhibition called The Anatomy of Vanities (April 12, 2008-July 13, 2008). Burton's medical treatise and the exhibition have in common a medical subject and an unusual breadth of approach. In the case of the exhibition, we add staggering beauty.

The son of a French luxury goods scion quipped that he sees the best contemporary galleries in each city he visits on business. Why not a pars pro toto at the Erasmushouse with the works of Jan Fabre and Marie-Jo Lafontaine, in rooms that have recently been repainted. Why not the museum's garden with permanent works of art, amongst others Les larmes du ciel by Marie-Jo Lafontaine. With a spoonful of contemporary art, a medicine of memento mori goes down.
This exhibition fits one of the themes that the Erasmushouse under its director Alexandre Vanautgaerden sets out to explore as of 1998: the cabinet of rarities or vanities, which it sees as a predecessor of the museum. The cabinets brought together works or art, natural or exotic fauna and flora, and scientific instruments.

Such cabinets were in vogue after Erasmus' time, but, as gathered from Vanautgaerden's introduction to the catalogue, Erasmus' contemporary Albrecht Dürer started his Wunderkammer with elements from a trip to.. the Netherlands. Cabinet elements are present here, organised around the concept of idleness or vanity.

In Erasmus' days, death was more pressing than in ours, the reminder more common. Erasmus, who was somewhat sickly, wore a ring with the Latin inscription 'concedo nulli', 'I yield to no one', a direct reference to man's natural fate from the standpoint of a personified Death.

The take on death in this exhibition is to understand it with a certain jubilation, by lingering to take in past and present moments of beauty, and by seeing the attempts to fixate or represent life in the name of curiosity.

Bright green parrots from the Museum of Natural History at Tournai are laid around a skull in garland fashion. The skeleton and the snake are omnipresent in delicately wooden or ivory sculpted figurines or heads. There are plant arrangements by a Brussels florist, leaving room for ongoing microscopic processes in glasshouse conditions. and there's the human desire to push the limits of technique in exquisite mechanically turned objects of ivory and wood.

In an essay from the catalogue, Jean-Marc Mandosio traces man's preoccuption with the anatomical model through time. The models of women, the Venuses or Evas, as he explains, were always represented full-bodied, with skin, unlike the Adams. Their shape was an ideal, and in stark contrast with the entrails and organs you could still remove.

The collector who gave these strange and beautiful objects on loan, acutely phrases how despite our ability to prolong life, and to taunt it with the most fantastical creations, clinging to it will be as vain as in the time of Erasmus. If to the vistor this comes as too great a shock, there are always the editions of Erasmus on view on the second floor, or a moment's pause in the philosophical garden of the museum to regain spirits.

As a visitor, you take these beautiful objects home in the shape of the catalogue: Anatomie des vanités. Anatomie der ijdelheden. Sous la direction de - onder leiding van Alexandre Vanautgaerden. Bilingual catalogue French-Dutch. Le Cabinet d'Erasme VI (2008). 93 p. color ills. ISBN 978-2-930414-22-5. Exhibition until July 13, 2008. Erasmus House and garden, open every day except Mondays (Photos: museum website).
PS: Belgium is a country of collectors-the exhibition Hout in boeken (see our March 10, 2008 post) featured another collector's 17th C set of thinly turned woodcups -a marvel. See Charles Indekeu's article "Ornamentdraaiwerk. Machinekunst voor vorsten" (p. 315-325) in the study Hout in boeken (see our April 24, 2008 post) as a complement to the catalogue of the Erasmushouse exhibition.

Annual convention of librarians and book researchers (Flanders chapter), May 30, 2008

2008-06-03T09:39:00.020+02:00

The Dutch-speaking or Flemish chapter of rare book librarians and book history researchers, the Vlaamse Werkgroep Boekgeschiedenis (see: Book and Manuscript Research) convened at the city of Ghent on May 30, 2008.

Location was MIAT, museum voor industriële archeologie en textiel, an old textile factory with an historical approach to industrial technology. The museum simulates a walk through time from the 18th to the 20th century. As MIAT not only emphasizes textiles, but also printing technology, it houses a fair amount of printing presses and composition casters.

During a guided tour at the end of the day, the participants got to see a Blaeu wooden hand-press from the 18th century, the Stanhope, and other hand-presses in iron, among them one driven by steam. The two composition casters F4 and C4 came from the Harris Intertype Corporation of New York.

But first came the household meeting, with an overview of 2007, several announcements, and a lecture, followed by critical remarks from a referee, by a Dutch researcher currently working at Antwerp, Janneke Weijermars: Het literaire bedrijf in de Hollandse tijd 1815-1830 (The Literary Trade in the Dutch Period 1815-1830).

Weijermars' study is part of a large-scale project studying "Literature in Context" led by Dutch professor Lisa Kuitert (Amsterdam) and Belgian professor Piet Couttenier (Antwerp): De Nederlandse literatuur en het literaire bedrijf in het Verenigd Koninkrijk der Nederlanden 1815-1830: interactie en differentiatie, about Dutch literature and the literary trade in the fifteen years during which the Southern Netherlands (more or less Belgium shortly before its independence in 1830) were united once more with Holland, with Dutch king Willem I as ruler.

From more than one standpoint, this reunion fell uneasy on the South. In reaction to a Dutch society that was founded in the North in 1784 called Maatschappij tot 't Nut van 't Algemeen, also called "het Nut", and aimed at the edification of its population through education, social work, and good books, a society came to existence in the South in 1825 in the city of Mechelen (Malines) called the Society for the Distribution of Good Books. This society chose its "good books" to be of a catholic signature, partly in reaction to het Nut and its protestant stamp.

Weijermars presented one case in all its ramifications: a publishing project that lasted about three years (1825-1828), executed by Hanicq, printers at Mechelen, which consisted of printing religious books in series, in Dutch translation mostly from Latin, French and German, in a small format and aimed at a large audience.

Weijermars has so far researched a few case studies for the period, applying Pierre Bourdieu, but with a unifying idea for the study still lacking. The audience was quick with critical remarks and useful suggestions. As an overarching history of the book trade with regard to Flanders has yet to be written, this project seemed welcome indeed.

From the announcements during the household meeting, we retain many that deserve attention in separate posts. Here, we'd like to enumerate the Belgian researchers who are scheduled to deliver talks at SHARP 2008 on "Teaching and Text", the 16th annual conference of the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing, held at Brookes University, Oxford (24-28 June, 2008).

-Jürgen Pieters (professor of Dutch literature, University of Ghent) together with PhD students Christophe van der Vorst and Lise Gosseye, reporting on their project of reading Constantijn Huygens in a new historicist light;
-Chris Coppens (University of Leuven) on a topic in the 16th century Italian book trade;
-Pierre Delsaerdt (University of Antwerp) with typographic analysis of Christopher Plantin's dictionaries;
-Kevin Absilis (University of Antwerp), on Pascale Casanova's systemic model for studyingliterature, and its use for book publishing;
-Janneke Weijermars (University of Antwerp) on a systemic model by Siegfried Schmidt;
-And stretching it, professor of China Studies in the U.S. Hilde De Weerdt, who did her graduate work at Leuven.

In teasing reference to the speaker's topic and in mild jest -professor De Weerdt aside- it was said that for once Belgian speakers at SHARP outnumber the Dutch.

A special entry at the Plantin-Moretus Prizes 2008

2008-06-02T14:37:00.020+02:00

The Plantin Genootschap - Hoger Instituut voor Grafische Kunsten (Higher Institute of Graphic Art, Antwerp) and the VUV. or Vlaamse Uitgeversvereniging (Union of Flemish Publishers) join forces to discern prizes, the so-called Plantin-Moretusprijzen, to books in Flanders (Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) which deserve attention for of their graphic design.

Prizes are given in several categories: literature, schoolbook and scientific study, art book & exhibition catalogue, other non-fiction, the children's book, the experimental book & private press, as well as work by graphic artists from Flanders for publishers abroad.

New categories in 2008 are a vote for best debut or graduation project, as well as the public's prize for Best Book Cover.

As of May 30, 2008, public voting is open from a shortlist of ten book covers, accessible via the website of the Plantin Genootschap, which leads one to the site of the Flemish daily De Standaard to cast a vote. The prizes will be distributed on June 30, 2008 in Brussels, at Bozar, the Centre of Fine Arts. A public vote is possible every day until then.

The books with best layout will be on show all summer in Brussels at Bozar, the Centre of Fine Arts, from July 1, 2008 until August 24, 2008.

We were extremely pleased to discover that among this public shortlist, between a cookbook and humor, is a study co-edited by the formidable Belgian bibliographer Jean-François Gilmont and the curator of the Erasmushouse Museum, Alexandre Vanautgaerden.

Very aptly, this study has typography as a theme: La page de titre à la Renaissance. Treize études suivies de cinquante-quatre pages de titre commentées et d'un lexique des termes relatif à la page de titre (ISBN 978-2-503-52669-0, Brepols Publishers, 2008, 396 p., 100 b/w ill., 65 color ill, paperback, 75 €).

This study is also "Nuger 6", n° 6 in Nugae humanisticae sub signo Erasmi, or a study series devoted to nugae, varia or trifles, published at the Erasmushouse Museum. Under its young curator Alexandre Vanautgaerden, this museum, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2007, does communication no less than in fine typography. Report on the current exhibition of this museum is soon to follow.

Quaderno fiorentino

2008-05-11T23:01:00.008+02:00

The curator at Cultura Fonds just got back from a short off duty experience. We mention this for some entertaining ties to the book world.

First, our guidebook was Quaderno fiorentino, with reminiscences about Florence, Italian art mainly of the Rinascimento, as well as interviews with Italian literary figures in a bleak postwar period, written by Luc Indestege in 1951 (In Dutch, published at Davidsfonds). Despite its antiquarian state, the book effuses lively writing, pared to reliable guidelines, still today, to the art of this city.

Luc Indestege (1901-1974) counts as a Belgian specialist on bookbindings, with many studies tied to his name, e.g. on an archive of rubbings of Flemish panel bookbindings by Prosper Verheyden. Indestege is also the father of Belgian book historian Elly Cockx-Indestege, former Head of the Rare Books Department at Belgium's National Library.

The retirement of Elly Cockx-Indestege was marked with a study in three volumes, by Hendrickx F. et al., editors, E Codicibus Impressisque. Opstellen over het boek in de Lage Landen voor Elly Cockx-Indestege (Leuven, Peeters, 2004). Miscellanea Neerlandica series, 20 (ISBN 978-90-429/-1423-0, /1422-3, 1421-6). In 1951, Elly Indestege had just embarked on reading history.
Secondly, we visited the Bibliotheca Medicea Laurenziana. Luc Indestege documents his visit in 1951. But this is how the Laurenziana discloses itself as of 2007: by thematic forays into the holdings, in the shape of small, permanent exhibitions, accompanied by booklets -not exceeding one hundred pages, with color illustration, published by Mandragora, in Italian or in English, sold at 14 Euros.

We mention by way of example the three English titles so far:
Imaginary Creatures. 2007 (ISBN 978-88-7461-098-3).
The World of the Aztecs in the Florentine Codex. 2007 (ISBN 978-88-7461-102-7).
The Shape of the Book from Roll to Codex (3rd century BC-19th century AD). 2008 (ISBN 978-88-7461-116-4).
The Laurentian building, splendid design by Michelangelo, reopened April 1, 2007, after a long period of being closed to the public. Its research facilities were never in cessation. Therefore, the thematic exhibits seem to serve mainly as a permanent reminder of the function this magnificent architecture once had.

PS: The execution of the glass windows, with references to the de Medici benefactors, some dated 1568, is attributed to an Antwerp artist.

Sprak God Hebreeuws? Did God Speak Hebrew?

2008-04-25T15:59:00.014+02:00

The Plantin-Moretus Museum is currently enjoying the presence on its premises of Dutch Professor Albert van der Heide, as visiting curator of the upcoming exhibition Hebraica veritas. Sprak God Hebreeuws? The exhibition opens Thursday, May 15, 2008 at 7.30 pm at the museum.

Albert van der Heide is professor at the University of Amsterdam, where he studied theology and Semitic languages. On February 2, 2008, he gave a talk at the yearly meeting of the Vereniging van Antwerpse Bibliofielen (Antwerp Bibliophile Society), entitled Hebraica Veritas. Christopher Plantin and the Hebrew Language. Those present got a preview of this exhibition.

Christopher Plantin's preoccupation with Hebrew, mostly Bible edition, is part of Christian Hebraic Studies, or the effort on part of Christian humanists -as well as Jewish converts to Christianism, who were few- to acquire and transmit knowledge about the Hebrew language.

With regard to Hebrew as well as in other matters, humanists wanted to go ad fontes. As Christians, they were interested in the most truthful version of Hebrew for the purpose of Bible edition. But how many were fully aware of the ramifications of rabbinic texts: the knack of producing commentary upon commentary for the sake of adding truth to truth?

Printers like Plantin had to deal with different notational systems for Hebrew, if they knew about them. Jews were still not exempt of persecution, and not likely to openly transmit their different traditions. And the Church had been known for extreme wariness of translations of the Bible.

In short, Christian Hebraic scholars found themselves having to make choices. The quest for God's truth was neither easy, nor unpolitical.

Inaugural Chair "Boek.be" at University of Antwerp (April 23, 2008)

2008-04-24T16:38:00.017+02:00

Yesterday the Chair "Boek.be" was inaugurated at the University of Antwerp, with five speakers and a half-day conference around a chosen theme: "Publisher, bookstore and library in the digital world: partners or opponents?" Jef Maes of Boek.be signed on as organizer, and the conference was chaired by professor Pierre Delsaerdt.

Location: the renovated monastery of Grauwzusters, at Lange Sint-Annastraat, part of the university's city center campus.

The Chair is part of APUB, a course called Actuele problemen van de uitgeverij en boekhandel, that is part of the MA Informatie en Biliotheekwetenschap (IBW). The degree is undergoing a makeover to Master after Master. Book history and preservation are part of it as well.

The sponsoring by Boek.be, the Federation of Booksellers in Flanders, is a novelty, and a welcome one at that for the only university degree of its kind, and one that also partly serves as a crash course for professionals into aspects of this very industry.

The first speaker was Ivo Volman, who heads the Digital Libraries and Public Sector Information Unit of the European Commission, DG Information Society and Media. He presented Europeana, the European Digital Library or the digitization of Europe's museum, library, and archival holdings. We're in it, because of Google, he implied. Still, Volman holds the physical sensation of reading paper copies of books in high regard.

Christine de Mazières of the Syndicat national de l'édition (France) approached digitization from the perspective of publishers. France has at its National Library the project Gallica2, for the digitization of French books that are free of copyright. The portal now provides the possibility for publishers to reach the reader, in an experimental phase, with books under copyright, rendered accessible by e-providers (e-distributors).

Denis Zwirn is the CEO of Numilog or one of 2 or 3 e-providers in France today. In his view the chain between publishers and readers remains pretty stable. The implementation of e-book access lengthens the tail to get books to customers. Neither publishers nor booksellers should miss the train. Books and bookstores will stick around, but with the importance of e-providers on the increase.

Trudi Noordermeer formerly headed digitization projects at the National Library of the Netherlands, and is presently Head of the University of Antwerp Library. Digitization projects in libraries have undergone an evolution and are feeling the influence of 2.0 user-generated content. Unfortunately, they are also more sensitive to the challenges that remain in connection with digitization, such as funding and backup problems.

Lastly, Geert Joris as Director of Book.be, did not mince words when he concluded with a strong plea for e-book production. Old business models should be given the glove treatment, but new ones should be firmly embraced, as e-technology is here to stay. The music industry provides one of the most exciting models around. The book trade cannot carry national digitization projects alone. Governments should create momentum and provided the necessary financial means for the digitization of the national heritage.

The challenges in connection with digitization were shared by more than one speaker. In kind, they are technological (is digitization stable enough?), juridical (what about material under copyright?), fiscal (what is more crucial under VAT, carrier or content?), financial (who pays for providing e-books, more costly still than paper publishing?), and also related to content (what gets digitized, by whom, and how do you know when it is?). Here's what worrisome - that's a plateful. The challenges remain formidable, as no speaker ventured easily past the questions. They are bound to lead to new conferences.

But who cares not to heed the call of digitization? In times when kids think that something does not exist, unless they can google it, when people wait eight months for an e-reader, the conclusion that day was: we'd better. And fasten your seatbelts, too.

Springtime is book time

2008-04-24T14:43:00.016+02:00

Springtime is not only auction time, but also a busy period for authors and publishers, as we saw a few interesting new publications around book preservation and research arrive in rapid succession.
1. It's worth repeating that on February 1, 2008, In de ban van boeken was opened at Belgium's National Library. This exhibition highlights books from 20 book collectors from the 19th century, that went into the collection by donation or via acquisition. The catalogue (ISBN 90-6637-145-5), work of reference in provenance research, has the same title, and was edited by Marcus de Schepper, An Kelders, and Jan Pauwels.

This exhibition still runs until August 24, 2008, and in May the entire contents will be fully renewed, so that new books will be on display for each collector. On Sunday April 18, 2008, the National Library has a special Visitor Day from 1-6 p.m.

2. On February 29, 2008, volume 2 of Armarium. Publicaties voor erfgoedbibliotheken, was presented to the public. Mieke Lietaer of Stadsbibliotheek Antwerp, Flanders' largest depot library, wrote Goed gegeven! Gids voor schenkingen aan bibliotheken (ISBN 9789072679338): a manual geared to librarians, acquainting them with every aspect of book donations to libraries. The Koning Boudewijnstichting, consulted on the matter as well, put a the information on its page devoted to the preservation of artefacts.

Promotors of Erfgoedbibliotheken Vlaanderen (libraries preserving books and manuscripts in Flanders) are Antwerp professor of history and book history Pierre Delsaerdt, and Director of Stadsbibliotheek Antwerpen, An Renard. The Armarium publications are funded by the Flemish government, the City of Antwerp, and the University of Antwerp.

3. The prize for sumptuous elegance in academic publishing certainly goes to the folio produced by Luc Knapen and Leo Kenis (editors) around the use of wood in books: Hout in boeken, houten boeken en de "fraaye konst van houtdraayen", Documenta libraria series no. 35 from Peeters Publishers, Leuven (ISBN 9789042920576). This work unites contributions from historians, book historians, and woodturning lathe specialists from this country and abroad. It is truffled with color illustration.

4. And just this week we saw the arrival of a monograph on 16th-century book illustration in the Low Countries: Christopher Plantin and Engraved Book Illustrations in Sixtieenth-Century Europe, by Karen L. Bowen and Dirk Imhof (Cambridge UP, ISBN 978052185276-0). Bowen is a specialist on book illustration and Imhof is curator of rare books and archives at the Plantin-Moretus Museum. Their research relies heavily on the rich archives of the Plantinian Press. As a study, it takes a contextual approach to document how Plantin's choice for etchings influenced a change in taste with regard to book illustration at the time.

Exhibition "Hout in boeken" (Wood in Books) at Leuven (1-31 March 2008)

2008-03-10T11:50:00.013+01:00

The Theology Department of the University of Leuven houses an interesting Rare books and manuscripts collection, better known as the Maurits Sabbebibliotheek (MSB). One of their subcollections is the Jesuitica collection. The Maurits Sabbe Library is also known for its charismatic librarians, who once in a while set up exhibitions on their premises.

Most fastidious and prolific among them is Luc Knapen, organizer of the current exhibition Hout in boeken, houten boeken (1-31 March, 2008, to travel to Hasselt in May and possibly in part on to London), a full day of conferences around this theme (29 February, 2008), and the executive editor of a scientific study, forthcoming from Peeters Publishers. Here is Luc Knapen at the opening, receiving the first copy of the study.
As we can see, it promises to be richly documented.
Apart from numerous artefacts, xylaria, and the results of wood turners' work, the pièce the résistance in the exhibition is the reconstruction of a lathe, or a wood turners instrument, based on a Jesuit emblem from 1627. Photo: Luc Knapen, Maurits Sabbebibliotheek.
Cultura Fonds is proud to have an Antiphonary/Responsory on loan in the exhibition. This manuscript (grand in-folio) is dated 1503 (Princedom of Liège, Meuse region), and has a binding and rich illumination pointing to use by Crosiers. This copy is currently under further examination.Another interesting artefact is this revolving book stand or bookwheel, on loan from the University of Ghent Library. A restoration of this piece of furniture was possible specifically for this exhibition.

Provenances: 16th C (starting with Aldrovandi)

2008-02-05T14:46:00.002+01:00

Heureux qui, comme Ulysse, a fait un beau voyage. The 16th C naturalist Ulissi Aldrovandi (1522-1605), from Bologna, can be linked to item LC 379 (in our first catalogue Labore et Constantia).

This is a work devoted to archeology and Roman artefacts: Stephanus Winandus Pighius, Themis Dea, sev de lege divina. Antverpiae, Ex officina Christophori Plantini, 1568. 8°. With several woodcuts, among them of a Roman vase found in the city of Arras, linked to Cardinal Granvelle.

Aldrovandi's name can be found first on the title page. Three further entries, a few lines each, can be found on pages K3 r°( p.149), [O3] r° (wrong pagination) and P4 v°. The last two are given here (cf supra, cf infra). There's a date: 21 June 1593.Bart Op de Beeck of the Rare Books Department of the Royal Library of Belgium recently has held in his hands 24,000 copies pertaining to Jesuit collections and Louvain. The results of this study will be presented in his PhD thesis (forthcoming).

Our scope is much more modest, but soon we'll know how many of our printed books and manuscripts sport early provenances.
Here is another provenance marking (vdb, pastedown) in the same Pighius.

Provenance research in Belgium today

2008-02-05T12:31:00.002+01:00

The Royal Library of Belgium currently has a noteworthy exhibition on show: In de ban van boeken. Grote verzamelaars uit de 19e eeuw in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België - Les seigneurs du livre. Les grands collectionneurs du XIXème siècle à la Bibliothèque royale de Belgique (February 1, 2008-August 24, 2008, Nassaukapel).

The opening was preceded by a half day of lectures about Private Collections in Belgium (1750-1850). Some of our finest book historians delivered talks: Pierre Delsaerdt (Antwerp), Carmélia Opsomer (Liège), Bart Op de Beeck (Brussels), Ludo Vandamme (Bruges), Claude Sorgeloos (Brussels), and Jan Pauwels (Brussels). Talks were moderated by Stijn Van Rossem (Antwerp), who's preparing a PhD on the Verdussen printers.

The exhibition highlights twenty 19th-century collectors, from abroad (e.g. Richard Heber) and from the young nation state that Belgium was or was going to become. The period was marked by four regimes in a time spanning two generations.

The collections of these twenty collectors captured a fraction of collections changing hands or at peril of calamity, following the abolition of monasteries and their libraries at the end of the Ancien Régime (around 1797). Either these collectors donated directly (too few of them), or their books and manuscripts were acquired in auctions, not without a degree of vicissitude, for the newly inaugurated national library (from 1837 onwards).

Provenance research is increasingly becoming a focus in several public institutions in this country. The lecturers stressed the importance of noting the markings in copies, for a better understanding of how collections developed. The online catalogue of our National Library for instance gives extensive provenance data for each copy, and the Short Title Catalogus Vlaanderen may soon follow suit.

Our catalogues

2008-01-15T14:30:00.002+01:00

The library's holdings have been described in 2 catalogues so far.

The first catalogue is the sales catalogue accompanying the 510 books and broadsides that we acquired in 1991 at Brussels. These were all printed in the second half of the 16th C at Antwerp, by Christophe Plantin (Christophorus Plantinus, Christoffel Plantijn).
Catalogue #1:
Bibliographical info:
1589-1989. Labore et constantia. A Collection of 510 Editions Issued by Christopher Plantin from 1555 till 1589. Catalogued by Claude Sorgeloos. Introduction by Leon Voet [Honorary Director of the Museum Plantin-Moretus]. Brussels, Eric Speeckaert, 1990. No ISBN. Legal depot number: D/1990/2948/1. 465 p. Illustrated. Hard cover (cloth).

In auction catalogues, this catalogue #1 is often simply referred to as "Sorgeloos".

Claude Sorgeloos, an historian (ULB, Brussels), was our library's first curator (1991-1999). In 1999 he left Cultura Fonds to head the Rare Books Department at the Royal Library at Brussels (Koninklijke Bibliotheek/Bibliothèque royale, a.k.a. KBR).

Claude Sorgeloos is one of our most prolific authors regarding books, having produced numerous books, exhibition catalogues, and articles regarding book history, bindings, and other historical topics. He heads the research unit Groupe de contact 'documents rares et précieux' and is scientific director to the Bibliotheca Wittockiana.

The KBR, our Royal Library, houses not only one of the finest collections of Printed Books in the world, but also -in other Departments- of Manuscripts and of Etchings and Prints.

Claude Sorgeloos authored the second catalogue pertaining to our collection. This catalogue comprises rare books and manuscripts purchased prior to and following the big Plantin acquisition of 1991, up to December 1999. As to printed books, it comprises not just works from Plantin's printing press, but also by other European printing houses.

This catalogue appeared as an imprint of Le livre et l'estampe, the journal of the Royal Society of Bibliophiles and Iconophiles of Belgium, known as the venerable Société Royale des bibliophiles et iconophiles de Belgique (SRBIB).
Catalogue #2:
Bibliographical info:
Claude Sorgeloos: La bibliothèque du Cultura Fonds: acquisitions 1991-1999. Tiré à part de la revue [imprint of the journal] Le livre & l'estampe, XXXXVI, 2000, n° 154. 256 p. Illustrated. Paper. BE ISSN 0024533 X.

Acquisitions from the year 2000 onwards have not yet been published, neither in print, nor online.

Holdings: Figures

2007-04-26T16:46:00.001+02:00

I will approach our holdings from a few angles. In terms of figures, Cultura Fonds Library currently holds the following items:

7 manuscripts (15th-16th C), all of which are part of bindings, except one double parchment leaf (grand folio)

3 etchings (all framed; 2: 16th C, 1: 18th C)

2 autograph letters (16th C)

125 ordinnances and broadsides (16th C)

printed books spanning 4 centuries (excluding one 20th C reprint of a 16th C book), published from from1470 till 1789.

If we look per century, we get the following figures:

holdings from the 15th century: 21 (3 manuscripts and 18 incunables or books printed before 1501)

holdings from the 16th century: 795 (among them 35 postincunables or printed books published before 1541)

holdings from the 17th century: 169

holdings from the 18th century: 43 (among them 2 reprints of 16th C books)

And we add:

holdings from the 20th century: 1 (its sole interest being a 20th C facsimile of a 16th book)

Welcome to Cultura Fonds Library

2007-04-25T10:50:00.001+02:00

The Cultura Fonds Library is a library of Rare Books and Manuscripts situated at Dilbeek, Belgium.

It is privately, company-owned, and was founded in 1991, following the acquisition of 510 books printed by a 16th C printer born in France around 1520, but based at Antwerp: Christophe Plantin (Period of activity: c.1549-1589). We will come back to the holdings in detail shortly.

The Library can be visited by the larger public and by researchers every weekday from Mo-Fri, during business hours: 9.00 a.m - 5.30 p.m. Visits are arranged by appointment with the curator.

The purpose of presenting it in these pages is to acquaint the larger public with the library's holdings and features, but our approach certainly takes into account the interest of book historians.

Perhaps these pages become superfluous once a presentation by other digital means becomes possible, which will be of greater research interest, but this is uncertain at the moment.

More precisely, we hope to highlight in these pages certain partial features of the collection, such as bindings or provenances.