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

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)

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

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

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

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

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.