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

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).

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.