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).

Recent Lipsius studies: Iusti Lipsi Epistolae (ILE)

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.

Hora est!

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).