Springtime is book time

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.

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.