Sprak God Hebreeuws? Did God Speak Hebrew?

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)

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

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)

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.