Leiden Special Collections Blog

Maps and Atlases

Four views on Leiden

Jos Agasi's visualisation of the characteristic shape of the Leiden city centre gave surprising results.

Martijn Storms • 07-04-2010

Early Printed and Rare Books

Palm reading or chiromancy has a long history: it was practised in ancient India and was in use among the ancient Greeks. Johannes Praetorius from Zetlingen, Germany, compiled several publications on the subject.

Kasper van Ommen • 26-03-2010

Manuscripts, Archives and Letters · Early Printed and Rare Books

Exhibition on the 400th anniversary of the invention of the telescope

On 25 September 1608 Hans Lipperhey, an optician from Middelburg applied for a patent for a 'certain instrument to see far'.

André Bouwman • 12-03-2010

Middle Eastern Special Collections

The Jerusalem Talmud: a gem from the Leiden Hebrew collections

The Talmud is the great repository of the Jewish rabbinic tradition. The only surviving manuscripts that Daniel Bomberg used for the editio princeps (Venice 1523-1524) are kept in Leiden.

Arnoud Vrolijk • 26-02-2010

Manuscripts, Archives and Letters

The Historien van Hollant, alias the so-called Goudse kroniekje

The manuscript is interesting not only because of interpolations pertaining to the city of Haarlem, but also because it represents an early version of the Historien van Hollant text printed by Gerard Leeu in 1478.

Guest author • 17-02-2010