leidenspecial­collectionsblog — page 5

Asian Special Collections

"The Nineties": Ready, set… GO into the new era!

Zhou Zan 周瓒, a leading Chinese poet, translator, playwright, critic and scholar, was able to read "The Nineties" for the first time in the Leiden University Digital Collections. This is just one journal from approximately 100.000 pages of unofficial Chinese poetry freely accessible online.

An intimate conversation between present and past in Loes Huis in ’t Veld’s "Cavafy my father and me"

Leiden University Libraries recently acquired a beautiful work of art in the form of a book: "Cavafy my father and me" by Loes Huis in 't Veld. Cavafy expert Maria Boletsi discusses how this artistic rendering fits into the broader tradition of adaptations of Cavafy's works.

Middle Eastern Special Collections

“A glimpse of knowledge”: Lessons from a Nineteenth-Century Arabic Textbook for Amharic

A rare Arabic primer to the Amharic language from 1872 CE provides unique insight into nineteenth-century trends in Egyptian education, Egyptian-Ethiopian relations, and the development of Arabic print culture.

Prints, Drawings and Portraits

Wanted! Original drawings by Johan Huizinga

Are you the unwitting owner of an original drawing by Johan Huizinga? It could be part of the first ever exhibition of his visual works in the University Museum of Groningen from 1 February until 1 May 2025. Will you help us find Huizinga's lost drawings?

Middle Eastern Special Collections

Historic protective enclosures from the Middle East

Bindings bear the brunt of usage, as they are made to protect a textblock. To protect the bindings, various book cultures in the Middle East and Africa kept bound manuscripts in bags or satchels. These understudied enclosures often need conservation care, just like the manuscripts they protected.

Manuscripts, Archives and Letters · Middle Eastern Special Collections

Patterns of aging in Mamluk manuscripts

Stains in manuscripts can be problematic, but they can also reveal interesting historic information. So, it is important to distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ stains. Luca van der Zande studied a pattern of stains in Arabic manuscripts to learn about their nature and make conservation decisions.