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Early Printed and Rare Books

Judging a book by its cover?

The collection of the Academisch Historisch Museum contains four dissertations that appear to be identical. However, there is more to them than meets the eye.

Prints, Drawings and Portraits · Manuscripts, Archives and Letters

The Augustan rector

There must have been some chuckling when guests at the rector's dinner on the 8th of February 1940 opened their menus. On the inside the rector magnificus was depicted as a small putto next to Augustus of Prima Porta. Was it meant as a witty conversation starter, or was there a deeper meaning?

Prints, Drawings and Portraits · Photography

Claiming Coster

On 4 November 1901, a large crowd gathered on the Rapenburg for the unveiling of a memorial, mounted on the Academy Building of Leiden University. The memorial was erected in memory of Herman Coster. Who was he and why is commemorated at this very spot, at the heart of Leiden University?

Prints, Drawings and Portraits

Picturing all the talents of the jubilee

When Elisabeth Carolina van Dorp (1872-1945) defended her dissertation in 1903, a special print was made to commemorate the occasion. While this print fits in an older student tradition, it also shows that women were still very much the odd ones out in the male dominated student world.

Hitting the streets at the Dies Natalis

The rijjool as part of the Dies celebrations around 1900