Leiden

Early Printed and Rare Books

The chosen people - The relief of Leyden one century later

One-hundred years after the relief of Leiden in 1574, the 'Year of Disaster' ravaged the Netherlands. Karel Crucius (1648-1728) managed to put present hardship in historical context.

Mundus Inversus in a Chained Library

During the years that Leiden University maintained a chained library (1595-1653) the books were placed on the shelves upside-down. Read here why.

Early Printed and Rare Books

Before and after Luther

31 October 1517 Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. It marks the symbolical beginning of the Protestant Reformation. His translation made the Bible available for the general public.

Manuscripts, Archives and Letters

An album from Gorcum with a Leiden touch

The recently purchased album amicorum of Charlotte Johanna Kneppelhout (1779-1842) is an album from Gorcum, but with a Leiden touch.

Manuscripts, Archives and Letters

Liquidation of a ‘Reading Museum’ in Leiden

A recently discovered circular letter from 1826, sent by the Leiden professor of Theology Johannes Clarisse to the ‘gentlemen members of the now extinct ‘Reading Museum’ at Leiden, testifies to the end of one of the city’s first reading societies.

Early Printed and Rare Books

The ‘Divisiekroniek’: Leiden book production in the year 1517

The costs of the work must have been substantial: 880 pages and over 300 illustrations, printed from 110 separate woodblocks. No wonder that its publisher Jan Severszoon requested an imperial patent in Brussels.

Maps and Atlases

Four views on Leiden

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