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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections

@speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social
1.8K followers 2.1K following 350 posts

We take care of KU Leuven Libraries' heritage collections housed in the University Library: rare books, lecture notes and other manuscripts, graphics... We also have a reference collection of more than 65.000 titles on book history.

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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 1h
Dr Nicolas De Maeyer was the first one this academic year to visit us with a few international researchers (specialising in Medieval Latin) and a brave student who had joined the tour. For us, it provided an opportunity to retrieve books of hours and monastic manuscripts from the stacks.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
If you happen to be in Leuven between 22 and 24 October, you are all welcome to visit the book sale at the University Library!
bib.kuleuven.be
KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections: Book sale 2026
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Our #siteoftheweek is the Patristic Text Archive. This work in progress database offers anyone interested a collection of texts and translations of Christian texts from antiquity (i.e. “Patristic” is conceived in a very broad sense). (1/2)
pta.bbaw.de
2) | (1
2), (1 - This page could not be found - Patristic Textarchive. An open access archive of ancient Christian texts @bbaw_de
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
First aid for books! A new exhibition at KU Leuven’s University Library reveals how precious books are cleaned, conserved and protected, ensuring they can be studied and enjoyed for generations to come. (1/3)
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
The Research Group on Manuscript Evidence exists to apply an interlinked, comprehensive approach to #manuscripts and texts in other forms through the ages. The work has expanded from medieval MSS and early modern printed books to more written (and other) sources, from Antiquity to the present.
manuscriptevidence.org
Mission & Activities
A summary of the mission, history, publications, and other and activities of the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence, in a guide to the official website.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Please note: important #serviceannouncements for next week! On Monday 7 September, all KU Leuven Libraries will be closed due to the Leuven Fair. On Tuesday 8 September, the last book delivery will be at 2.00 pm due to the KU Leuven Libraries staff party.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
The (French) website littératuresmodesdemploi.org is designed to host and archive online exhibitions on literature. Its aim is to promote literary heritage and foster an understanding of its of literature. It seeks to promote and disseminate academic research on literature to a wide audience.
litteraturesmodesdemploi.org
Littératures mode d'emploi
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Today we celebrate the feast day of St Augustine, patron saint of librarians and other book-related professions. One of his most famous works, "De civitate Dei", survives in hundreds of manuscripts. Among them is our MS 1400, a magnificent large-format codex dating from the late 11th/early 12th c.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
This afternoon we were visited by Bruno van der Pluijm, who has just stepped down as Belgian Ambassador to the Holy See. No doubt he has also seen some marvellous documents in the Vatican Library, but our student courses and a number of Cranevelt letters certainly caught his attention as well.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
Our #siteoftheweek is “A Typographical Catalogue of books printed in France 1501–1520 in the British Library”. Its wiki format offers full indexing of all categorised features: names of printers/booksellers/publishers, places of printing, dates, typefaces, formats + other bibliographic categories.
frenchpostincunables.bibsoc.org.uk
French post-incunables
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Three for the price of one: MS 1550 combines a 1566 edition of Andreas Alciatus’s emblems, an album amicorum owned by Theodorus Hillensberg of Aachen, and later lecture notes. It has been recently digitised, so everyone can browse it. Digital version: repository.teneo.libis.be/delivery/Del... (1/2)
repository.teneo.libis.be
Album amicorum Theodorici Hillesberg.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
To mark #WorldPhotographyDay, we’re taking a look at the early years of photography. Part 2 of Clément Maes and Alfred Hannot’s *Traité de topographie et de reproduction des cartes* contains, at the back, two plates featuring images of the cameras used by photographers at that time (around 1870).
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 17/08/2026
Virtual Mappa is an ongoing set of networked digital editions of medieval maps, published as open access scholarship, and undertaken in collaboration with the British Library, and hosted by the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies. sims2.digitalmappa.org/36 (1/2)
sims2.digitalmappa.org
DM
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Oops, it seems that World Calligraphy Day wasn’t on 14 August this year, but two days ago. So we’re a little late, but we’d still like to highlight our sub-collection of works on calligraphy. (1/2)
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Unfortunately, as temperatures will be again very high in the next days, we will close our reading rooms Thursday 13 and Friday 14 August.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
Today is World Elephant Day. That’s why we’re posting an image of the printer’s device of Petrus Colinaeus, who worked as a bookseller and publisher in Leuven between 1547 and 1571. #bookhistory #earlyprintedbooks #rarebooks #printersdevice #Louvain #elephant
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Logic was the key first-year subject at Leuven's Faculty of Arts and remained central after the founding of the State University in 1817. KU Leuven Libraries preserves nine editions of the Tractatus de logica, beginning with the 1817 Leuven printing. (1/2)
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
IMMARKUS is a semantic image annotation service that allows you to assemble and organize image collections and their metadata, identify specific image regions, create custom data models to annotate images, and add relationships between elements in and across images. #siteoftheweek (1/2)
github.com
Home
A semantic image annotation tool for researchers, digital humanists and cultural heritage professionals. - rsimon/immarkus
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Summer puzzle: ms. 1006, the album amicorum of Wilhelm Helbig of Würzburg. Helbig studied in Leuven (1565-1572), and around 50 fellow students left inscriptions in his album, including the physician and botanist Rembert Dodoens and his son (dated 18-19 Sept. 1574). (1/2)
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Our #siteoftheweek is History of Information. The many extensively annotated timelines on this site ​are help you follow the historical development of physical and digital information and media, and attitudes about them, and interrelationships between them, from the beginning of records till now.
historyofinformation.com
History of Information
An interactive, illustrated timeline of historic moments in humankind's quest for information. With annotations by Jeremy Norman.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
A recently digitised 1878 book from the Corble Collection traces the history of warfare from Cain to Napoleon, then imagines a future where nations settle disputes by chess instead of war. A remarkable nineteenth-century vision of peace. #BookHistory #HeritageCollections #RareBooks (1/2)
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Church Father Augustine of Hippo (354–430) was one of the most prolific authors of late antiquity. In 1520, Lyon printer Jacques Sacon published De civitate Dei and De trinitate. Both editions survive in more than twenty copies, including one at KU Leuven. (1/2)
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
The London Book Trades Database is a biographical MediaWiki resource managed by The Bibliographical Society. It documents nearly 35,000 historical figures, printers, booksellers, and addresses in London's book trade up to the mid-19th century. #siteoftheweek
lbt.bibsoc.org.uk
London Book Trades
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
From manuscript to print: early printers adopted the manicule (☞), the pointing hand used to highlight noteworthy passages. A printed example survives in this 1520 edition (R3B1883), which contains several other remarkable features we'll discuss in a future post. #BookHistory #EarlyPrintedBooks
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
A newly digitized 18th-c. Leuven pamphlet (Caa312) opposing Joseph II’s General Seminary reform features striking, understudied illustrations—burning buildings, devils, and satire. A rich source for book history research. For more info (in Dutch) on the text + literature, see lnkd.in/p/efHAygDb.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
The “Répertoire des cartulaires ecclésiastiques wallons” lists the location, reference number and (approximate) date of compilation of, extant cartularies, and gives details on the content or codicological aspects. (1/2) #siteoftheweek telma-repertoires.irht.cnrs.fr/cartulairesw...
telma-repertoires.irht.cnrs.fr
Cartulaires ecclésiastiques wallons - Accueil
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Based on her award-winning book Ezelsoren en wolfstanden, our colleague Katrien Smeyers has created an exhibition, with a family trail, entitled Masters of the Book. Here, you’ll meet craftspeople: the parchmentmaker, the copyist, the miniaturist, as well as the typesetter and the proofreader (1/2)
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Diplomacy and heritage: a unique portal to exceptional collections from the 16th century onward. Explore 500,000+ titles on diplomacy, international law, history and geography, from early modern times to today. #siteoftheweek portaildocumentaire.diplomatie.gouv.fr
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Service announcement: Summer hours apply from 6 July to 15 September. Reading rooms are open 9:00–13:00; afternoons by appointment only. Book at least one working day in advance via bijzonderecollecties-at-kuleuven.be (include time and materials). Check updates for heat-related restrictions.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
UK RED is a freely accessible database containing 30,000+ records that document the history of reading in Great Britain from 1450 to 1945. The evidence comes from published and unpublished sources (diaries, notebooks, memoirs, sociological surveys) #siteoftheweek www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading...
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Japan Emperor Naruhito & Belgium King Philippe viewed Leuven lecture notes and an annotated 2nd ed. of Vesalius’s "Fabrica" at the University Library earlier this week, during an official state visit.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
No pen? Not for Louis Vandenberghe. In this late 19th‑c. ledger (ms. 2252) he added a pen holder + pocket. Ever prepared!
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
The not so well-known 1635 siege of Leuven, by French and Dutch troops, lives on in a propaganda battle song, now digitised in the Collectio academica antiqua. #OTD (1/2)
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Look, that’s the sort of thing that really delights us: a well-thumbed manuscript that contains a wealth of information about a private library and book prices in the 18th c (ms. 1901). You’re always welcome to study this in our reading room (once the temperature has dropped a bit). (1/2)
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
The printed volumes of "Private Libraries in Renaissance England" —available in our library— are supplemented by databases that can be searched by books, names, and owners via this website. #siteoftheweek
plre.folger.edu
PLRE.Folger
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
On 11 June, we celebrated the completion of the digitisation of the Collectio academica antiqua (Caa), a core collection of works published by members of the Old University of Leuven (OUL, 1425-1797). It started 10years ago as a common effort of colleagues at both KU Leuven Libraries and UCLouvain.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
On Wednesday 24 June, the Emperor of Japan will be visiting the University Library alongside King Philippe. For this reason, the building will be closed all day to staff, students, suppliers and external visitors. We look forward to welcoming you back on Thursday 25 June. #serviceannouncement
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Book Owners Online is a directory of historical book owners, with information about their libraries, and signposts to further sources. It currently has entries for over 3000 British owners from the 16th to the 18th centuries, and is being expanded. bookowners.online #siteoftheweek
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
During the time of the Old University of Leuven (1425-1797), a crucial role in the University’s life was played by the four pedagogies of Leuven. These were 'boarding houses' where students of the Faculty of Arts lived and studied for the two years of their programme. (1/5)
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
The Spanish Early Music Manuscripts (SEMM) is a database dedicated to the preservation and study of Spanish medieval music. Founded in 2015, SEMM provides access to key sources that highlight Spain’s unique contribution to the history of medieval liturgical music. #siteoftheweek
musicahispanica.eu
Welcome to Spanish Early Music Manuscripts Database! | Musica Hispanica
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
This Book of Hours from Bruges (ms. 1019, c. 1430–1440) features 12 refined half-page miniatures, richly decorated borders, and multiple languages (Latin, Middle French, Middle Dutch). Created in the renowned Bruges “Gold Scrolls” workshop, it later survived the 1940 fire and is now fully digitised.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
An anti-theft verse opens manuscript MS 2250: “Hunc ego possideo summo cum jure libellum; quem si sustuleris, fur tibi nomen erit.” Signed by a certain Guilielmus Hendrickx of Turnhout, a rather commun name, so his identity remains unknown. (1/2)
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
The Anglo-American Legal Tradition (AALT) is a remarkable digital resource providing access to thousands of medieval and early modern English legal records from the UK National Archives. (1/2) #siteoftheweek
aalt.law.uh.edu
AALT Home Page
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
It is not only medieval manuscripts that are (sometimes) beautifully illuminated. What about this genealogy of the Van Cuyck family? This manuscript (ms. 1896) was updated over many decades, perhaps even centuries, which explains the different styles in the illustrations.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
FIHRIST is a free on-line, UK-wide union catalogue for manuscript descriptions for codices from the Islamic World. The rich collections of manuscripts bear witness to the linguistic, religious and cultural diversity of what commonly features as the Islamic world. (1/2)
fihrist.org.uk
Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World
Union Catalogue of Manuscripts from the Islamicate World
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
The five senses were a popular allegorical theme in 17th-c. European art, often represented in beautifully detailed series of engravings. Two student notebooks from our collection contain the same charming set of five engraved emblems: De tactu, De auditu, De visu, De odoratu, and De gustu.
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
The Catalog of Distinctive Type (CDT) is a visual catalog of distinctive/damaged printing type found in books published in England 1660-1700. These type impressions—20,000 individual letters —constitute a new source of typographic evidence for > 240 printers then working in London. #siteoftheweek
cdt.library.cmu.edu
CATALOG of DISTINCTIVE TYPE (CDT), Restoration England (1660-1700)
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
The Immovable Heritage Image Bank ("Beeldbank Onroerend Erfgoed") is a digital database maintained by the Flemish government that collects photographs, drawings, and other visual materials related to immovable heritage in Flanders. #siteoftheweek (1/2) /
beeldbank.onroerenderfgoed.be
Beeldbank Onroerend Erfgoed
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KU Leuven Libraries Special Collections @speccoll-kuleuven.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
It’s our birthday! Special Collections is celebrating its tenth anniversary on 1 May. Would you like to know what we’ve achieved over the past ten years? Then head over to bib.kuleuven.be/english/spec....
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