Ordering and using reproductions

Do you need a scan or a print-out, for instance for study purposes or for a publication? You can order it from the reproduction service by email, or fill in a form at the reading room counter.

Donate your book or collection

There is no better place for unique books and special collections than the Heritage Library. We therefore welcome donations that will complement our existing collection with open arms.

Help out as a volunteer or intern

Would you like to lend us a hand in preserving our heritage? We would be delighted to welcome you as a volunteer or intern.

Pornography in the library

Interaction between porn and literature in Flanders

Until recently, pornography has mostly been neglected by literary scholars and historians. Academic attention to pornographic texts was confined to a small range of literary authors with a canonical status, such as the notorious libertine author Marquis de Sade. Similarly, librarians were not interested in pornographic publications, which usually circulated in a secondary circuit of junk reading. As a result of this, the mass of these pulp publications, printed on low-quality paper and deemed unworthy of keeping, has vanished through time.

"Antwerp is a colonial city"

Historian Bas De Roo has been scouring our collection for books on Belgium’s colonial past for his dissertation on the flow of taxes and customs duties in Congo Free State. After his dissertation, De Roo worked at the University of Leipzig, where he researched the role of the Congolese elite in the governance of the Free State and Belgian Congo. Today, De Roo is a researcher at Geheugen Collectief, which offers historical research in an accessible way to a broad public in the form of exhibitions, historical walks, apps, publications ...

Two manuscripts added to list of Flemish Masterworks

Two early modern manuscripts from the collection of the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library have been added to the register of official Flemish Masterworks (‘topstukkenlijst’). The Minister for Culture recognizes the importance of these books for Flemish cultural history.

A Dog of Flanders

Recently, the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library could add some fine titles to its collection of A Dog of Flanders-publications, including a Japanese version of the Suske & Wiske-comic featuring Nello and Patrasche.

The trajectories of a sixteenth-century physician’s books

Upon opening a copy of the 1572 Venetian edition of Natale Conti’s Historiarum sui temporis libri decem, the ex-libris caught the attention of Dr. Nina Lamal. Opposite the title page of the book there was an engraved portrait of Alvarus Nonnius by Jan Wierix, dated 1586. In the following weeks, she came across the same portrait pasted in several other books in the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library. Her interest was piqued: she wanted to reconstruct Nonnius’ library and investigate how his books became part of the collection of the Conscience library. This short blog offers the first results of that quest.

Provenance research in the Conscience Library

Some books contain traces of earlier owners or users. These provenance marks can be used to research the way a book or text functioned in society, or to reconstruct the reading behaviour or book ownership of a person or a group of people.

Many marvellous histories

An anonymous 18th century manuscript has popped up

At Van De Wiele Auctions a remarkable eighteenth-century anonymous manuscript turned up earlier this year. It bears the title ‘Hier worden verhaelt veel wonderbaere gheschiedenissen’ [Herein many marvellous histories are told]. At the last minute, we were able to look into this manuscript and acquire it later on.