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.

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.

The collection of broadside ballads

The Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library holds a large collection of broadside ballads, ranging from the seventeenth century to the 1950’s and mostly printed in the Southern Netherlands and Belgium. Ballad singers often performed on public markets, hence the Dutch name ‘marktzangers’ and ‘marktliederen’. The last traditional ballad singers performed in the 1950’s.

A Tale of Two Books: Two Sammelbände given to Antwerp by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

Assistant Professor Liza Blake examined two rare books which were donated to the Antwerp city library by the English noblewoman and author Margaret Cavendish, Marchioness of Newcastle (1623-1673). In this article she stresses the importance of this donation and explains why these particular copies merit further investigation.

Georges Eekhoud: the Belgian Maxim Gorki

The Belgian author Georges Eekhoud (1854 – 1927), who lived in Flanders but wrote in French, was one of the first authors who wrote positively about homosexuality. Eekhoud’s personal library is a key collection in the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library.

Forgotten chansons de geste?

New acquisition of a rare 16th-century romance of chivalry

Recently a rare copy of a Dutch epic poem (chanson de geste) printed in 1576 in Antwerp turned up at an auction. With the help of the Patronage Fund for Books and Literature the Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience acquired this copy of the romance of Roncevale.

Become a patron with your business

Would you like to support our library with your business? You can do so through the Patronage Fund for Books and Literature. Your general or project-related donation will demonstrate your social engagement and enable us to purchase and preserve paper heritage.

Expo 'The Antwerp Songbook'

Curators of old prints and manuscripts

Steven Van Impe and Marie-Charlotte Le Bailly

Old prints are books, newspapers and magazines made before the art of book printing was industrialised, which was around the 1800s. That is why every old print is unique, just like manuscripts. Each copy is separately designed, printed and bound and that is what makes them so special. Our two curators would love to help you in your research.