About us

The Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library is located in Antwerp’s bustling city centre. For over five centuries, the library has been collecting and preserving Flemish cultural heritage.

From student programme to exhibition: Design for Digital Reading

What can a book from the 17th century teach us about digital reading? During the three-year programme Design for Digital Reading, a team of students, instructors and curators delved into the Heritage Library’s historical collection. The assignment was just as simple as it was complex: use the analogue books as a breeding ground for digital reading innovations. The result? An exposition full of innovative prototypes that redefine the boundaries of reading and experience. 

Antwerp

The Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library collects all publications about the city of Antwerp and its history.

Oscar Nottebohm

The Nottebohm Room in the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library is named after the Antwerp patron Oscar Nottebohm (1865-1935). This particular descendant of the Nottebohm family was a grandson of Diederich Wilhelm Nottebohm who moved to Antwerp from Bielefeld in 1811.

Cultural and general history

The Heritage Library collects publications on general history and on the history of art and culture in Flanders and the Low Countries.

Venue rental and filming

Our stunning Nottebohm Room is the perfect setting for a lecture, a seminar, a film shoot or a book launch. You can also rent the Eekhoud Cabinet.

A virtual visit to the Nottebohm Room

Hidden gem now available online

The Nottebohm Room is a true hidden gem. Visit this magical room from home.

Travel grant brings Ashley Gonik (Harvard University) to Antwerp

Three research vlogs

In 2019, Ashley Gonik received a travel grant from the Nottebohm Foundation to conduct research on the collections of the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library and the Plantin-Moretus Museum. Are you curious about the life of an American researcher in Antwerp? In three short research vlogs she tells about her journey, research and experiences.

Podcasts Miraeus Lectures

Together with the Flanders Book Historical Society and the Antwerp Bibliophile Society, the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library organizes book-historical lectures that place book history in the Netherlands in an international perspective. Browse our archive of a few past lectures and listen to the podcasts.

Imagination bound

Exposition in the Nottebohm room

In the light of the 100-year anniversary of the book art degree programme at the Academy of Berchem, we will showcase the expo 'Bound by Imagination' during our summer opening. An exhibition of 100 books, bound by former and current students and teachers of the academy.