Google Books in the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library

Beyond the pandemic

In February 2020, we announced that Google Books, the Hendrik Conscience Library and the Plantin-Moretus Museum were starting a project to digitize 100,000 books from our collections that are in the public domain. Just a few days later, the country went into lockdown. How has the project proceeded over this eventful year?

Porn, pulp & literature

Online exhibit

In December 2019, the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library presented an unknown and long-hidden part of Flemish literature and cultural history: pornographic literature with the exhibition "Porn, pulp & literature". View the online exhibition here.

Accessibility

Everyone should be able to easily use and view the information on the website of the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, not least the visually impaired, blind, hearing impaired, deaf and persons with other disabilities. The Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library strives to make its website as accessible as possible, by 2022 at the latest. We do this in accordance with the EU directives and the Flemish Administration Decree.

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.

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.

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 Conscience-Lantslot

A rare gem

Earlier this year, the Medieval Manuscripts in Flemish Collections-project identified several fragments of a (post-)incunable of the famous Lanseloet van Denemerken in the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library. 'Een seer ghenoechlycke historie vanden edelen Lantslot ende die Schone Sandryen' is undoubtedly a valuable new addition to the library’s sizeable collection of Dutch literary treasures.

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.

Pandemic in the Library

The global pandemic affects us all in one way or another. The staff of the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library is in good health and hopes you and yours are safe and healthy. This article provides an overview of the ways we are working to ensure accessibility to our collections during these difficult times.

Reading room

In our reading room you can consult all collection items of the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library. You can also search our digital databases and have reproductions made. And for those who want to get to know the library and its heritage collections in more detail, there are our introductory sessions or workshops.