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.

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.

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.

In search of Paradise

Dr. Claire Eager (The College of Wooster, Ohio) visited the Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience in the summer of 2019. Her research concentrates on the works of the English poet Edmund Spenser (c.1552-1599), who wrote The Faerie Queene, and the similarities with the work of the Flemish poet Jan van der Noot (c.1539-c.1595). We interviewed her about her research.

Nottebohm travel grant awarded to Marlena Cravens and Elise Watson

Marlena Cravens investigates how Spanish texts and translations were used to transform the languages and cultures of the original population of the Americas. Elise Watson will investigate how Antwerp printers of the seventeenth and eighteenth century applied their presses to the benefit of catholic people in the Dutch Republic.