Public and research

Marie-Charlotte Le Bailly

The Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience works very differently than other libraries. Our collection consists of fragile heritage, so our consultation is adapted to that fact. Our curator of Public and Research Marie-Charlotte Le Bailly and our team in the reading room make sure that clients can find what they are looking for quickly and smoothly, either physically in the reading room or online. That is why we like to work closely with researchers. Most of the services we offer are actually free of charge as well.  

Collection management and repository work

Alexandra Noël

The Heritage Library collection is unique. More than 1.5 million volumes, of which 40.000 rare, old prints from before 1830. It is a whole task to preserve such a treasure with the utmost care for the generations to come. Alexandra Noël coordinates the preservation and management of our collection.  

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.

Cookies

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Treasures of the Nottebohm Room

For groups

Visit one of the most beautiful and prestigious library spaces with your association or group. A guide will take you through the history of the building and explain the special books kept there.

Nottebohm Fellowship for Book Historical Research

The Plantin-Moretus Museum and the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library (Antwerp) are pleased to announce a fellowship programme for research into the history of the early printed book (15th-18th century) in Antwerp, with the gracious support of the “Thierry and Frédéric Nottebohm Grant” of the Nottebohm Family Foundation.

Ulysses to Baedeker

Three centuries of travel advice in pocket size

Gerrit Verhoeven is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of History of the University of Antwerp. As an urban historian, he specialises in early modern Europe, particularly – but not only – the Low Countries and Western Europe. He has published on travel and tourism, on time awareness and human capital, on the resilience of social relations, and on book history. In this blogpost he writes about the research potential of travel guides kept in the collection of Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library.

Collection

The Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library spans more than five centuries of Antwerp and Flemish history. Its unique and complete collection encompasses rare old editions as well as more contemporary publications and popular, contemporary periodicals, on paper, microfilm or in digital form.

The Library

New acquisition: Albertanus de Brescia, Liber de arte loquendi et tacendi

In December 2018 the Endowment Fund for Books and Literature acquired a rare Antwerp incunable, which it donated to the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library. The Liber de arte loquendi et tacendi by Albertanus of Brescia was printed in Antwerp in 1485 by Gerard Leeu.