leidenspecialcollectionsblog

An intimate conversation between present and past in Loes Huis in ’t Veld’s "Cavafy my father and me"

Guest author • October 31, 2024

“A glimpse of knowledge”: Lessons from a Nineteenth-Century Arabic Textbook for Amharic

A rare Arabic primer to the Amharic language from 1872 CE provides unique insight into nineteenth-century trends in Egyptian education, Egyptian-Ethiopian relations, and the development of Arabic print culture.

Guest author • October 09, 2024

Wanted! Original drawings by Johan Huizinga

Are you the unwitting owner of an original drawing by Johan Huizinga? It could be part of the first ever exhibition of his visual works in the University Museum of Groningen from 1 February until 1 May 2025. Will you help us find Huizinga's lost drawings?

Anton van der Lem • August 13, 2024

Historic protective enclosures from the Middle East

Bindings bear the brunt of usage, as they are made to protect a textblock. To protect the bindings, various book cultures in the Middle East and Africa kept bound manuscripts in bags or satchels. These understudied enclosures often need conservation care, just like the manuscripts they protected.

Karin Scheper • July 16, 2024

Patterns of aging in Mamluk manuscripts

Stains in manuscripts can be problematic, but they can also reveal interesting historic information. So, it is important to distinguish between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ stains. Luca van der Zande studied a pattern of stains in Arabic manuscripts to learn about their nature and make conservation decisions.

Karin Scheper • June 11, 2024

Travelling to ancient Mesopotamia with professor Böhl

The archive of professor Frans de Liagre Böhl (1882-1976) contains a wealth of knowledge and documentation about early 20th-century Middle Eastern archaeology. The archive, owned by the Netherands Institute for the Near East will soon be available for research via the Leiden Special Collections.

• May 21, 2024

The Iranian Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Old Manuscript, New Perspectives

Majid Daneshgar discusses a rare Persian-Malay manuscript: Or. 5658. It provides a clearer picture of the history of Persian proficient people and Persian-Shīʿīsm in Indonesia.

Guest author • April 24, 2024

Identifying woodcut prints from a 1541 Dutch Livy translation

Thirteen woodcut prints in an uncatalogued box lead to an interesting quest through old books in the Leiden Special Collections. Danny Sunder explains how classic and modern techniques help identify unlinked images, enriching catalogue records.

Guest author • April 17, 2024

Chemicals, Glass and Persistence: Alexine Tinne’s 1862 photography in the heart of Africa

Alexine Tinne mastered mobile photography while the art was still in its infancy, enabling her to create some truly unique photos in mid-19th-century Africa.

Maartje van den Heuvel • March 25, 2024

Islam in your pocket: A rich yet endangered collection linking Leiden and East Africa

How is one a good Muslim in the modern world? In East Africa, from the 1930s onwards, Islam became portable and accessible: new notions of morality were packed into pocket-size booklets cheaply printed in India. What makes this 982-booklet corpus so unique and fragile?

Guest author • January 16, 2024