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

Bad blood at an 18th-century printing type auction

Printers kept a close eye on each other in the 18th-century Dutch book industry. A stinging comment from printer Lobbedanus regarding one of his colleagues gives an intriguing insight into the trade of printing types.

Guest author • October 18, 2022

'So Crisp and Scenic' - Early Sranan and the Birth of a New Age

The Sranan language, an English-based creole spoken by people of Suriname, has a long and fascinating history and is gaining popularity as a written language. Fresco Sam-Sin talks about the history of Sranan using documents from our Special Collections and by sharing part of his own story.

Guest author • September 01, 2021

The forgotten Reformer. The life and printed works of Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert

On October the 29th in the year 1590, one of the greatest minds of the Dutch Reformation, Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert (1522-1590), passed away in Gouda. Coornhert is not as well-known as some of his contemporaries, but nonetheless he was a very interesting and influential thinker.

Guest author • November 24, 2020

Dutch Children Cheering the Canadian Liberators: Four Dutch colouring books from 1945

The liberation of the Netherlands by the Canadians and other allied forces in 1944/45 is one of the brightest pages in Dutch history. Four very rare colouring books of the time keep this memory alive.

Anton van der Lem • November 10, 2020

Friends of Leiden University Libraries generously support acquisitions for the Nieuwe Kunst collection

Gifts by the Friends, both financially and physically, are essential in the enrichment of our special collections. The support of the Friends is often crucial in enabling the University Library to purchase certain desiderata that otherwise would not be within our reach.

Kasper van Ommen • June 25, 2020

The chosen people - The relief of Leyden one century later

One-hundred years after the relief of Leiden in 1574, the 'Year of Disaster' ravaged the Netherlands. Karel Crucius (1648-1728) managed to put present hardship in historical context.

Anton van der Lem • October 02, 2019

Donum I. Ludolfi

Two beautifully decorated bindings donated to Leiden University Library and Bibliotheca Thysiana, as a token of friendship to a deceased travel companion.

Kasper van Ommen • June 24, 2019

Fashion, or a matter of economics?

Expensive materials would produce costly bindings, and cheap ones made books available for smaller budgets. But how can we assess such issues when documentation is lacking? Certain books help us identify the range of options.

Karin Scheper • September 25, 2018

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