Leiden University Libraries hold a large number of special collections of national and international importance. These include manuscripts, early printed books, maps, atlases, prints, drawings, and photographs. To make these collections visible for a broad audience, the library partnered in 2015 with '''', a richly illustrated magazine in Dutch for lovers of books with information about the early and modern book and graphic art.
Western Manuscripts manuscript illustrates the
constellations
Ophiuchus,
Serpens and
Scorpius. Around 816. The collection
Western Manuscripts contains all western manuscripts (including some two and a half thousand medieval manuscripts and fragments and twenty five thousand modern manuscripts), three hundred thousand letters, archives and three thousand annotated prints of the University Library, including the archives of the university. Among others, it includes the
Bibliotheca Vossiana which holds the manuscript collections of
Isaac Vossius. The
codicies are mainly written Greek and Latin and amongst them contain some of the earliest surviving
classical literature, such as the
Leiden Pliny.
Western Printed Works The collection
Western Printed Works contains materials printed before 1801 (including 700
incunabula) and rare and precious works from after 1801. In the course of four centuries the collection has been expanded through bequests, gifts and acquisitions of collections from scholars. Furthermore, the University Library obtained the deposit right for a copy of each book for which the
States of Holland had given the privilege to print. The collection also includes more than 100,000 printed works from the library of the
Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde which has been deposited on permanent loan since 1876. (1815–1882): Portrait of J.T. Bodel Nijenhuis. Collection Leiden University Libraries.
Bodel Nijenhuis Collection The
Bodel Nijenhuis Collection contains mainly old maps, atlases, topographical prints and drawings. Most of the collection was obtained as a bequest from J.T. Bodel Nijenhuis. The lawyer Johannes Tiberius Bodel Nijenhuis (1797–1872), director of the publishing house Luchtmans, for 25 years a member of the
Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde, was a passionate collector of
cartographical and
topographical material. The collection contains 60,000 maps (of which 3,000 drawings), 1,500 atlases, 24,000 topographical prints, 1,600 drawings and the archive of Youssouf Kamal's
Monumenta Cartographica Africae et Aegypti. In the course of four centuries countless manuscripts, printed books and photographs on the Orient and Oriental Studies have found their way to the library of Leiden University.
Oriental Studies are still flourishing at Leiden University, and the Oriental Collections are still growing to serve the needs of the national and international scholarly community. The
Oriental Collections of Leiden University Libraries are known as the
Legatum Warnerianum (Warner's Legacy), referring to
Levinus Warner (1619–1665), envoy to the
Sublime Porte at
Constantinople, whose collection of 1,000 Middle Eastern manuscripts forms the core of the present-day Oriental Collections. In 1659 following the death of the Ottoman bibliophile-encyclopedist
Kâtip Çelebi his library was sold. At the time it was the largest private library in Istanbul, and Warner acquired part of it for the University of Leiden. The
Oriental Collections nowadays contain 30,000 manuscripts and 200,000 printed books on subjects ranging from
Archaeology to
Zoroastrianism and in languages from Arabic to
Zulu.
Bibliotheca Thysiana The
Bibliotheca Thysiana was erected in 1655 to house the book collection of the lawyer Joannes Thysius (1622–1653). Upon his early death, he left a legacy of 20,000 guilders for the building of a public library ("tot publycque dienst der studie") with a custodian's dwelling. Designed by the architect Arent van 's-Gravensande, the building follows the Dutch Classical style and is regarded as one of the jewels of Dutch 17th century architecture. It is distinguished by its balanced proportions and the purity of its Ionic order on top of a high basement. The
Bibliotheca Thysiana is the only surviving 17th century example in the Netherlands of a building that was designed as a library. It is quite extraordinary that a complete private 17th century library has been preserved and thus offers a good impression of the book collection of a young, learned
bibliophile from the period of late
Humanism. The collection contains about 2,500 books and thousands of pamphlets in all scientific fields.
Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde Otherwise known as the MNL, the "
Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde" (Dutch Society of Letters) was founded in Leiden in 1766 to promote the study of Dutch historical linguistic subjects. This society joined the Leiden University Libraries in 1876, and since 1999 forms the basis of the DBNL – the digital online library of the Dutch Language, an initiative for an online open access archive of the greatest works in Dutch literary history. The society had regular meetings in Leiden on literary subjects, but also on scientific subjects. It became fashionable for the elite to become members, and many were also members of the Dutch Society of Science (
Koninklijke Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen), a similar society for the study of scientific subjects founded in Haarlem in 1752. Both societies still hold contests and award prizes for achievement.
Print Room Founded in 1822, the
Print Room possesses art works from the sixteenth century until the present day. Whether you are interested in mythological scenes from the
Italian Renaissance,
daguerreotypes, the largest collection of portraits in the Netherlands,
stereophotography or Dutch landscapes by Rembrandt and his pupils, the Print Room has them. The holdings presently amount to some 12,000 drawings, around 100,000 prints and some 80,000 photographs, with an emphasis on Dutch art. Amongst the drawings and prints you will find works by famous Dutch artists like
Goltzius, Visscher,
Rembrandt, Troost, Maris,
Toorop, and Veldhoen, but prominent artists from other European Schools, like
Hogarth,
Callot,
Canaletto, and
Dürer are also present with specimens up to 1900.
Colonial Collection (KIT) The collection was started in 1864 with the opening of the Colonial Museum in Haarlem, but parts date back to the predecessor of the museum: the department of 'Trade and Colonies' founded in 1777 and part of the Hollandsche Maatschappij van Wetenschappen. In 1913 the collection was taken over by the Colonial Institute in Amsterdam founded in 1910. In 1950, after the Dutch decolonization, the mission of the Colonial Institute changed which was reflected in a name change to
Royal Tropical Institute. But also the development of the collection changed quite drastically. In 2013 the library of the Royal Tropical Institute was closed and the part of the collection that dealt with the former Dutch colonies was housed at Leiden University Libraries. On 1 July 2014, the management of the collection was transferred from the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences to Leiden University Libraries. The collection was brought together in the 1920s and '30s by
F.M.Th. de Liagre Böhl, Professor of
Assyriology at Leiden University and co-director of
NINO 1939–1955. Diverse text genres are present in the tablet collection: literary texts,
omens,
incantations, archival texts etc. In addition to the tablets, the collection includes a smaller number of
seals,
bullae,
terracottas and other objects. In 2024 the collection was moved from NINO to Leiden University Library.
Scaliger Institute :
Joseph Justus Scaliger, 1597. Merula was the third Librarian of Leiden University (1597–1607). The
Scaliger Institute, founded in 2000, aims to stimulate and facilitate the use of the special collections in both teaching and research. For this purpose, the institute offers favourable working conditions and expertise, organizes lectures, symposia, master classes, and special courses, and provides fellowships to junior and senior scholars from the Netherlands and elsewhere who wish to work in Leiden for a longer period. These include the Brill, Elsevier, Lingling Wiyadharma, Van de Sande, Juynboll en Ailion fellowships, which focus on different disciplines or regions. The Scaliger Chair (Scaliger Professor), affiliated with both the Institute at Leiden University Libraries and the university's Faculty of Humanities, is tasked with "promot[ing] teaching and research relating to the Special Collections held by the University library" through outreach activities directed towards academic and non-academic audiences. •
Harm Beukers (2007–2016) •
Erik Kwakkel (2016–2018) •
Rick Honings (2020–present) Furthermore, an internationally prominent scholar is frequently appointed as 'Visiting Scaliger Professor' who delivers the Scaliger Lecture:
Anthony Grafton (2009),
François Déroche (2010),
Peter Frankopan (2017), and
Ted Underwood (2019). The institute was named after
Josephus Justus Scaliger (1540–1609), Leiden's most renowned scholar during the early years of its existence and a great benefactor of the University Library through the donation, at his death, of his exceptional collection of manuscripts and all his oriental books.
D. Bierens de Haan,
Willem Bilderdijk, T. Bodel Nijenhuis,
G.J.P.J Bolland,
J. Golius,
Robert van Gulik, A.P.H. Hotz,
J. Huizinga,
Constantijn and
Christiaan Huygens,
Frans Kellendonk,
Justus Lipsius,
Prosper Marchand,
Eduard Meijers,
K.H. Miskotte,
Jan Oort,
Valery Pereleshin, Menno Rijke,
Joseph Scaliger,
C. Snouck Hourgronje,
Cornelis Tiele,
Herman Neubronner van der Tuuk,
Isaac Vossius,
Levinus Warner,
Nicolaas van Wijk,
Jan Wolkers. •
Some institutional collections: Bohn Publishers, Sijthoff Publishers, Bibliothèque Wallonne, NHK (Dutch Reformed Church), Seminarium Remonstrantum, photographs Indonesia, ISIM (Islam), Zaken Overzee (Netherlands Ministry of Overseas Affairs),
Leiden Observatory. ==Documents inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register==