Sabbatical - Pierre Delsaerdt.

The aim of this sabbatical leave is to do research on the 'patrimonialisation' of the book in the Southern Low Countries during the revolutionary years 1790–1830. Research will focus on two case studies: (1) the considerable transfer of books from monastic libraries towards Parisian depots such as the Bibliothèque nationale during the French regime in the Southern Low Countries; (2) the preservation of heritage documents that had been collected by the abbey of Tongerlo and that were bought by the Dutch King William I in 1827, in order to deposit them in the Royal Library in The Hague. These case studies are complementary, both chronologically and geographically. The research objectives are:1. To identify and describe the (often hidden) provenance of substantial quantities of literary and scientific heritage documents from the Southern Low Countries in foreign (French and Dutch) libraries.2. To analyse the ways in which new owners appropriated these books, e.g. by having them rebound, by adding new provenance marks and/or by removing earlier ones.3. To interpret the authorities' discourse behind the transfer of books and to look at the ways in which the previous owners of the books reacted to it.Guiding questions are concerned with the following phenomena:1. Patrimonialisation: which types of documents were granted 'heritage value', and how was this motivated?2. Institutionalization: how did authorities substantiate their commitment to the preservation of literary and scientific 'book heritage', and how did they understand the responsibilities of 'national' libraries in this context?3. Centralization vs. periphery: can the actions mentioned above be interpreted as cases of transfer of cultural goods from the periphery (Tongerlo, the Southern Low Countries) towards centres (a metropolis, The Hague, Paris), and if so, how explicitely is this argument used in the documents that resulted from these transfers?

Keywords:HISTORY OF BOOKS, HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS, LIBRARY SCIENCE

Disciplines:Library sciences, History, Other history and archaeology, Heritage, Collections heritage, Library and archival heritage