A Brill Calendar: February 2

Heinsius and Leyden University

Few institutional tools for a ‘Universitas Studiosorum’ in fostering scholarly work surpass its library.

Leyden University is no exception to that rule. From the roots of the European idea for such institutes of learning in the 11th century, any geographically stable guild of inquisitive natures - loving servants of Sapientia & Pallas - is inseparable from a book-collection to serve their vocation.

During the manuscript era, (effectively some four centuries), this prime academic tool comprised perhaps hundreds of volumes; a corpus possibly accessible in detail to its guardian if he were blessed with a superb memory for texts. After Gutenberg’s invention, quantities of a different order established themselves on the shelves. Universities founded after the middle of the 15th century – Leyden among them, (its ‘Dies Natalis on February 8, 1575) - saw their naturally coeval treasure-trove of texts develop under fundamentally new realities and expectations; in ever growing numbers.

When Daniel Heinsius (Ghent, January 9, 1580 – Leyden, February 25, 1655), Professor in Greek since 1603, was also appointed Librarian of Leyden University in 1607, the ‘Curatorium’ had made a perfectly understandable decision. Heinsius, a superb and erudite philologist, fulfilled his academic obligations also in his ancillary position responsibly and successfully until 1653.

However, roughly half-way this tenure - in 1627 – events overtook him. Gabriel Naudé (Paris, February 2 1600 – Abbeville, July 30 1653), trained as physician in Padua and Paris, published his seminal ‘Avis pour dresser une bibliothèque’, definitive advice in the organization of truly great libraries; to all practical purposes the ‘big-bang’ of modern library science. When Naudé had amassed, as from 1643 - for the French Cardinal and Statesman Mazarin – an enormous library of more than 40,000 books hailing from all over Europe, the course of a new intellectual profession, scholarly librarianship, was set.