
The city of
Leuven
Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. Th ...
in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...
was the seat of three successive universities, each of which had a notable
academic library
An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic librar ...
.
The Library of the Old University
The
Old University of Leuven
The Old University of Leuven (or of Louvain) is the name historians give to the university, or '' studium generale'', founded in Leuven, Brabant (then part of the Burgundian Netherlands, now part of Belgium), in 1425. The university was closed ...
founded in 1425 had a collegiate structure with no central library. Students probably had access to manuscripts and printed books preserved in their colleges, in stationers' offices, and in the homes of their professors. With the bequests to the university of the libraries of
Laurentius Beyerlinck, a
canon of
Antwerp Cathedral, in 1627, and of Professor of Medicine
Jacobus Romanus in 1637, a central library was established in the
University Hall,
under the management of the jurist and historian
Valerius Andreas.
In 1797, the manuscripts and most valuable works were seized by the French state and transported partly to the
National Library of France in Paris and partly to the
Central School of Brussels.
[''Leuven University'', p. 31: "The university colleges were closed on 9 November 1797, and all items of use, with all the books, were requisitioned for the new École Centrale, in Brussels"] The library of the Central School of Brussels had about 80,000 volumes, which eventually passed into the possession of the City of Brussels and then the
Royal Library of Belgium
The Royal Library of Belgium (french: Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België, abbreviated ''KBR'' and sometimes nicknamed in French or in Dutch) is the national library of Belgium. The library has a history t ...
. Similarly, the rich archives of the Old University are now held by the
National Archives of Belgium.
It is also very likely that during the troubles of the wars of the French Revolution many books and valuable documents were removed from the collection. Several libraries across Europe now have books and manuscripts that certainly came from Leuven University Library, such as the founding charter of 1425 which was located in 1909 at the seminary of 's-Hertogenbosch, or the courses of the law professor Henricus de Piro which were located in the late 20th century in the
National Széchényi Library
The National Széchényi Library ( hu, Országos Széchényi Könyvtár) (OSZK) is a library in Budapest, Hungary, located in Buda Castle. It is one of two Hungarian national libraries, the other being University of Debrecen Library.
History
The ...
in Budapest.
The Library of the State University
The
State University of Leuven, founded in 1817, also established a library. In 1826 the librarian was
Karl Bernhardi
Karl Christian Sigismund Bernhardi (5 October 1799, Ottrau – 1 August 1874, Kassel) was a German librarian and politician.
He studied theology at the University of Marburg, and afterwards worked as a private tutor in Brussels. He furthe ...
. He was succeeded by P. Namur.
The nucleus of its collection was formed by the works of the municipal library of Leuven that the city offered the State University in 1817. In addition, the State University received from the government of the Netherlands the sum of 20,000 guilders to enrich its book funds.
The Library of the Catholic University

This library was established in
Mechelen
Mechelen (; french: Malines ; traditional English name: MechlinMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical contex ...
at the very beginning of the
Catholic University of Belgium in 1834. In 1835 the
Catholic University of Mechelen
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a p ...
moved to Leuven and became the
Catholic University of Leuven, with a leasehold on the University Hall, where the library was again kept until 1914. This library was burned by German soldiers at the beginning of the First World War, destroying approximately 230,000 books, 950 manuscripts, and 800 incunabula.
[
After the First World War a new purpose-built library was erected on the ]Ladeuzeplein
The Mgr. Ladeuzeplein ("Mgr. Ladeuze Square") is the largest square in the centre of Leuven, Belgium. The square was named after a former rector of the Catholic University of Leuven, Mgr. Paulin Ladeuze. The central library of the KU Leuven is ...
in a building of neo-Flemish-Renaissance style, designed by the American architect Whitney Warren and built between 1921 and 1928. The library, whose book collection had been rebuilt with donations coming from all around the world which had been outraged by the act from which it had suffered, unfortunately burned again in 1940, probably following exchanges of fire between belligerents.
The library was again restored after that date and holds approximately four million books. Since 1970 the collections have been divided between the French-speaking Université catholique de Louvain
The Université catholique de Louvain (also known as the Catholic University of Louvain, the English translation of its French name, and the University of Louvain, its official English name) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It ...
and Dutch-speaking Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.
The University Library of the Catholic University of Leuven has acquired not only modern books but also many old books and valuable incunabula.
Notes
See also
* University Hall (Leuven)
* Universities in Leuven
* Old University of Leuven
The Old University of Leuven (or of Louvain) is the name historians give to the university, or '' studium generale'', founded in Leuven, Brabant (then part of the Burgundian Netherlands, now part of Belgium), in 1425. The university was closed ...
* State University of Leuven
* Catholic University of Mechlin
* Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
* Université catholique de Louvain
The Université catholique de Louvain (also known as the Catholic University of Louvain, the English translation of its French name, and the University of Louvain, its official English name) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university. It ...
{{Authority control
Academic libraries in Belgium
Buildings and structures in Leuven
History of Leuven
Education in Leuven
World War I crimes by Imperial Germany