Beginning 2004 the Flemish Jesuit province moved its collection of “Jesuitica
and Ignatiana” (some 15 000 volumes), within the framework of a long-term loan,
to the Maurits Sabbe Library of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium),
thus creating new possibilities for future research into the spirituality and
the history of the Societas Jesu. This Jesuitica collection, together with the
Fondo Antiguo of Buenos Aires (Argentina) is deemed among the most important in
the world.
A first move towards benefiting from the collection in the fullest sense is the
incorporation of these volumes in the existing university library database (with
an in depth description). A thorough description makes all contributing authors,
artists, dedicatees etc. available to on-line researchers. Even the provenance
of the books becomes traceable, a nod towards the book historians. This work
will take a few years to finish, but meanwhile the results can be followed
on-line thanks to the second step taken.
This second step is the creation of a website (www.jesuitica.be)
where these books can be found together, searchable by author, title or date.
The list of biographical data, pseudonyms, call names can be added to endlessly
and is equally searchable. The website also envisages becoming a meeting place
for researchers worldwide on matters Jesuit. To that end news items are posted
(e.g. exhibits, colloquia, etc.), and a researchers’ corner has been created,
where new articles or books can be signalled to the webmaster who in turn
notifies those who subscribed to receive these research results. Moreover, a
links page has been developed, with links classified under different (S.J.)
categories such as: Jesuitica (narrow sense), libraries, miscellaneous,
periodicals, research centres, spirituality, societal links, universities.
To make this webpage truly an interactive meeting place for researchers of many
different scientific disciplines, the collaboration of everybody, Jesuit and
non-Jesuit alike, is hereby solicited.
The history behind the Jesuit book collection
What’s the story behind the Leuven Jesuit book collection? A brief historical
survey will try to lay bare some of the past developments.
The history of modern libraries begins with the invention of typography. The
production and distribution of books now lay in the hands of printers and
booksellers, no longer abbeys. The Renaissance and the Reformation stimulated
the development of both typography and libraries. The French Revolution, with
its secularization of ecclesiastical property (all over Europe), was another
turning-point in the history of libraries. In absorbing ecclesiastical
collections, public libraries became so enriched they were compelled to develop
new organizational methods.
Given this background, we can discern two acquisition periods in the history of
this Jesuit collection: one before the suppression of the order in 1773 and one
after the restoration of the Society of Jesus in Belgium in 1832.
During the first period, there were many Jesuit schools in Flanders and Brabant.
Each school had its library. Some had its domus professa and there was
also the vast collection of the Musaeum Bellarminum (later Museaum
historicum, Malines), out of which one had envisioned to write a general
history of the Low Countries. The latter collection moved to the Malines
archdiocese, upon suppression of the order. These books provide us with an idea
of the abundant and scientific education offered in these Jesuit institutions of
learning.
In 1839, after the restoration of the order, the Belgian Jesuits began a new
library in their theological and philosophical college in Leuven. It was built
around Fr. Lodewijk Vincent Donche's important collection, containing some 25
000 books, of which 2 000 old books. Skilled Jesuit librarians, Hendrik Rosa and
Aloys de Backer (co-author of the Bibliothèque des écrivains de la Compagnie
de Jésus, 1853) in the nineteenth century and Joseph de Ghellinck, Marc
Dykmans and Herman Morlion in the twentieth, turned this library into an
exceptional work instrument for studying theology. It was Fr. de Ghellinck who
collected in the wake of the rebuilding of the university book collection after
WWI many precious works in the neighbouring countries.
In October 1974, the new library of the Theology Faculty at the Catholic
University at Leuven was solemnly inaugurated. Over a period of sixty years,
being part of the entire university library, the theological book collection had
to be completely or basically restored three times (in 1914, 1940 and 1968). The
founding of a separate library for the Faculty of Theology within the Catholic
University of Leuven, Belgium was all the more challenging and de facto an
innovation in the history of the faculty since its origin in 1432.
The best way to up-build a valuable new collection of books was to bring
together already existing collections from outside the University. The important
theological library of the Flemish Jesuits at Heverlee (formerly in Leuven) and
the collection of the Major Seminary at Malines, consisting of theological and
historical books from the time before the French Revolution, are the basic
components of the new library.
Besides these, a number of other libraries from religious congregations and from
private persons have been completely or partially incorporated. Thanks to the
annual credits of the Faculty of Theology it has been possible to update these
collections through regular purchase. In this way, the Jesuitica collection
keeps increasing.
As a whole, this library houses an exceptionally cultural patrimony, and
constitutes a historic monument, with manuscripts of special value, more than
three hundred incunabula and more than one hundred thousand books printed in the
sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth century and later. At the same time it is
a highly qualified instrument for scientific research, equipped with the latest
tools of reference. A laboratory for theological studies and the humanities in
general, unique in Flanders and comparable with the most important theological
research centres in the world.