Manuscripts - Heritage Library

The manuscripts we currently own, have ended up in our collection in different ways and for different reasons. For example, to accommodate the research of professor of classical philology Jan Gijsel (1922-2013), or to enrich our already established collection profile, for example Jesuitica or historical Antwerp.

Throughout the years, our collection was able to grow because of various donations and acquisitions. At this moment, about 700 years of history is represented: our oldest pieces stem back to the 13^th century, and our most modern preciosa originated in the first half of the 20^th century. We keep and maintain various fragments of (un)known chivalric manuscripts, jubilant poems written for marriages, charters and rhetoricians’ manuscripts.

Alongside our historic manuscripts, we also carry different modern manuscripts and typoscripts at the Special Collections.

Collection Gerard Walschap Society

In the spring of 2002, the University of Antwerp, in consultation with Joris Gerits and Karel Wauters of the Gerard Walschap Society (a centre of the Institute for the study of Literature in the Low Countries (ISLN) of the Department of Literature), allocated a one-off lump sum for the purchase of the 118 manuscripts and typescripts of Flemish author Gerard Walschap, after they were offered to the society by the Walschap estate. Later these manuscripts were housed at the Special Collections. (Information by Joris Gerits)

Collection Louis Paul Boon Documentation Centre

This collection was gathered by the Louis Paul Boon Documentation Centre of the University of Antwerp. It consists of 74 handwritten letters or typoscripts with corrections of novels of for example “De Zwarte Hand, of Het anarchisme van de negentiende eeuw in het industriestadje Aalst.”