The library’s entrance with the security booth to the left. Photo Credit: Yasemin Akçagüner.
Off the beaten track of researchers and scholars of the Ottoman Empire, Tire Necip Paşa Library is an endowment (Tr. vakıf, Ar. waqf) library dating back to the early-nineteenth century located in the Turkish town of Tire in Izmir province. Sometimes spelled Necippaşa or Necib Paşa, this library is more accurately described as a manuscript museum and conservation site. Established in 1827-28 by the Ottoman statesman Mehmed Necib Paşa, the library boasts 5156 titles that include 1754 manuscripts and 3402 print books in modern Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, and Persian. The library continues to serve researchers through digitization services and limited capacity in-person viewings in its original location today.
Dr Walid Ghali preparing a manuscript for digitisation (Photo Credit: Nourmamadcho Nourmamadchoev)
In a time when online learning has become a critical necessity, a select few institutions have proven to be a step ahead. The Aga Khan Library in London is one such institution that began digitizing its collections a few years ago with the goal of facilitating research all over the globe on Islam. Their head librarian Dr. Walid Ghali has played an indispensable role in this multifaceted process, and we have had the good fortune to discuss with him his experiences both in the position as well as those leading up to it.Continue reading “Walid Ghali, Aga Khan Library”
Set in the heart of Manchester, between the City Council, the Magistrates’ Court, and the Coroner’s Court, The John Rylands Library (hereafter JRL) houses the Special Collections of The University of Manchester Library. It is one of the three largest academic libraries in the United Kingdom, and houses more than 400,000 printed books and over a million manuscripts and documents, including important collections of Oriental manuscripts. In this article, I will focus on the JRL collections related to Near Eastern studies.
Exterior of the old entrance to the library.
History
The JRL is named after John Rylands (1801-1888), a famous British entrepreneur who owned the most important textile manufacturing concern in Victorian England. It was created by the wife of the latter, Enriqueta Rylands (d. 1908), shortly after his death. Architect Basil Champneys (d. 1935) was asked to construct the building, which opened to the public on January 1, 1900. The JRL was enriched by Mrs. Rylands’ important purchases of books and manuscripts, especially by the acquisition of two major collections: the Spencer Collection in 1892 and the Crawford Collection in 1901. The majority of the Oriental manuscripts at the JRL come from the latter. In 1921, Henry Guppy, the JRL Librarian from 1900 to 1948, invited local families to deposit at the library their archives for safekeeping, so that the library soon became one of the first institutions to collect and preserve historical family records. In July 1972, a merger between the JRL and the University of Manchester Library took place. Since then, the JRL collections are part of The University of Manchester Library Special Collections. In the early 1980s, the Arabic, Persian and Turkish manuscripts of the Chethams Library were acquired by the University of Manchester Library and added to the collections of the JRL.
Collections
The core holdings of the JRL are the Spencer Collection, comprising 43,000 printed books, of which 4,000 were printed before 1501; and the Crawford Collection, comprising 6,000 manuscripts written in fifty different languages. The majority of the Near Eastern manuscripts are found in the Crawford Collection.
A. Near Eastern manuscripts collections (in alphabetical order)
NB : A guide to the collections is available on the JRL Jewish, Near Eastern and Oriental studies webpage, including bibliographies of their respective catalogs. With a few exceptions, the catalogs mentioned here are all viewable and downloadable from the University of Manchester eScholar website. I also recommend F. Taylor’s manual and catalog of catalogs, which dates back to the 1970s, but is still very helpful: F. Taylor, “The Oriental Manuscript Collections in the John Rylands Library”, in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 54, n°2 (Spring 1972), p. 1-30 [EScholarID:1m2987]. See also C. H. Bleaney & G. J. Roper, “United Kingdom (1990)”, in G. Roper (ed.), World Survey of Islamic Manuscripts, vol. 3, Al-Furqān Islamic Heritage Foundation, London, 1994, p. 509-512
1. Arabic
900 Arabic manuscripts are found at the JRL and cover roughly 1,000 years. They include numerous Qur’ans (among which is a rare Mamluk Qur’an from the fifteenth century) and cover a wide range of subjects such as history, law, science, medicine, philosophy, geography, cosmography, astronomy, astrology, literature, etc. The JRL also holds a collection of 800 papyri derived from the Crawford Collection and consisting of private letters, tradesmen’s and household accounts, among other records. Most of the dated papyri date to the third/ninth century. The collection also contains 1,500 uncataloged paper fragments in Arabic deriving in most cases from the Genizah Collection. The Genizah Collection is a collection of around 14,000 fragments written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Judeo-Arabic from the Genizah of the Synagogue of Ben Ezra in Fustat, Cairo between the tenth and nineteenth centuries of the Common Era. It was discovered by Solomon Schechter, among others, and acquired when the JRL purchased the collection of Moses Gaster in 1954. The major part of the Genizah Collection was catalogued and is available in digital form via LUNA.
Catalogs:
E. Bosworth, “A Catalogue of Accessions to the Arabic Manuscripts in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester”, in Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 56, n° 1-2 (1973-1974), p. 34-73 (1973), 256-296 (1974) [EScholarID: (p. 34-73); (p. 256-296)].
S. Margoliouth, Catalogue of Arabic Papyri in the John Rylands Library Manchester, The Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1933 [EScholarID: (p. 1-49); (p. 50-143); (p. 144-241); (plates 1-42)].
Mingana, Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library Manchester, The Manchester University Press, Manchester, 1934 [EScholarID: (MSS 1-207); (MSS 208-433); (MSS 434-818)].
This catalog with its index and detailed descriptions is practical and useful, although it sometimes makes attribution mistakes [for instance, Mingana wrongly identifies the author of the two texts in the Arabic MS 374 [349] (Ibn Rushd’s Talkhis Kitab al-Qiyas and Talkhis Kitab al-Burhan) as being al-Farabi. Likewise, he mistakenly considers al-Farabi to be the author of the text in the Arabic MS 375 [403] (Ibn Sina’s Kitab al-Najat on Physics)]. The manuscripts are classified according to catalog numbers followed by their shelfmarks between brackets. In the case of a compendium (majmu‘a), the texts of the latter are not scattered throughout the catalog but remain together in the same description. To avoid any confusion, readers should requests manuscripts by quoting their full numbers, including both catalog numbers and shelfmarks between brackets.
al-Moraekhi & G. Rex, “The Arabic Papyri of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester”, in Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 78, n° 2 (1996), p. 1-232 [EScholarID: (introduction); (Part I); (Part II); (Indices); (References)].
See also LUNA for the online catalog of the Genizah Collection
2. Armenian
22 Armenian manuscripts, on parchment or paper, are found in the JRL. They consist mainly of religious texts. Among them is a Gospel codex, which would be the oldest Armenian manuscript in British Libraries. There is also an abundantly illustrated sixteenth-century Romance of Alexander.
Catalogs:
Kiwrtean, “A Short Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library Manchester”, in Sion, vol. 49 (1975), p. 199-259.
Nersessian, A Catalogue of the Armenian Manuscripts in the British Library Acquired Since the Year 1913 and of Collections in Other Libraries in the United Kingdom, British Library, London, 2012
3. Hebrew
The JRL comprises a collection of about 400 Hebrew manuscripts, Torah scrolls and marriage contracts dating between the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries of the Common Era. It includes prayer books, commentaries, treatises on various subjects, letters, marriage contracts, liturgical poetry (piyyutim), and thirteen scrolls of the Law. There are, in addition, around 10,600 fragments (generally very small) in Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic coming from the Genizah Collection (see A.1). One can find there various autograph fragments of Maimonides, including one folio from the Guide of the Perplexed. The JRL holds also a collection of 377 Samaritan manuscripts derived mostly from the Gaster Collection; see A.1)
Catalogs:
Samely, “The Interpreted Text: Among the Hebrew Manuscripts of the John Rylands University Library”, in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 73, n° 2 (1991), p. 1-20 [EScholarID:1m2267].
See also LUNA for the online catalog of the Genizah Collection.
NB: A catalog of the Hebrew manuscripts is in course of preparation.
4. Persian
The JRL Persian manuscripts collection comprises over 1,000 volumes dating from the thirteenth to nineteenth centuries CE, including many illuminated codices. They cover subjects such as theology, Quranic exegesis (tafsīr), Sufism, lives of holy men and prophets, poetry, romances, chronicles and fables, calligraphy, lexicography, grammar, philosophy, medicine, natural history, geography, cosmography, occult sciences, astronomy and astrology. They include encyclopedias and volumes on the history of India and the Mughal Empire.
Catalogs:
Kerney, Bibliotheca Lindesiana: Hand-List of Oriental Manuscripts, privately printed, 1898, p. 107-237.
Kerney, Catalogue of Persian Manuscripts belonging to the Earl of Crawford, not published, n. d. (1890?). Can be consulted at the Library. (This catalog can be consulted at the Library and online.
W. Robinson, “Some Illustrated Persian Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library”, in Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, vol. 34, n° 1 (1952), p. 69-80 [EScholarID:1m2002].
5. Syriac and Karshuni
The JRL holds 70 manuscripts and fragments in Syriac and Karshuni (among which there are three manuscripts in Turkish Karshuni and one manuscript in Armenian Karshuni). The Syriac manuscripts consist of copies of the Old and New Testaments, psalters, liturgical texts and prayers, hymns, books of catechism, lives of Saints, theological treatises, a Syriac-Arabic lexicon, a treatise on amulets, several treatises of Bar Hebraeus (among which a book containing the first nine books of The Cream of the Sciences on logic), a corpus of writings of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and theRhetoric of Anthony of Tagrit.
Catalogs:
Coakley, “A Catalogue of the Syriac Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library”, in Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, vol. 75, n° 2 (1993), p. 105–208.
6. Turkish
The JRL Turkish manuscripts collection consists of 195 items, dating from the fifteenth century to the nineteenth century. Most manuscripts are in Ottoman Turkish, but twelve of them are written in Çağatay and one is a Latin transcription of a compilation of Turkish and Armenian texts. J. Schmidt published a catalog of the entire collection in 2011, which details the wide range of subjects that it contains, including anthologies of poetry, narrative poetry, guides for dervish novices, fables and stories, commentaries, grammar books, letters (among which, a number of Ottoman official documents), biographies and biographical dictionaries, dictionaries and vocabulary lexicons, travelogues, library catalogs, texts on religious ethics, jurisprudence (fiqh), history, medicine, geography, cosmography, astronomy, mathematics, and music.
Catalogs:
Kerney, Bibliotheca Lindesiana: Hand-List of Oriental Manuscripts, privately printed, 1898, p. 241-268.
Kerney, Catalogue of Turkish Manuscripts belonging the Earl of Crawford, not published, 1892. Can be consulted at the Library.
Schmidt, A Catalogue of the Turkish Manuscripts in the John Rylands University Library at Manchester, Brill, Leiden-Boston, coll. “Islamic Manuscripts and Books”, vol. 2, 2011.
7. Other Languages
The JRL also holds collections of around 1,100 Sumerian and Akkadian clay tablets dating from the third and second centuries BCE, over a thousand Coptic items, and smaller collections of Armenian and Ethiopian manuscripts, as well as Egyptian papyri.
The library holds a collection of more than one hundred manuscripts from Southeast Asia, partially catalogued, in ten different languages.
B. Archival Collections
The JRL hosts various archives of notable documents related to the history of the Middle East. The most important one is without any doubt the Archive of the Guardian (formerly Manchester Guardian), which was established in 1821 by John Edward Taylor (1791-1844). The editorial correspondence and dispatches from its reporters constitute a rich source of information on the history of the Middle East in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The collection contains important material on, for instance, the founding of Israel, the later Middle Eastern conflicts, as well as the Suez Crisis. The Papers of Samuel Alexander (1877-1938) are also of importance since they include, for example, a correspondence between the latter and the Zionist pioneer Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952), the first President of Israel. See also the Military Papers of Major General Eric Edward Dorman O’Gowan (1926-1969) and Field Marshal Auchinleck (1919-1971), who was commander-in-chief of the British forces in the Middle East (1941-1942) and India (1943-1947). A downloadable digitized catalog of the Guardian Archive is available on the JRL website. Other catalogs can be searched online via ELGAR, such as the Catalogue of the Manchester Egyptian and Oriental Society Archives.
A view of the historic reading room.
Research Experience
People conducting research in the Special Collections work in the Elsevier Reading Room (4th floor), as the Historic Reading Room (3rd floor) is used for readers’ own private work. In addition to the main staircase, an elevator serves every floor of the Library building. I had the opportunity to work for several days in the Elsevier Reading Room, and I can say that the conditions there are very comfortable. The Library’s staff is conscientious and very reliable. The controlled climate and secure environment provide a quiet atmosphere. No matter how dark the sky, the light is always sufficient. In daytime, the room is enriched by a soft light coming from a generous bay window that overlooks Spinningfield and Deansgate. The work tables can accommodate up to twenty-two people and are equipped with two electrical sockets each. Many other facilities are provided: adaptors for laptops, a set of magnifying glasses, an easy-to-use fiber-optic light sheet to analyze watermarks, a ruler and a microscope are at the readers’ disposal. A stock of pencils is provided as well as pencil sharpeners and several erasers. Manuscripts and books must be used on book-rests. It is asked that the reader give advanced notice of at least 24 hours to guarantee every item he of she asks for is ready. There is no limit to the amount of requested items. Several items can be consulted at the same time if the reader provides valid reasons for doing so. In the Elsevier Reading Room, the presence of three computers connected to the Internet will prove useful for searching the webpage of the JRL and The University of Manchester, but not for other use. Basically, only members and students of The University of Manchester are allowed to do so on their own computers, as well as people who have registered at Eduroam. The Library is planning to provide Wi-Fi access to external users in the future.
Accessibility
The JRL is situated on Deansgate, Manchester. In order to access the collections, it is important that the reader first make an appointment by e-mail (see Contact Information) or by phone. On that occasion, he or she can also pre-order one or several manuscript(s) or document(s) using the appropriate lists, inventories and catalogs of the JRL. On the day of his or her arrival, he or she must present a proof of address, a photo-ID (including signature), as well as a letter of reference. Note that original documents are required, not photocopies.
After entering the Library, the reception staff helps new readers to find their way in the library. Before going to the reading room, readers are asked to deposit their coats, bags, umbrellas, sleeves, pens and laptop computer carry-cases in the lockers in the basement (for which a £1 coin returnable deposit is necessary). Clear plastic bags are at their disposal to carry their work material and belongings with them (more information is available on the webpage “Using the reading rooms in the John Rylands Library”; see Resources and Links). The reader is then invited to go to the Readers Reception on the 4th floor to fill a registration application, in which he or she is asked to describe briefly the purpose of his or her visit and the topic of research. If the reader plans to come back the day after or during the days following his or her last visit, it is recommended to specify whether consulted materials should be reserved for future use. Without explicit notice from the reader, the documents will be returned to secure storage and it may take several hours to have them back again.
Reader Service Opening Hours
The Reader Service is open Monday through Saturday, from 10:00 to 17:00 (until 19:00 on Thursday). It is closed on Sunday and public holidays. The Library is closed over Christmas and New Year (check the library’s website for up-to-date information).
Reproductions
The University of Manchester Centre for Heritage Imaging and Collection Care (CHICC) can provide digital images of most items in the JRL for research and publication, subject to the physical condition of the item. Images are available in several formats: JPEG (72 dpi, c.1mb), small TIFF (300 dpi, 5-10mb) and large TIFF (600dpi, 60-80mb). The JPEG format is for research purposes only and the most suitable for researchers. It is also possible to obtain photographic and paper prints. All orders are subject to a £10 administration fee and VAT (where applicable). JPEG reproductions (per page, not per folio) cost £3 each up to 10 photographic exposures. If more than 10, the price is £100 (1-50 images), £200 (1-100 images) and £300 (1-200 images). Above 200 images, the price is £100 per 100 images. Authorization from the JRL is needed if the requested images are to be used in a publication. To place an order, complete the Imaging Service Application Form and return it to the CHICC Imaging Service office. The CHICC Imaging Service prices and the Imaging Service Application Form are displayed on the “Order an image” webpage, as well as other useful pieces of information (see Resources and Links). Reproduction orders can be made remotely. Payment is requested in advance of an order being processed.
NB: Highlights from the collections kept at the JRL, including Rylands Collection, Rylands Genizah Collection and Rylands Papyri Collection, are freely available at the University of Manchester Image Collection website. For instance, the manuscript Arabic MS 378 [372], which contains Ibn Sina’s Kitāb al-Shifā’, is entirely available there in digitized high-definition form.
A view of the new entrance to the library.
Self-Service Photography
Self-service free of charge photography is allowed in the Elsevier Reading Room for private research purposes only. For each document, one should fill out an application and hand it over to a member of the staff at the desk. Pay close attention to the list of rules listed on the reverse of the form. Many items in the JRL are covered by Copyright Law, which includes unpublished manuscripts.
Transportation, Food and Other Facilities
Reaching the JRL is quite easy. When in Manchester city center, simply use the free Metroshuttle lines 1 or 2 and get off at the Deansgate (John Rylands Library) stop. You will find the Library in front of you, on the other side of the street. You can download a map of the Metroshuttle lines in PDF format on the following webpage: http://www.tfgm.com/buses/Pages/metroshuttle.aspx.
Breakfast and lunch are served daily at Café Rylands inside the JRL building for a reasonable price. It is opened every day of the week (Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 16:30; Saturday from 9:00 am to 16:30; Sunday from 11:00 to 16:30). There are many other restaurants and cafés in the vicinity of the library as well.
There is a book and souvenir shop inside the main entrance of the JRL building.
Contact Information
The John Rylands Library,
150 Deansgate,
Manchester,
M3 3EH
I would like to thank Elizabeth Gow, Manuscript Curator and Archivist, for the detailed information she offered me on the JRL as I wrote this article.
Teymour Morel is a PhD candidate at the University of Geneva and EPHE, Paris, and a full time collaborator to the European Research Council project “PhiC” (Philosophy in Context: Arabic and Syriac Manuscripts in the Mediterranean), directed by Maroun Aouad (Research Director at CNRS, Paris – Centre Jean Pépin – UPR 76).
The rich Oriental collections of the Leiden University contain some 6,000 Middle Eastern manuscripts, about 120,000 rare books printed before 1950, and photographs of interest to the scholars of the region. The collection is located at the Special Collections sectionof the main library of the university at Leiden, the Netherlands.
This print depicting Leiden University Library in 1610 is rather well known as a representation of an early modern scholarly library at work. The cabinet on the right is for Scaliger’s Oriental acquisitions (and reads so in better and larger reproductions of the print), displayed separately with a sense of institutional pride for housing such rare and exotic books.
History
The study of Arabic at Leiden goes back to the late sixteenth century, when the university was established. The major figure of the earliest generation is Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609), the versatile and esteemed scholar who, through his fondness of collecting rare books, left a valuable collection behind that formed the nucleus of the Oriental Collection. Academic study of Arabic was soon to follow. The first scholar of Arabic was Franciscus Raphelengius (d. 1597), followed by two prominent scholars of the language: Thomas Erpenius (d. 1667), who wrote a grammar of Arabic and Jacobus Golius (d. 1667), who wrote an Arabic-Latin dictionary. The grammar book and dictionary of Erpenius and Golius remained widely read all over Europe up until the nineteenth century. The main driving force behind the pursuit of Semitic and Middle Eastern studies from this early period on was the study of the Bible and exegesis.
In addition to Arabic, Persian and Turkish were soon to become preferred languages of study due to Dutch political and economic interests in the Ottoman Empire, hence broadening the scope of the pursuit of knowledge of the Orient. In the second half of the nineteenth century, Arabic and Islamic studies were to be transformed by merging with the study of Indonesian languages and culture, a rapidly burgeoning field due to the colonial engagements of the Netherlands in the area.
Collection
Leiden’s large Oriental collection is divided into five sub-sections. The Hebraica, Judaica and Semitics collection consists of manuscripts and rare prints mainly in Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, but also the languages of Ethiopia, Old South Arabic, Coptic and Armenian. The South and Central Asian Collections comprise material in Sanskrit, Tibetan and Lepcha. This collection is remarkably rich in maps and visual material. The South and Southeast Asian Collections with its rich textual and visual Malay-Indonesian collection forms an especially strong component of the entire Oriental collection. Although the acquisition of manuscripts for this collection goes back to the sixteenth century, the real explosion took place in the second half of the nineteenth century, thanks to the needs of the colonial rule in the Netherland East Indies. The Japanese and Chinese collections, similarly, owes its strongest part, the Tokugawa era manuscripts and blockprints, to Dutch explorations on the Pacific ocean: the Dutch were the only European community permitted to reside on Japanese territory, though restrained to one island, the island of Deshima on Nagasaki Bay.
The Middle Eastern Collection houses the largest acquisition of the entire Oriental collections. This is the collection of 1,000 manuscripts inherited from Levinus Warner (d.1665), after whom the collection is sometimes referred to as Legatum Warnerianum, “Warner’s Bequest”. Levinus Warner started out as a student of oriental languages at Leiden. He then moved to Istanbul and lived there from 1645 until the end of his life, first as secretary and translator to a trading Dutch resident, Nicolaas Ghisbrechti, and as a diplomat afterwards. From the beginning all through his years of consular work, he never lost his bookish interests and formed a large personal collection including works on poetry, history, theology, medicine, and folk literature. His collection brings together material in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish, oftentimes annotated in Latin. A remarkable acquisition of his is the private library of Haji Khalifa (Katib Çelebi), obtained through a local friend at an auction after the Ottoman scholar’s death in 1657. The Leiden collection currently holds manuscripts from the collection of Warner as well as his extensive personal notes, which touch upon Turkish proverbs, the intricacies of Persian poetry, daily events in Istanbul and many other topics. These notes are mostly in Latin, though occasional snippets are to be found in Turkish or Arabic.
The acquisitions of the library continued throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mostly through the library’s purchases of individual collections or the bequests of individual benefactors. One remarkable example is the bequest of the Dutch businessman and diplomat A.P.H. Hotz (1855-1930). The bibliophile’s collection was obtained in 1934 and includes many travel books and early photographs, as well as well-preserved early modern manuscripts. Mention should also be made of the large collection that was bought in the 1960s, which presumably belonged to Sultan Murad V (1840-1904) and his heirs.
The Leiden University library on Witte Singel.
Research Experience
The catalog of special collections is helpful for navigating the oriental collection, although it is far from complete. The online catalog should not be ignored, since it will yield results likely not covered in the print catalogs. For best results, researchers should use the online catalog in consultation with the following printed catalogs.
Jan Schmidt’s three volume Catalog of Turkish Manuscripts is a gem of thorough scholarship, containing detailed information on each manuscript included. For works in Arabic, Petrus Voorhoeve’s Handlist of Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the University of Leiden and Other Collections in the Netherlands is still indispensable. For Persian works, the researcher should refer to J.J. Witkam’s catalog of Persian manuscripts which is available in the reading room. Professor Witkam’s online cataloging project lists in digital format the library’s holdings acquired not only from the Middle East, but also from the South Asia and Southeast Asia, without regional division.
As the library has only recently begun to digitize its collection, only a small percentage of manuscripts have been digitized. In most cases, the reader will work with the original manuscript or print. The manuscripts and rare printed books are to be studied within the Special Collections reading room, using the necessary props. The reading room personnel are helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable. They all speak fluent English.
The collection is impressively user friendly. The reader places their requests online. The manuscripts then become available for pick-up within half an hour before 16:00, and the next morning if the request is placed after 16:00. Although there are no limits to the number of requests made, the reader is allowed to examine no more than two manuscripts at a time. This latter limitation does not apply to printed works.
Access
The Special Collections is open weekdays, 9.00 to 17.30 during the term and 9.00 am to 17.00 during the summer recess. To work at the collections, the reader must acquire a Leiden University guest card. The card can be acquired at the reception desk of the library in person, and is issued immediately. To acquire the card, the reader’s passport is required together with a fee of 30 Euros. Special discounts apply to the fee if the reader is a Dutch citizen or affiliated with a university in the Netherlands.
An important opportunity to keep in mind is the fellowships offered through the Scaliger Institute. The institute grants many research fellowships, in connection with the Brill and The Elsevier publishing houses, to researchers who want to explore the library’s holdings. For information, please visit the institute’s website.
Reproductions
The reader is allowed to photograph any material for free. For the purpose of use in publications, formal copies should be ordered through the library’s website. Online requests in this manner also stand as a viable option for readers who cannot visit the collection in person. Bear in mind that if the work has not been digitized yet, this process may take up to four weeks. The cost of a digital copy is 1 Euro per page.
Transportation, food, and other facilities
The library is located on Witte Singel, the main area where humanities buildings are located. It is a fifteen minute walk from Leiden’s Central Station, the hub of Leiden’s transportation. In terms of accommodation, finding short-term sublets in Leiden is easy during the summer months yet might prove difficult during the term. The Hague, which is a fifteen minute train ride away, is the next best option.
The library has a café which provides tosti (toasted sandwich, the staple lunch), baked goods and drinks. Richer lunch options are available, such as at the cafeteria of the Lipsius building right across the canal. The prices are reasonable in both cafes.
Aslıhan Gürbüzel is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University working on the cultural and intellectual history of the early modern Ottoman Empire, currently focusing on Sufism in seventeenth-century Istanbul.
