Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library
Christopher Plantin and his successors donated a copy of each book they printed, including the Biblia Polyglotta and Opticorum libri VI of Francis Aguilonius.
In 1594, the new library was again housed in the city hall, but this time in the former room of the militia, the Camer van de Librarye.
In 1604, Bishop Joannes Miraeus founded the Antwerp seminary, which was responsible for the education of the secular clergy.
Aubertus created an expansive humanist collection, thanks to donations of scholars, wealthy citizens and book printers.
Aubertus Miraeus made an inventory of the chapter library and published it as Bibliothecae Antverpianae Primordia.
After the Treaty of Munster and the blocking of the river Scheldt, space became available in the Trade House because of the economic crisis.
In 1795, this changed when the French occupiers founded the Ecole Centrale in Antwerp, which had a library that consisted of works from abolished monasteries.
Librarians Frans Henry Mertens and Constant Jacob Hansen developed the collection substantively and built the structure of the library as it stands today.
However, the lack of space remained a major problem, and in 1895, the People's Library moved to a new location.
When in 1905 the heirs of Gustave Havre wanted to sell his impressive book collection at an auction in Amsterdam, the head librarian French Gittens and Maximum Rooses, curator of the library of the Plantin-Moretus Museum, asked the City Council, the press and several patrons to buy the collection.
It is now called the Dotatiefonds voor Boek en Letteren and it is a regular sponsor for significant acquisitions.
On 13 August 1883, the new library building opened and the bronze statue of Hendrik Conscience at the entrance was revealed.
The City Library could now use the entire space of the Sodality, but after some time it was necessary to expand even further, towards the old Jesuit convent.
The hall was after Oscar Nottebohm, a businessman of German origin who was an important social and cultural patron for Antwerp.
The Nottebohmzaal a preserves some of the foremost items from the library's collection, such as an Egyptian cabinet, celestial and terrestrial globes by William and Joan Blaeu, and several busts of European authors.
The library systematically collects all original publications of Flemish and Dutch authors in various literary genres (prose, poetry, drama, essay, comics), and all editions and translations of the literary work of Flemish authors, including work that is not distributed through the commercial circuit (poetry in-house, bibliophilic editions, etc.).
In particular, the library collects publications about the history of the Flemish Movement, from the beginning (early pioneers in the 18th century) to the political independence of Flanders.
Both the Flemish and provincial local history organizations transferred their journal collection to the Heritage Library.
Another part of the art collection consists of original books to which Flemish artists participated as an illustrator, which were often published as bibliophile editions.
In detail, its domains are typography, bookbinding, illustration techniques, paper study, book design, the history of publishing, bookstores, libraries, collectors, press essence, and bibliophile editions.
The collection is constantly growing via donations (including through the Endowment Fund for Book and Literature) and purchases.
Because of the exceptional size of the collection, its specific contents are extremely varied: history, literature, art, science, religion, etc.
All kinds of print are represented: pamphlets, atlases, emblem books, ephemera (almanacs, occasional poems, etc.
The Dotatiefonds voor Boek en Letteren (The Endowment Fund for Book and Literature) is the friends association of the library and the letterenhuis.
