On the night of 25 August 1914, around one or two o'clock in the morning, several fires broke out in the medieval Belgian city of Louvain, which had been occupied for about a week by invading German troops. The fire lasted three days, during which time the Germans did not allow authorities to combat it. The result was the destruction of much of the city, including the famed library of the Catholic University of Louvain.

            A certain degree of controversy surrounds the fire. Was it set deliberately? Eyewitnesses seem to believe it was, reporting for instance that German soldiers were seen throwing incendiary materials through a broken library window. Some report "drunken soldiers"; others cite coordination by German officers. Still others suggest that the Germans' motivation for such an act consisted in an apparently unjustified fear of civilian snipers and frustration at the Belgian army's unexpected resistance at Liège, which had thrown the German timetable for the invasion severely off schedule. Whatever the true details, the result was the complete destruction of a priceless library.

            The Catholic University of Louvain was established in 1425 by Pope Martin V, on the instigation of the duke of Brabant, in whose territory the city lay. It soon became a center of Catholic humanist learning; in 1502 Erasmus visited, and in 1517 he became head of one of the colleges. The University resembled Oxford and Cambridge in this aspect of its organization, and by the beginning of the seventeenth century had about forty-three colleges with 3,000 students.

            For more than two centuries after its founding, the University had no general library; students and professors relied mostly on local bookstores and their own private libraries. Some of the individual colleges were, however, reported to have had their own libraries as early as 1466, during which year the College of Arts promulgated rules for its collection.

            The University's library begins in 1627 with the bequest of a former student, Laurent Beyerlinck, who was canon of the Cathedral of Antwerp. He left 853 volumes, primarily on history and theology, to the University. In 1635 another bequest by a professor of medicine, Jacques Romanus, provided the University with 906 volumes, mostly on mathematics and medicine. As a result of these bequests the rector, Cornelius Jansenius, appointed a University librarian in 1636. This was the historian Valerius Andreas, who presided over the official opening of the library on 22 August 1636.

            The collection was first housed in Clothmakers' Hall, and was maintained by a grant from the archbishop of Malines. Soon Andreas was able to provide a printed catalogue of the collection. After his death the library fell into neglect, and it was not until early in the eighteenth century, with a bequest from another former student who had also been canon in Antwerp, that the library received renewed attention. The rector obtained a fixed income for the library and had a new depository built, which opened in 1730.

            Several energetic librarians contributed to the development of the library from this point on. C. F. de Nelis began his work in 1752, and soon asked the government to require Belgian printers to send one copy of each of their works to the library. Later, librarian Jean François van de Velde added 12,000 volumes, taking advantage of the sales of libraries belonging to the recently suppressed Jesuits.

            The French Revolution and its aftermath undid much of the progress that had been made. In 1795 the French regime removed about 5,000 volumes, including some of the most precious manuscripts. Other "raiding" went on as well; a decree by Emperor Napoleon in 1805 made the library the property of the city of Louvain.

            The University, and its library, fell victim as well to the turmoil resulting from the fall of the French Empire in 1814, when Louvain became the site of one of three state universities under the Dutch regime. In 1835 the Belgian government suppressed the universities established under the Dutch, and set up two state institutions, of which Louvain was not one. Thus the city was able to offer the empty buildings to the bishops of Belgium, who reestablished the private Catholic University. For a long time, however, the University limped along on the charity of Belgian Catholics, and remained a poor institution.

            At the time of the fire in 1914, estimates place the library collection at 250,000 to 300,000 volumes. An inventory was in progress, and startling rarities were being discovered with regularity. The library was strong in material on the religious struggles of the Low Countries. In addition, there were 350 incunabula, and 950 pieces of manuscripts, some dating to the twelfth century. All this and more disappeared in the flames.

            Soon after the library's destruction, offers to help rebuild came from many parts of the world. Various learned groups offered free copies of their publications. Committees in both Britain and the United States began the work of assembling contributions for reconstruction. A large part of the support necessary came from the United States, from a committee headed by Nicholas Murray Butler. The American architect Whitney Warren designed an appropriately medieval building that opened in 1928, built with American donations and fitted out with contributions from many countries. Unfortunately, the opening of the library was attended by controversy. Some wanted an inscription on the building condemning the Germans for their act; others felt that this would hinder necessary normal relations with German universities. Twice, an inscription on a balustrade was put in place and knocked down before the issue could be settled.

            By far the largest contributors to the restoration of the collection were the Germans themselves, under a provision of the Treaty of Versailles that stated, "Germany undertakes to furnish the University of Louvain manuscripts, incunabula, printed books, maps and objects of collection corresponding in number and value to those destroyed in the burning by Germany of the Library of Louvain." By 1921 over 198,000 volumes had been sent to Louvain by German authorities. The following year saw the number of incunabula received by the library grow to 655, including a copy of the 42-line Gutenberg Bible. Many of the volumes sent came from the purchase of German professors' private libraries.

            The bookplate presented in this issue was placed in German reparation volumes, as the legend in French indicates. Similar versions of the plate were used for other donations. In the center is the University seal depicting the Virgin Mary and Jesus. The seal is surrounded by flames representing the library's destruction, along with the date of destruction and of the beginning of reconstruction. The Latin motto around the seal may be translated "The Seat of Wisdom Shall Not Be Overturned." Several sizes of the plate were used; the one shown here is actual size.

Phillip A. Metzger

Graduate School of Library Science

The University of Texas at Austin