Een biografie van de Bibliotheca Vossiana

Abstract

The library which Leiden University bought in 1690 from the heirs of Isaac Vossius (1618-1689) had a reputation with his contemporaries to be the best and most complete private library of its time. This acquisition of more than 700 manuscripts and about 4,000 printed books doubled the Academy’s collections at one stroke and made an architectural extension for the library necessary. The private collector Isaac Vossius had more means and resources at his disposal to keep up with the scientific developments of his time than the librarian of the institutional library of the university. Books by Galilei, Descartes and Newton became available in the Leiden University Library for the first time in 1690. Reconstructing the medical, philosophical and mathematical sections of Vossius’s library provides insight in the sources he may have used for his own scholarly production, which he wrote during the second half of his life. A careful analysis of the printed books reveals many provenances of contemporary scholars and earlier bookcollectors. It shows to what extent Isaac Vossius stood on the shoulders of men like Joseph Scaliger, Hugo Grotius, his own father Gerardus Johannes Vossius and many others of which he owned books and manuscripts.