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LOGOS Bibliopolis: A platform for the Dutch history of the

Marieke van From 1998-2002, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (the National of the at The Hague) was engaged in a project to create an innovative infor- mation system on the history of the printed book in the Netherlands. The project resulted in Bibliopolis (www.kb.nl/bibliopolis) which was launched in November 2002 at an international conference under the title “The Future History of the Book”. Bibliopolis Head of the Department of Expert is a scholarly, interactive information system through Services at the Koninklijke Bibliotheek which a researcher can gain insight into the current (National Library of the Netherlands), status of the history of the Dutch book and also retrieve Marieke van Delft studied Dutch history a wealth of documentation. It uses state-of-the-art web and at the University of technology to open up documentation systems and . Previously she worked as book research results that have been around for decades, in historian in the Department of Special combination with new services that have been created Collections and was the project editor of specifically for Bibliopolis. Bibliopolis. She has written on the Dutch In recent decades, book history has proven to book past and present and is on the be a flourishing discipline in the Netherlands. In editorial board of the new series. the ’50s, Herman de La Fontaine Verwey was Email: [email protected] appointed as the first professor in Book History and at the University of Amsterdam. Since Marco de Niet then the number of students has grown steadily. At the moment, one can study Book History at the Universities of Amsterdam and Leiden, and take courses in this discipline at the universities of Groningen, , and Tilburg. There is an active Dutch Book-historical Society (Neder- landse Boekhistorische Vereniging). A Dutch Society of Bibliophiles (Nederlands Genootschap Head of Innovative Projects at the R & D voor Bibliofielen) unites book lovers and book Department of the National Library of collectors, and a Society of Private Presses and the Netherlands, Marco de Niet studied Printers (Drukwerk in de Marge) is very much alive, Dutch language, literature and book not only as a crafts organization but also in studying history at the University of Leiden. He the history of the process. All this has was the project coordinator of Bibliopolis. resulted in a flow of publications on the history of He is involved in various Dutch and the printed book in the Netherlands, which is international projects regarding reflected in the Dutch contribution to Book History innovation of search services, digitization Online (BHO), the international bibliography on and digital preservation. the history of the printed book and Email: [email protected] (www.kb.nl/bho).

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Marieke van Delft and Marco de Niet

This growing popularity of the study of the March 1998 and ran until the presentation of the printed book can be seen in many other countries. final results in November 2002. It was led by the Various universities have developed Bachelors and KB in close cooperation with the universities of Masters degrees for this discipline, and since 1991 Amsterdam, Leiden, Nijmegen and Utrecht, and book historians from all over the world have the Nederlandse Boekhistorische Vereniging formed the Society for the History of Authorship, (Dutch Book-historical Society). and (SHARP). Several coun- tries have initiated “national histories of the * * * * * book”. The French national history, published between 1983 and 1986, is a multi- work Bibliopolis offers integrated access to: which can be characterized as collaborative and interdisciplinary. It has inspired book historians 1. A handbook on the history of the printed across the globe. Similar projects are now under book in the Netherlands: 158 essays written way in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the US, by forty-two leading Dutch book historians. Britain, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. Germany 2. An image database: ca. 1300 illustrations on and Italy are making plans for similar undertak- the history of the printed book in the Nether- ings. In the light of all these developments, it was lands, for example a selection of highlights of predictable that Dutch book historians would try the of printing, portraits of printers to start a “national book history” project. Around and publishers, typefaces, printers’ devices, 1990 the project was formulated and funding was watermarks, etc. sought on several occasions. Unfortunately, this 3. Reference material: extensive search options initiative was aborted. for biographical data, bibliographical After it had become clear that a printed databases, information on book auctions, a history of the book in the Netherlands could not guide to special collections in Dutch research be produced, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (KB) libraries and a guide to book-historical took the lead, presenting a new approach. The websites. objective was not to produce a multi-volume 4. Full-text secondary literature: digitized printed work but to create an online tool for widely--historical studies. research. This tool would be designed as an inter- 5. Retrospective bibliography: cross-references active academic information system, based on to online catalogues in the Netherlands and World Wide Web technology. abroad that register and make available the One of the main reasons why the KB stepped Dutch printed book. in was that, since its founding in 1798, it has 6. Glossary: an educational tool to explain the played a central role in the field of book history, meaning of terms related to the study of . developing important bibliographical tools such as the national bibliography of Dutch incunabula and The contents of Bibliopolis are mainly derived the Short-Title Catalogue Netherlands (STCN), from fifteen databases on the history of the printed containing descriptions of all books printed in the book. Some of these already existed but were not Netherlands before 1800. Furthermore, the KB is available online; others had to be built from also General Editor of Book History Online scratch. The majority of databases that were (BHO), the international bibliography mentioned included in Bibliopolis were made at the KB and above. Another reason why the KB took up this are still being maintained there, for instance an task was the fact that it had gained a lot of experi- extensive bibliography on the history of the ence with organizing national projects and facili- printed book in the Netherlands and a database on tating collaboration between different parties. printers, booksellers and publishers, based on the The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Thesaurus 1473-1800 by J A Gruys and C de Wolf Research (NWO) supported the idea of the KB to (published as a book in 1989). For the retrospec- create an electronic history of the book and tive bibliography, access could be provided to provided financial support. The project started in online library catalogues and to the already

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