Impressa Catholica Cameracensia
This relational database was constructed during the project The Making of Transregional Catholicism (KU Leuven Research Council, 2013–2017), with the help of Dr. Alexander Soetaert. It reconstructs the Catholic printing press in the Ecclesiastical Province of Cambrai between 1559 and 1659. The territory of this historical province encompassed the French-speaking provinces of the Habsburg Low Countries, which, since the late 17th century, have been divided between nowadays Belgium (Hainaut, Namur) and France (Nord, Pas-de-Calais).
The ICC-database is a part of the ODIS-database, which enables making connections between the editions and the persons (authors, publishers, printers, booksellers, translators, eulogists, dedicatees, …) and institutions (convents, abbeys, Jesuit colleges, universities, …) involved. As such, the more than 7000 ICC-records also reveal the networks around the early modern Catholic book.
Impressae: Women Printers in early modern Antwerp, Louvain and Douai
Dra. Heleen Wyffels is reconstructing the role of women and families in early modern printing houses in Antwerp, Louvain and Douai. She is combining new data for Leuven and Antwerp with the data on Douai previously gathered in the Cambrai-ICC-project. Currently, the sample on Douai is online.
The Impressae-database is a part of the ODIS-database.
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Luther@Leuven
Together with a generous funding of the KU Leuven Libraries - Digital Labo, we were able to digitize our exhibition on the pamphlet and propaganda war between Luther and Louvain scholars, explaining the context of the 1519 Leuven academic 'censura' against the Reformer.
Lovaniensia
I am part of the academic committee of a broader project by KU Leuven Libraries and the Bibliothèques de l'Université Catholique de Louvain digitizing the Collectio accademica antiqua or the old academic collection of all works published by members of the University of Leuven, from its establishment in 1425 until its closure by the French government in 1797. The aim is to digitize all books printed in Leuven or written by Lovanienses, in this portal. In May 2019, we won a new grant to start examining the printed handbooks for the faculties of theology and law; one of five doctoral students will make a database on prints for educational purposes in Louvain.
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Magister Dixit
This project focuses on a largely unstudied collection of handwritten lecture notes of the ancient University of Louvain (1425-1797). An important testimony of the cultural, intellectual and social role played by the university in this period consists in the collection of college lecture notes, preserved in various libraries and archives. These lecture notes are manuscripts, written down by various students, mainly belonging to the artes faculty. In May 2019, we won a new grant to study digitize the college books of the faculties of theology and law with the help of four doctoral students. Drs. Jarrik van der Biest is now studying the college books of lectures provided by the leading Louvain theologian Michael Baius.
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Theses of the Old University of Leuven
I am steering MA and PhD research into using the peripheral broadsheets, containing theses and disputations by Louvain scholars. A first glimpse of the collection held at KU Leuven is currently being tested in a new LIMO curated collection. Updates should follow.