The people behind the Leiden University Libraries aim to maintain the level of their services to clients as much as possible. They are making thankful use of internet, but not everything can be put online.

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has been able to acquire an extraordinary Chinese manuscript at auction in Hong Kong. It concerns an Imperial Edict (dated 1582) from the Ming dynasty period, at one time part of the former collection of well-known sinologist and author of detective-novels Robert van…

The programme focuses on the medieval dynamics of intellectual life in the Rhineland and the Low countries, nowadays divided over five countries (Switzerland, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands) but one cultural region in the later Middle Ages.

Two Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) have been placed in front of the University Library in memory of the Jewish Cosman family. At the time of the Second World War, they lived in one of the houses where the library is now located.

Erik Kwakkel, researcher at the Faculty of Humanities, has found an extraordinary manuscript in the University Library’s extensive collection of medieval books. The book in question dates back to the first half of the eleventh century and is made entirely out of waste left over from the production of…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has acquired a rare manuscript map of Suriname. The map from 1830 is almost 2.5 meters long and is highly detailed. It was hand-drawn by Helmuth Hendrik Hiemcke (1808-1858), one of the official surveyors employed by the colonial administration, and shows Suriname in…

How do first-hand narratives of war of commanders in the front line relate to the official narrative of the Eighty Years’ War?

Silver jewellery, sculptures made of cork and intriguing photos of psychiatrists' treatment rooms. Staff at Leiden University exhibit their artworks in the Old Library. The summer exhibition can be viewed until 12 August.

Professional scribes in the Middle Ages produced advertisement sheets with which they presented themselves to potential clients. In this lecture Erik Kwakkel will show known and new examples of such advertisement sheets and interpret their importance for our understanding of the culture of writing in…

The asylum seekers’ centres in Hengelo, Almelo and Schalkhaar caused little or no nuisance in recent years. There have been hardly any incidents, according to information received by Dutch regional TV channel RTV Oost. However, Maarten Offinga, Mayor of Hardenberg, sounded the alarm with the state secretary…

Ominous witches, gruesome monsters, and hideous freaks: from Saturday 15 June, Kunsthal Rotterdam will be putting the spotlight on the shady depths of human imagination in the exhibition Hello darkness, my old friend. Seventy works on paper from the collection of the Leiden University Libraries confront…

This project investigates how the first generation of Dutch printed books (the incunabula, 1473-1501) affected late medieval spirituality, religious practice and visual culture in the Low Countries.

Caminada et al. examine elderly poverty across 16 European countries (2005-2022).

To what extent are individuals socialised with heteronormativity and gender norms by the national context in which they live, by Dutch schoolbooks, and within Dutch families?

By the end of the sixteenth century, stories about the Revolt in the Low Countries (c. 1567-1648) had begun to spread throughout Europe. These stories had very different authors with very different intentions.

The programme for the Leiden Asia Year in 2017 is now available. Rector Carel Stolker launched the new website www.leidenasiayear.nl at the opening of the Academic Year of Leiden University on 5 September.

2,240 plant extracts from 1,299 different plant species of Dutch origin. That’s the collection of the Dutch Extract Library, which has recently been transferred to the Institute of Biology Leiden. To plant biologist and contact person for this library Pingtao Ding this is a true treasury. ‘To bring…

Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS) invites applications for a PhD position within the project ‘Libraries as Links in Learning: Making the Meaning of Manuscripts’ (1.0 fte, 4 years). The PhD candidate will track changing professional and scholarly practices and attitudes towards…

The midterm elections in the United States will be a vote of (no) confidence in president Trump and his divisive leadership style, says Brendan Carroll, assistant professor Public Administration. In this blog he explains why voter turnout can be a decisive factor.

Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn, Chelsea Daymon and David Malet, wrote RESOLVE Network Research Report that examines career foreign fighters who have traversed from one insurgency to another.

Dr. Joris Larik, Assistant Professor of Comparative, EU and International Law at LUC The Hague, has co-authored a report entitled 'UN 2.0: Ten Innovations for Global Governance 75 Years beyond San Francisco'.

A study on the utilisation of Iron Age rectangular structures and related depositional practices in the Low Countries

Assignments, work groups, deadlines and the first exams in sight! The Get Started campaign of Leiden University Libraries aims to help new students to find their way in the library. We can use the help of teachers for this campaign.

The Leiden Leadership Centre is a member of the Global Leadership Centres Roundtable (GLCR). The Global Leadership Centres Roundtable is the international network of university-based leadership centres.

On December 3rd, AI4LAM (Artificial Intelligence for Libraries, Archives, and Museums) was launched in London. Leiden University Libraries (UBL)is a founding member, along with more than 40 leading international heritage and knowledge institutions. Together with our partners in AI4LAM, UBL aims to promote…

From March 1, Alenka Prinčič will be the new Head of the Centre for Digital Scholarship (CDS) at Leiden University Libraries. Her expertise in the areas of Research Support, Research Infrastructures and Open Publishing as well as her longstanding experience as a manager are excellent starting points…

Graphic Novels and Comics have developed from pulp status to an entirely self-contained medium. This form of storytelling is not limited to stories of superheroes but has been used, molded and reshaped to display historical events, classic stories and autobiographical memoirs. But where should you begin…

Private collectors John Steegh and Harrie Teunissen from Dordrecht have donated their entire collection of maps, city plans and atlases to Leiden University Libraries (UBL). In almost 40 years they brought together circa 17,000 map sheets and 2,300 atlases and travel guides. Especially the thematic…

Human Rights organisation Amnesty International recently set up a walk that passes by important locations in Leiden in relation to human rights. The Kamerlingh Onnes Building, home to Leiden Law School, has been included in the route.

Immigration and naturalisation policies are an important theme in the upcoming Dutch elections. The Netherlands should be mindful of its immigration narrative, says PhD candidate Hannah Bliersbach, as this greatly influences the relationship between ‘new’ citizens and their new home country.

Radical books on Islam glorifying armed jihad and humiliating Jews and Christians are available in the Vught prison library.

Rich countries are getting richer because of environmentally polluting (construction) investments from the past, largely at the expense of poor countries. This was shown by long-term economic and environmental data. 'The gap between poor and rich countries is widening.' Scientists from the Leiden Institute…

A recent study in Ecological Economics, led by Leiden environmental scientist Bertram de Boer, states that the European Union could lower its environmental footprint by carefully selecting the countries from which it imports goods. The publication was picked up by Science for Environment Policy, a news…

With a recently published major research project and an exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, the struggle for independence in Indonesia has been thrusted back into the spotlight. Leiden University is devoting attention to this topic as well. History students Sander van der Horst and Melle van Maanen joined…

The 'language analysis interview' on the basis of which the Immigration and Naturalisation Department attempts to determine where an asylum-seeker without any documents comes from, does not meet the criteria of reliability and validity. Joachim Detailleur, student of Arabic, substantiates this statement…

Mark Klaassen, Assistant Professor of Immigration Law and member of the Dutch Advisory Council on Migration, explains on Dutch radio programme ‘Met het Oog op Morgen’ why it’s a bad idea to use Denmark as a model country for Dutch asylum policy.

Antoaneta Dimitrova, Hoogleraar Comparative Governance, analyseerde als coördinator van het drie jaar durende internationale onderzoeksproject EU-Strat de relatie tussen de EU en de landen van het Oostelijk Partnerschap en deelde haar expertise over dit onderwerp in een artikel in Trouw.

A delegation from the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) arrived in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau, on 23 February for five days. 'We need to discuss the immediate situation with all parties, but above all we need to address the root causes of the crisis,' explained Abdel-Fatau Musah, Ecowas…

In The Golden Mean of Languages, Alisa van de Haar sheds new light on the debates regarding the form and status of the vernacular in the early modern Low Countries, where both Dutch and French were local tongues. The fascination with the history, grammar, spelling, and vocabulary of Dutch and French…

On January 19, a masterclass on the theme of religious imagination will take place in the Lorentz Center in Leiden. This masterclass for MA and PhD students will focus on the religious imagination as a spiritual skill in the late medieval Low Countries, and the role of religious texts, images, and objects…

For thousands of years, the prehistoric communities of the Low Countries followed their own path, compared with the rest of Europe. An international research team has now published these findings in Nature.

Leiden University offers ambitious students the freedom to develop their own area of expertise.

From towering mechanical heroes to city-destroying battles, giant robots have become one of the most iconic images in Japanese animation. On 28 April 2026, Leiden University will host

Proud. We did it. All the Ginis. Open Access. Income inequality and Fiscal Redistribution in 47 countries 1967-2014.