Librije, St. Walburga’s Church, Zutphen, Netherlands

(I am the way, the truth and the life, John 14: 6). The reading desks (lecterns) date from the 1560s. On the sides of the desks facing the windows are various paintings by Master Wilhelm: the Holy Trinity, the Lamb of God, a martyr, etc. In some of the windows we can see coats of arms of churchwardens. To the far right of the entrance are the coats of arms of Conrad Slindewater and Herman Berner, the founders of the Librije. The reason for chaining the books was a purely practical one. The Librije was open to the general public. Anyone could obtain a key and sit and study the books for as long as the church was open. But the books had to stay where they belonged…
The Books
There is room for approximately 300 books on the reading desks. The catalogue contains about 750 titles. The core of the collection consists of acquisitions by Slindewater and Berner in the fi rst half of the 16th century. Another part of the collection was acquired through legacies. Particularly in the 15th and 16th century learned inhabitants of Zutphen left their books to the Librije. After the Reformation books from the dissolved monastries in and around Zutphen were added to the collection of the Librije. There are also text-books from the former chapter-school, amply provided with notes by the students. In the 17th century the collection was supplemented with books reflecting the interests of the era: books on Reformation theology and the history of the Netherlands were added. Until the middle of the 18th century donations were made to the Librije on a regular basis, mainly by ministers connected with the church. The present collection contains books on theology, law, history and literature – works by Church Fathers, medieval commentaries on the bible, books on the lives of saints, legal commentaries, classical writers like Virgil, Horatius, Seneca, Homer and Herodotus and humanistic authors like the Dutch scholar Erasmus. The collection contains 5 manuscripts and 85 incunabula (books printed before 1500). On the reading desks we find mainly books from the original collection – 15th and 16th century works with beautifully tooled leather covers and silver mountings. In the bookcase we see mainly 17th century books with parchment covers.