Steven Van Impe
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svanimpe.bsky.social
Steven Van Impe
@svanimpe.bsky.social
5.5K followers 600 following 2.8K posts
Book historian, rare books curator Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience, Antwerp. Opinions mine, I may be wrong, follow/like isn't endorsement. He/him. Caregiver for a partner with Long Covid. Used to be @RareBookLibAntw on Twitter. Profile pic by LUCID.
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svanimpe.bsky.social
Sounds right.
A copy of a small folio book, mounted in a royal folio blank.
November 27, 2025 at 6:51 PM
svanimpe.bsky.social
@annepopkema.bsky.social is dit een wapenband van Leeuwarden? Geen andere oude herkomstmerken.
Een bruinlederen boekband met groene sluitlinten en een gouden opdruk: een gekroond wapenschild met klimmende leeuw.
November 27, 2025 at 11:03 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
The initial W on the flyleaf indicates that the book was rubricated by Gielis vande Walle, a well-known bookseller from Ghent. He had a distinctive, cursive style and generally alternated red and dark blue ink.

#Antwerp, Hendrik Conscience Library, 914386.
Close-up of a parchment flyleaf with a thick capital W at the bottom. Opening of the book, showing woodcut illustrations and coloured, hand-written paragraph marks in dark blue and red.
November 25, 2025 at 11:34 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
The book is Guillaume Philandrier’s comment on #Vitruvius’ De architectura, printed in Paris in 1545 for Jacques Kerver (BP16 112204, USTC 149394). This copy was donated to the Bruges jesuits by Joannes Carolus van den Bosch, bishop of Bruges and later of Ghent, in 1665.
Title page of the book, showing the author and title, and the printer's mark: two cockerels and an ear of corn. There is handwritten text on the page, indicating the donation, and handwritten paragraph marks in red and dark blue.
November 25, 2025 at 11:34 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
The panel is signed by Petrus Cesaris (Pieter de Keysere), a bookbinder and bookseller from #Ghent, and shows the personification of the City of Ghent: a virgin in an enclosed garden, a lion by her side, and the towers of Ghent in the background. 👩🦁⛪
Close-up of the panel stamp, showing the name 'PETRVS CESARIS' A close up of the panel stamp, showing the lady in the fenced garden and the towers of Ghent in the background.
November 25, 2025 at 11:34 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
Another fabulous book from the recent #NewAcq: a spectacular #earlymodern Flemish panel stamped #binding! This is a monochrome embossed image, so difficult to photograph, but trust me! 📚💙 📜
A little book in brown leather with green silk ribbons. The binding has a panel stamp embossed on it. A pencil rubbing of the panel stamp, showing the design: a lady with a lion at her feet sitting in a fenced garden, a city with towers in the background.
November 25, 2025 at 11:34 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
Sunday in the library: lecture by prof. Thijs Porck on fragments of an 11th century Bible glossed in Old English.
Thijs Porck showing fragments on a slide in an old library.
November 23, 2025 at 10:18 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
Other pages do have rubrication, as seen here in the hymn 'Votiva cunctis orbita lucis triumphat'. Interlinear glosses explain the text, while marginal notes provide liturgical and theological context. EHC B 255483:fragm.102,a-m, more photos: mmfc.be/ms/mmfc-21813 / fragmentarium.ms/overview/F-4...
A page of paper with Latin text in brown ink and some red initials. In the middle a text in large letters, with glosses in smaller text written between the lines. In the edges marginal comments. At the bottom a wooden ruler.
November 20, 2025 at 8:41 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
A rather large fragment of a glossed hymnal from the 15th century for #FragmentFriday. These are 26 fragments from 13 folios. The decoration is incomplete, as seen in this opening of the famous hymn 'Pange lingua': there's an empty space, where a decorated initial P should have come.
A page of paper with Latin text in brown ink. In the middle a text in large letters, with glosses in smaller text written between the lines. In the edges marginal comments.
November 20, 2025 at 8:41 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
If you don't love me at my (picture)
You don't deserve me at my (quoted post)
Pictur of Mount Kilauea volcano in december 2024, showing two small eruption plumes in the caldera.
November 18, 2025 at 4:53 PM
svanimpe.bsky.social
Saturday.
A spiced coffee, croissant and a book on a pub table.
November 15, 2025 at 8:51 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
A mini-fragment for #FragmentFriday: two small (adjacent) snippets from a glossed Bible from the 13th century, containing Mark 13:3-6. Pictures: MMFC.be; EHC B 255483:fragm.66 a-b. See also fragmentarium.ms/overview/F-m...
A small strip of parchment with gothic text in black. Below is a ruler. A small strip of parchment with gothic text in black. Below is a ruler.
November 14, 2025 at 2:52 PM
svanimpe.bsky.social
Here's November in the Berchem Missal, the oldest premonstratensian liturgical (c. 1140). Around 1300, the Missal was transferred to the church of Berchem, which is dedicated to Willibrord. 'Patrone' was added in a later hand.
November 7, 2025 at 8:09 PM
svanimpe.bsky.social
This beautiful panel-stamped binding from Brussels is a recent #NewAcq (permanent loan). It shows St Michael to the left and St Roch to the right. We now have 85 similar panel-stamped bindings in our collection.
A brown leather binding on an octavo book (about 14 by 22 cm). The binding is stamped with two reliefs. The one of the left shows the archangel St Michael wielding his sword to defeat a devil at his feet. The one on the right shows St. Roch, wearing a pilgrim's hat, purse and staff and accompanied by a small dog. Below is the text, in gothic letters, 'Sancte Roche O." with an abbreviation mark, signifying 'Ora pro nobis' (Saint Roch, pray for us).
November 6, 2025 at 8:21 PM
svanimpe.bsky.social
This Dutch translation of 'Murder off Miami' was published in Antwerp in 1936 and marketed as "something new in crime fiction novels."

Antwerp, EHC E 82347
Prop from the book, photograph by inspector Neame of Inosuke Hayashi. The black & white picture shows a Japanese man in a business suit, looking suspicious. Prop from the book: portrait photograph of Mrs Welter, after a picture from the hut of her daughter. Advertisement for the next book in the series, 'Who killed Robert Prentice' Prop from the book: a handwritten (love) letter to "Darling" and signed "Your Susan".
October 30, 2025 at 9:04 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
This #CrimeFiction novel by British author Dennis Wheatly (1898-1977) is a case file book. The book contains documents, witness statements, newspaper clippings and even #evidence like hair and a match. The reader has to solve the crime before opening the final, sealed pages of the book.
Title page of the novel Prop from the book: a typed and signed memo by the chief of polica of Florida. Prop from the book: two transparent paper evidence bags, one containing a strand of dark hair 'found in Miss Rocksavages hut on the morning of 9 March '39", and a match from the hut of bisshop Van Bude on the same morning. Prop from the book: the first page of the newspaper South Sussex Chronicle with a story about the "mysterious death of a famous Londener in his remote villa in Sussex".
October 30, 2025 at 9:04 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
The #manuscript is a fragment of a sermon by St. Augustine, specifically his Tractatus 52 on the Gospel of John.

Antwerp, EHC G 50187. Digital version: dams.antwerpen.be/asset/C2gPSc...

#BookHistory
October 24, 2025 at 9:29 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
This #FragmentFriday is found in De Thiende (1585), a groundbreaking #mathematical book by Simon Stevin, introducing the decimal separator (now , or . ) for fractions. It has a 19th century library binding, but retains the medieval parchment wrappers it was originally bound in.
📚💙
📜
October 24, 2025 at 9:29 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
I just wrote an entire article about this family, and the surprising answer is: maybe? François Foppens was notorious for using false imprints. And his name was used by other printers so often, that bibliographers introduced a non-existent grandson 'François III Foppens' to account for the piracy.
Screenshot of my article titled 'Friese vluchtelingen worden boekdrukkers in Brussel: de familie Foppens' (Vlaamse Stam, 2025).
October 21, 2025 at 6:15 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
It's not always easy... This #FragmentFriday is about an unidentified Latin text, B 255483:fragm.306. The text is difficult to read and overprinted with red ink - indicating that the original sheet of #parchment was used as a #Frisket sheet for printing a book in red and black ink.
Front of the fragment, a strip of parchment with handwritten text. There are a few thick red lines, and on the upper half a large red square, overprinting the handwritten text. Photo: MMFC.be Back of the fragment.
October 17, 2025 at 9:18 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
More like a theme park.
Chocolate production simulation.
October 17, 2025 at 7:52 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
The library is closed today: we're on a team building activity! First stop: the chocolate museum.
Entrance of The Chocolate Nation, next to the Chinese gate of Antwerp.
October 17, 2025 at 7:27 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
Negen vroege #stripverhalen uit de reeks Piet Pienter & Bert Bibber worden gerestaureerd en heruitgegeven door Adhemar. Pom tekende ze tussen 1951 en 1955 voor Het Handelsblad.

De originele strips werden voor de heruitgave gefotografeerd in exemplaren uit de Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience.
Covers van de nieuwe edities van Piet Pienter en Bert Bibber: Het Vredeswapen, De Stalen Zeemeermin, Bibbergeld en Guldaarse Rhapsodie.
October 16, 2025 at 9:45 AM
svanimpe.bsky.social
When you're trying to sell a book for 8000 €€€, you could at least try to find out what you're selling.... "Cum opufculo de facris Ponderibus ac Menfuris" 🙄
A listing of an early printed book from ViaLibri.Net, showing that the seller doesn't understand the difference between 'long s' and 'f'. Asking price is 8000 euros.
October 13, 2025 at 4:06 PM
svanimpe.bsky.social
October 9, 2025 at 5:43 PM