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Country
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BE
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Name of institution (English)
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Archives of the Catholic University of Louvain
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Language of name of institution
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fra
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Contact information: postal address
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Place Montesquieu, 3, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
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Contact information: phone number
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0032 10474884
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Contact information: web address
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https://uclouvain.be/archives
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Contact information: email
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archives@uclouvain.be
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Reference number
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BE A4006 - CO 001-MA
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (English)
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Western manuscripts
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Title (official language of the state)
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Manuscrits occidentaux
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Language of title
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fra
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Creator / accumulator
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Université catholique de Louvain
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Date note
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5th century/20th century
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Language(s)
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deu
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dut
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eng
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fra
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lat
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spa
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Extent
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199 storage units
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Graphic Material
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Scope and content
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The Manuscrits occidentaux collection comprises manuscripts of various types and origins, such as books of hours, psalters, philosophical essays, genealogies, poetry books, sermons, biographies, etc. The collection holds a manuscript copy of António Luís' translation of Cyril of Alexandria's Commentary on Isaiah (A 33): "Cyrilli archiepiscopi Alexandrini necnon theologi profundissima et eloquentissimi commentationes propemodium divine in essaiam prophetam undecim libris contente nunc primum ab Antonio Ludovico Medico olisiponensi traducte et un gratiam omnium studiosorum edite" (Almost divine commentary on the prophet Isaiah, divided into eleven books, written by Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria and a very profound and eloquent theologian, now translated for the first time by the Lisbon physician António Luís and published in favour of all scholars). This 16th-century Latin translation from Greek contains illustrations and a dedication from António Luís to João de Barros, one of the most renowned Portuguese humanists of the first half of the 16th century. António Luís was a New Christian physician and an important humanist from Lisbon.
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Archival history
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The Manuscrits occidentaux collection was created in 1962 in the Department of Archives and Manuscripts of the Bibliothèque centrale de l’université catholique de Louvain (Central Library of the Catholic University of Louvain). It was composed of the remaining manuscripts that had escaped a fire in 1940. In the 1970s, after the division of the Catholic University of Leuven, giving origin to the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (now, KU Leuven) and the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), the collection was also divided. António Luís's translation of Cyril of Alexandria's Commentary on Isaiah was gifted to the Catholic University of Louvain in 1960 by canon Ed. Massaux, who was a professor at that university. He had received the manuscript in Louvain, in 1954, from canon A. Monin.
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(source: Manuscrits occidentaux) (BE A4006 - CO 001-MA)
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The University of Leuven was founded by the papal bull "Sapientie immarcessibilis", issued by Pope Martin V on December 9, 1425. Initially, it comprised four faculties: Humanities ("Artes"), Canon Law, Civil Law, and Medicine. In 1432, the Pope gave permission to include a faculty of Theology.
Ever since it was founded, the University has had its headquarters in what is now known as the University Hall. The building had been built in 1317, initially meant to serve as the cloth makers’ Hall of Leuven. In 1425, it became the seat of the University, where various services and the Rector and Vice-Rectors' offices were located, as well as lecture halls and meeting rooms for the faculties. The Hall was also the seat of the University court. A little over a century after it was founded, the University was attended by about 2,000 students, 200 of them from abroad.
The rector and some members of the high administration of the University were institutionally responsible for the conservation of the documentation related to the University.
The repercussions of the Revolution of 1789 and the integration of the provinces of Belgium into the French state, caused the closure of the University in 1797 and the dispersal of its archives. A part of the archives ended up in Brussels, another in Ghent, a third in the Séminaire de Bois-le-Duc (Seminar of 's-Hertogenbosch) in the Netherlands, and yet another part in Altona (Denmark). Finally, following the independence of Belgium, the majority of what could be saved was transferred to the Archives Générales du Royaume (General Archives of the Kingdom).
The collection thus constituted was inventoried. It was not until 2001 that this Ancient Regime fonds returned to Louvain, where they were transferred to the new repository of the State Archives, stored at the former Collège de Villers. On June 18, 2013, all archives of the University of Louvain, including fonds preserved in the State Archives in Louvain, the KU Leuven, and the Université catholique de Louvain, were listed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.
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(source: UCLouvain Archives website)
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System of arrangement
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The manuscripts are numbered and described individually.
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Access, restrictions
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Free consultation under the conditions set by the visitors' regulations in force at the University Archives
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Author of the description
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Kevin Soares, 2022
