The collection left by Frits Lugt also contains an array of books from the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, mainly from the Low Countries. Expanded by his successors, it now numbers more than two thousand titles and new ones are added every year.

This library covers many areas and could be that of an educated Amsterdam merchant of the eighteenth century: it includes historical works, topography and travel journals, works about the natural sciences and a remarkable anthology of Dutch literature in which even the minor poets are well represented. Needless to say, works about the arts were Lugt’s major interest: early art history, artists’ biographies, essays on aesthetics, collection catalogues and every other conceivable art history source. The high quality of Netherlandish book illustration in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was another guideline in Lugt’s acquisition policy. This applies in particular to two kinds of illustrated works that are particularly well represented and actively pursued: emblemata literature and triumphalia. Seventeenth-century Netherlandish calligraphy forms a separate ensemble, with specimens by the renowned calligraphers of their day.

The collection contains some great rarities, like the Piedra gloriosa by Menasseh Ben Israel of 1655 with its four etchings by Rembrandt, only six copies of which are known, or the 1602 edition of Georgette de Montenay’s Emblatvm christianorvm centvria, containing a handwritten Dutch translation by Anna Roemers Visscher. In choosing the copies much attention was given to the bindings, which are often the original ones, and to their provenances. A copy of Karel van Mander’s Schilder-boeck of 1604 was once owned by the Frisian painter Wybrand de Geest, just like Francesco da Barberino’s Docvmenti d’amore of 1640 was presented to Nicolas Poussin by Pope Urban VIII in a binding decorated with bees, the symbol of the Barberini family.

The old book collection in its entirety has been entered in the digital catalogue of the Fondation Custodia’s library. The Dutch editions up to 1800 are also included in the likewise digital Short Title Catalogue, Netherlands (STCN).

The works can be consulted by appointment in the Fondation Custodia’s study room.