The UBL develop collections which support the needs of faculty and students of the University.

The special collections of Leiden University Libraries offer access to worldwide known valuable, rare, and unique materials. The collections are actively complemented and made accessible for research and education.

In addition to the Bodel Nijenhuis Collection, the map collections of the former library of the Royal Tropical Institute (KIT), and the map collection of the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV), the collection of Maps and Atlases includes several smaller sub…

Special books, drawings, photos and other source material in the UBL collections can be found at the Special Collections department. You can’t borrow these materials, but you can request them via the catalogue and consult them in the library. Planning your first visit to the Special Collections reading…

The Chinese Special Collections are part of the Asian Library. Items can be consulted at the Special Collections Reading Room.

The Southeast Asian Special Collections contain text and audiovisual materials pertaining to the languages, histories, philosophies, religions, literatures, and (material) art of the region. The focus lies on the Malay world, in particular on the Nederlands-Indies/Indonesia. Apart from books and periodicals…

The Asian special collections comprise tens of thousands of rare books, thousands of manuscripts, maps, prints, drawings and photographs, and hundreds of archives.

The Special Collections of Leiden University Libraries contain a world-renowned and vast collection of old prints, manuscripts, archives, prints, drawings and photography. Our collections are accessible to Leiden researchers and students, as well as external researchers and other interested parties.

Old maps, beautifully coloured drawings, early photographs, rare books, and even a genuine love letter. Leiden University Libraries (UBL) holds an important and diverse Japan collection. From January through December 2026, we will organize various public activities around the Japan collections.

The main focus of the Islamic World Special Collections is on the Middle East and North Africa, with smaller holdings from Indonesia, the Indian Subcontinent and Central Asia as far as Xinjiang, China.

The Middle Eastern Special Collections form the nucleus of the entire range of Oriental heritage collections of Leiden University Libraries.

Training

There are several excellent options for teachers and researchers to engage students and other audiences with primary sources. Either by requesting items from the Special Collections for use during lectures or by integrating our educational resources into your lesson plans.

Digital Collections contains over 500,000 digitized primary sources, reference works and digital born materials held by Leiden University Libraries. In this repository you will find digital facsimiles of prints, drawings, photographs, maps and archival documents; digital facsimiles of manuscript books…

The special collections from Japan and Korea are located at the central library building at Witte Singel, where it forms a part of the Asian Library.

Would you like to work with the Special Collections during your studies?

The Special Collections Reading Room houses a collection of 800+ facsimiles of Western manuscripts originating mostly from Medieval Europe. They enable students to consult a 3D version very close to the original manuscripts kept worldwide, especially those with contents or from cultural traditions that…

The South Asian and Tibetan special collections provide material pertaining to the languages, histories, philosophies, art and material cultures of the region. The focus lies on Sanskrit, Tibetan, Lepcha, and Buddhism, but the collections also hold rich visual material for educational and academic purposes…

The Library of Leiden University holds c. 550 manuscripts and an extensive collection of rare printed books in Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, the languages of Ethiopia, South Arabic, Coptic and Armenian, as well as a collection of rare books on the Jewish World.

On the occasion of the Workshop organized last July to officially launch the Leiden Chinese Queer Collection (LCQC), the National Museum of Taiwan Literature (NMTL) donated 30 titles of Taiwanese LGBTQ+ literature to support this initiative. These works where published between 1971 and 2022 by authors…

The collection guides of archives and collections of Leiden University Libraries (UBL) have been made available via the portal Collection Guides. This has greatly improved the findability, visibility and ease of use of these collection finding aids.

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has made more than 20.000 maps, atlases and topographical prints and drawings available in Digital Collections. With this, a significant part of one of the largest and most important collections of maps and atlases in the Netherlands has now been made digitally available…

More than 2000 objects from the Middle Eastern collection at Leiden University Libraries (UBL) have been made available online through Digital Collections. These collections mostly consist of written works in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac, but also contain printed works and the…

Education, Library, Research

The UBL and the Friends of the Kern Institute (VVIK) signed a loan agreement for the collection of South Asia, especially India, and Tibet.

Castles, monasteries and bridges, but also city profiles, history prints and water management works. Leiden University Libraries (UBL) manages one of the most important collections of topographical images in the Netherlands. The collection, bequested to UBL by Johannes Tiberius Bodel Nijenhuis (1797-1872)…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has digitized more than a thousand individual manuscripts and several complete archives from the post-medieval western manuscript and archives collection and made them available online through Digital Collections. With this, some of the most important archives and masterpieces…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has made more than five hundred medieval handwritten text sources available online via Digital Collections. This makes a third of her collection of Western medieval manuscripts – one of the largest and the most important in the Netherlands – available in high resolution…

Friday 26 January 2018 saw the festive opening of the Bob Wessels Insolvency Law Collection. This Collection is a most valuable addition to the present prestigious collection on (international) insolvency and commercial law and will be expanded and kept up-to-date in the coming years.

Almost 4400 anatomical drawings from the collections of Leiden University Libraries (UBL) are now available through Europeana. The collection shows medical art on paper from the early eighteenth century to the present day. Most of the drawings were created in or around the Leiden University Medical…

Help us develop and expand the recently established Leiden Chinese Queer Collection (LCQC, 莱顿华语酷儿文献收藏) at Leiden University Libraries (UBL).

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has made 45,000 digitised daguerreotypes, autochrome plates, photo prints, albums, cameras and other objects from its photography collections available through Digital Collections. This means that parts of the oldest photo collection in the Netherlands are now digitally…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) has made approximately 2300 old printed books and special editions available online through Digital Collections. With this, a small but important part of one of the oldest and most important collections of printed works in the Netherlands is now digitally available…

The collections of Leiden University Libraries (UBL) have been enriched with the Maktabat al-Yaman al-Amstirdāmīyah, or Amsterdam Yemen Library. This collection, which exists of about a thousand books, journals and maps, is the largest coherent Yemen collection in The Netherlands and was brought together…

Leiden University Library (UBL) has made more than 20,000 digitised drawings and prints available via Digital Collections. This means that the core of Leiden University’s collection of European ‘art on paper’, which ranks fourth in the Netherlands in terms of size and importance, is now available in…

The map of Suriname, drawn in 1830 and acquired by Leiden University Libraries (UBL) in 2023, has now been made available online via Digital Collections in open access. The map can be viewed and downloaded in high resolution.

In September 2024, Leiden University Libraries (UBL) will dispose of a collection of dissertations from foreign universities published after 1850. This allows us to make room for new acquisitions.

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) recently participated in the Pagode-Europeana-China project as an associated partner. As a result, almost two hundred items related to China from the UBL Special Collections are now available via the Europeana website. The UBL was the only library to participate in…

With the addition of over 16,500 new catalogue records, the collection of Johannes Tiberius Bodel Nijenhuis (1797-1872) is now almost entirely searchable online. The private collection of the Leiden map collector laid the foundation for the special collection of maps and atlases of Leiden University.…

UBL recently received a donation of some five hundred books on the Italian occupation of Libya and on Arabic linguistics. UBL gratefully acknowledges this donation by a Leiden University alumnus.

Leiden University Libraries has made a large number of unofficial poetry journals from China accessible online in its Digital Collections. This opens up thousands of pages from an internationally unique collection of unofficial Chinese poetry for teaching, research, and the general public, including…