06/05/2014
Rubenianum collections
Newsletter
Library acquisitions March & April
Integration of the Pierre de Séjournet Documentation
Conference selection of books on 17th-century fashion and costume
LIBRARY Acquisitions
 Click to find the monthly overview of our latest library acquisitions in March 2014 & April 2014 

In March and April no less than 430 titles were added to the catalogue. Special word of gratitude goes out to library
intern Julie Van Woensel, who dedicated part of her time to indexing over a hundred recent journal articles.
DOCUMENTATION Integration of the Pierre de Séjournet Documentation
 The Pierre de Séjournet Documentation – purchased through the King Baudouin Foundation in 2011 – is
gradually being integrated in the photographic collection.
Dedicated volunteers Caroline Noé and Lena Bliadze have reorganized more than over one half of all the
documentation collected by de Séjournet on Flemish old masters. This includes substantial files on, for example, the
oeuvres of the Francken family and the prolific painter David Teniers II. The documentation is simultaneously
being added to the reading room boxes by interns and other diligent temporary assistants such as art history
student Phedra De Backer.
Use the online library catalogue in order to find if the documentation has already been processed (indicated by a
single call number e.g. V 17), or still awaits integration (call number PdS). Regardless, all material is already fully
available for consultation.
Furthermore, duplicate auction catalogues from the Pierre de Séjournet Fund are meticulously checked for
relevant artwork information by volunteers Gaston Van der Cruyce and Ria Malisse and prepared for the reading
room documentation accordingly.
In other words, new and better accessible artwork information awaits you with every next visit to our reading
room!
CONFERENCE Selection of books on 17th-century fashion and costume
 During the conference (Un)dressing Rubens. Fashion and Painting in Seventeenth-Century Antwerp (8-9
May 2014) the Rubenianum spotlights a selection of its library holdings.
Books on 17th-century fashion and costume will be placed in the reading room.
Besides part XXIV of the Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard (K. Lohse Belkin, The Costume Book), the selection
will include older seminal publications, relevant exhibition catalogues and recent additions to literature.
Conference attendants will be able to peruse these books during coffee or lunch breaks. Please find the full list of
titles here.
Exclusively for this same occasion, four of the Rubenianum's rare books will be exhibited in a showcase in
the Kolveniershof.
The presentation includes two pioneering studies of classical costume by Rubens’s brother Philip (Electorum Libri
II, Antwerp 1608) and by his eldest son Albert (De Re Vestiaria Veterum, Antwerp 1665).
As is evident from details of ancient costume in Rubens’s history paintings, such as the nailed boots or calcei clavati
of Roman horsemen, the painter was keen on depicting Roman dress in such a way as to reflect the most advanced
antiquarian knowledge of the subject. Exactitude in the depiction of dress was appreciated by well informed
viewers like Nicolas Claude Fabri de Peiresc, who congratulated Rubens on his renderings of antique dress.
Peter Paul Rubens was certainly involved in Philip’s book: he delivered several illustrations for it and it has been
suggested that the passages on dress in Electorum Libri II reflect Rubens’s own interests more than they do those of
his philologist brother.
De Re Vestiaria Veterum is a much more comprehensive study of the subject of Greek and Roman dress. Albert must
have benefited greatly from his father’s knowledge and encouragement during his thorough research. The book,
published posthumously in 1665, was groundbreaking as it dramatically advanced knowledge about the decoration
of the Roman tunic and it's relation to the social status of the wearer.
The influence of Albert Rubens's work is evident from the fact that one of his essays was reprinted a mere two
years later in 1667. His chapter De calceo senatorio was published together with studies on ancient footwear by
Benedictus Balduinus and Julius Nigronus by the Amsterdam publisher Frisius. This book was reissued in 1711 in
the Netherlands. The third edition of this bundle of studies was printed in Germany twenty-two years later. This
1733-edition was recently acquired by the Rubenianum, and will also be on display during the conference.
If you know someone who might be interested in het Rubenianum, feel free to forward this e-mail.
Do you wish to stay informed on the Rubenianum's activities? Please register here
Do you wish to receive notification on the publication of a new issue of the Rubenianum Quarterly? Please subscribe here
If you no longer wish to receive this mailing on our collections, please unsubscribe here
***Disclaimer***
Dit e-mailbestand, met inbegrip van zijn eventuele bijlagen, is een officieel document van de Stad Antwerpen. Het kan vertrouwelijke of persoonlijke informatie bevatten. Als u
deze boodschap per vergissing hebt ontvangen, verzoeken wij u om de afzender daarvan onmiddellijk per e-mail of telefoon op de hoogte te stellen en ze vervolgens van uw
computer te verwijderen zonder de inhoud ervan eerst te lezen, te vermenigvuldigen, te verspreiden of op andere wijze openbaar te maken aan derden. De Stad Antwerpen kan
op geen enkele manier aansprakelijk worden gesteld voor mogelijke fouten of onnauwkeurigheden in dit bericht, noch voor verlies, ongemak of directe dan wel indirecte schade
geleden ten gevolge van het gebruik van in deze e-mail voorkomende incorrecte informatie.