The Manuscript Collections of Scaliger, Raphelengius and Golius from Leiden University Libraries
The Leiden University Library has a world-famous research collection of Middle Eastern Manuscripts. Its core collection consists of volumes brought together by, among others, the Leiden Orientalists Joseph Justus Scaliger (d. 1609) and Jacobus Golius (d. 1667). Included in the Scaliger collection are about a dozen manuscripts which belonged to Franciscus Raphelengius (d. 1597). These collections consist of extremely rare, sometimes unique, manuscripts.
Brill and the Leiden University Library have joined forces to digitize the Arabic manuscripts from three of the library’s core collections, now published online under the title
Pioneer Orientalists: The Manuscript Collections of Scaliger, Raphelengius and Golius from the Leiden University Library. The publication consists of 267 Arabic manuscripts in 303 volumes, consisting of 109.517 pages, in full-colour, high-definition images.