The Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) and KU Leuven Libraries announced an agreement with Google to share a large portion of important digitized documents reflecting the rich cultural and historical heritage located in the libraries. This entails over 80.000 works, some dating back to the fifteenth century, that will be made freely accessible in the coming years via Google Books and the institutions’ own library catalogues.

Among the highlights is a unique collection of 25,000 books printed in Brussels in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: the largest collection of old and rare books from the capital of the (Southern) Low Countries, with a strong emphasis on government publications in French, Dutch, Spanish and Latin.

The selection also includes the most complete collection in the world of pamphlets and leaflets from the time of the Brabant revolution that led to the independent United States of Belgium (1789-1790), comprising nearly 7.000 items.

The collaboration will start in the course of 2022. More detailed information is available in the press release.