Museum Meermanno | House of the Book, (Huis van het boek) formerly called Museum Meermanno-Westreenianum, is a museum named after Willem Hendrik Jacob van Westreenen van Tiellandt on the Prinsessegracht 30 in The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

. It is remarkable for its collection of sculpture, books, etchings, and paintings, but is most attractive to visitors for its accurate upkeep of the 18th century Herenhuis interior with period furnishings and collectibles.

History

The museum is located in the former house of the book collector baron van Westreenen van Tiellandt (1783–1848), who himself was a great admirer of his cousin Johan Meerman (1751–1815), a book collector, traveler, and diarist. The museum is partly a personal memorial to Meerman, and focuses today on the written and printed books in all forms. The development of the design of old and modern books is the central theme.

The museum has a collection of books from all periods of Western history. Medieval manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

s, their manufacture, restoration, and accompanying research are one of the most important features of the collection. The development of writing is shown through a bird's eye view of the layout and decoration of these manuscripts. Besides the medieval manuscripts, there are also fine incunabula, printed as early as before 1501.

In addition to the collection of old books, the museum also collects books printed from 1850 to the present day. The shape and design of the books are the central theme. Rotating exhibitions show various parts of the overall collection, while the house interior is worth a visit for the paintings by famous Dutch masters. The museum owns the largest collection of bookplate

Bookplate

A bookplate, also known as ex-librīs [Latin, "from the books of..."], is usually a small print or decorative label pasted into a book, often on the inside front cover, to indicate its owner...

s in the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. There is also an old fashioned movable-type printing press in the museum.

Origin of the museum

The museum is named after two avid book collectors: baron W.H.J. van Westreenen van Tiellandt (1783–1848) and his cousin Johan Meerman (1751–1815). The baron substantially extended Meerman's collection, and since 1852 there is the museum. Since then the collection has been expanding.

External links

• Museum Meermanno