Friends of the Maastricht Academic Heritage Fund

The Friends of Maastricht Academic Heritage Fund aims to raise awareness of the existence of special collections at Maastricht University that are considered academic heritage; to make the special collections of Maastricht University available for education and research; and to manage, acquire and make the special collections widely accessible to a broad audience of interested parties, both in the region and beyond.

Maastricht University, in particular the University Library, possesses special heritage treasures such as the Jesuit Collection, the Charles Eyck documentation and the Pierre Kemp Library.

Jesuit Collection

The Jesuit Collection is the most important special collection of Maastricht University Library and comprises approximately 265,000 volumes, mainly in the fields of theology, philosophy, history, literature, law and various social sciences (sociology, psychology, anthropology, economics). In this sense, it is a broad humanities collection that offers many points of reference for the research and teaching activities of the various faculties of Maastricht University. The oldest books date from the early 16th century, the most recent from the 1970s.

The collections, purchased by the government in 1973 to serve as the core collection for the University Library of Maastricht University (then Limburg University), originate from two former Jesuit educational institutions (the Canisianum theological faculty in Maastricht and the Berchmanianum philosophical faculty in Nijmegen) and the former Warmond Major Seminary. A number of smaller sub-collections were added in the 1980s.

Pierre Kemp Library Collection

A special part of the heritage collections of Maastricht University Library is the library collection of the Maastricht poet Pierre Kemp (1886-1967). This personal library was loaned to the University Library by the Pierre Kemp Foundation in 1994.

Charles Eyck documentation collection

The Charles Eyck documentation collection is a collection of memorabilia relating to the Limburg painter Charles Eyck. These items were donated by the publicist Wim Aerts. The collection was purchased in its entirety by Maastricht University. In the years that followed, the collection was expanded with a number of smaller purchases and donations.