Saturday Rave: The Library of Leuven.

On 25th August 1914, German troops moving through Belgium towards France destroyed the library of the University of Leuven.

Three hundred thousand books and a thousand manuscripts were lost. Many of them were irreplaceable. The attack was seen as a direct assault on learning and culture, and caused worldwide outrage.

In 1915 an appeal was launched to rebuild and to restock, as far as possible, this great library.  

Now, Henry Guppy doesn't sound like the name of a hero, but it was he who organised the appeal from his place of work at the John Ryland library in Manchester. The first consignment of books from universities and libraries around the world was sent to Leuven in 1919. By 1925, 55,782 books had been collected. The foundation stone for a new building, which was largely funded by the American government, was laid in 1921.

I raise a hand of salute to Henry Guppy and to all those learned men and women who gave books to the University of Leuven, and to the international community of those seeking truth, for the search for truth is the ultimate function of all books.

And that is why they get attacked in the first place.

Word To Use Today: truth. The Old English form of this word was triewth.

The beautiful new library of the University of Leuven was destroyed by German troops during World War Two.

But HERE  you can see some better news.