Sunday April 21st

This past week was full of interesting events. But I will write about them later as today is still fresh in my mind.

   A long service today in our church in The Hague, lasting for almost two hours. One of the reasons was a talk and slide show by a missionary couple. They have worked in Mozambique for over 20 years and were sent out and have been supported by our church. It is a difficult country they work in, and the work they do is invaluable. They are both artists who have given up their jobs to run an orphanage, but they also support widows of which there are too many, run bible study groups, and do lots of other things. Mozambique is rampaged by HIV and Aids, so there are orphans galore. This couple consider all 40-50 orphans to be their own children and part of their family, and not as living in an institution. Many don't leave till they marry. I felt humbled by them and by the work they do and the lives they live. However, it would have been better to have organised this presentation in the evening service which is informal, or during the family lunch in the church hall. During a Eucharist it seemed a bit out of place. Besides, we also celebrated the founding of this particular church building. It is strange for me to realise that I was a secondary school student and passing on my bike probably to or from school, when this church was opened by a member of the British Royal family, either Queen Elizabeth or her sister Margaret, I am not sure. I stopped and watched, never guessing that I would be a regular member and even a member of the choir one day. 

So many things were going on simultaneously in the service, not to mention lots of  announcements. All in all, a wonderful service, but a bit too long I think. Almost two hours might be fine in Africa, but not in Holland. And I could not take part in the family lunch because there wasn't enough time between the service and a concert.

Bibliotheca Thysiana

For in the afternoon I attended a concert in Leiden. Young musicians often can't afford a good instrument, so there is a charity, which lends excellent instruments, mainly string instruments, to young and promising musicians. This weekend that charity, the NMF (Dutch Musical Instruments Fund) had organised some 100 concerts in historic buildings all over Holland. Most buildings are not usually open to the public, and indeed well worth seeing. The concert was given by two young female violinists, in the Bibliotheca Thysiana in Leiden. It is an amazing building with a very interesting history. 

 The books are behind railings and only accessible to the librarian. He will find the required book(s) and put them on the large reading table opposite the stairs which open up in the middle of the library.

This isn't an entrance door, but a locked bookcase in which private family documents were kept. Or probably rare books. The family coat of arms is painted over the doors. It is the only ornament in an otherwise quite simple room.

Johannes Thysius (which in fact was Jan Thijs), a rich man, collected all the books in this library and stipulated in his will that after his death they should be kept together for the benefit of anyone who wanted to consult and study them. The library contains many rare books and is very important for the history of science in the 17^th century. All the disciplines are represented: music, the arts, history, geography, mathematics, you name it and it is there. It was very comprehensive at the time. Johannes Thysius died young, just 32 years old, and left money to have this house built for his library. The library itself is on the first floor, the ground floor has living quarters for a curator and his family. The library walls are lined with rows and rows of books bound in white vellum and brown leather. Nowadays the collection is integrated in the catalogue of Leyden University Library. The library Thysiana is no longer physically open to the public because of the absence of a caretaker or librarian, but books can be consulted in the University library. It is both awesome to see these rows of books, and at the same time frustrating not to be able to browse through them. But after the concert the curate, a professor of Book History, gave us an introduction to the house and the library and showed us some of its treasures, a pleasant and  unexpected bonus.

 A view down the staircase

 Awaiting their turn

One of the rare books

The concert itself, or rather a recital by two violin players, was very intimate. An audience of 14 or 16 is all the library can accommodate, which made it a very enjoyable experience indeed, almost a private performance. One of the musicians told us something about every piece they were going to perform and that added to our enjoyment. Instead of the one hour concert we were given a two hour event, including a tour of the library. 

We were shown a fat vellum bound manuscript and told that this library is in fact world famous, because this particular tome contains the largest collection of lute music known at that time. The owner copied any piece of lute music he heard or came across. A facsimile copy was produced several years ago so that it is now available to a larger group of interested musicians.