Huis van het boek, Book museum in The Hague, Netherlands.
The Huis van het Boek is a museum in The Hague devoted to the history of the book, with collections spanning medieval manuscripts, historical prints, and contemporary book design. It is housed in a historic city mansion and includes working workshops alongside its exhibition rooms.
In the 19th century, a Dutch nobleman donated a collection of rare books that became the foundation of this institution. Over time the collection grew and the museum became a central place for book culture in the Netherlands.
The museum shows how books were made, decorated, and passed on across the centuries in the Netherlands. Visitors can watch traditional techniques like bookbinding and printing still practiced in the on-site workshops.
The museum is in the center of The Hague and easy to reach on foot or by public transport from the main train station. It is worth setting aside a good half-day to see both the exhibitions and the workshops without rushing.
The collections include incunables, books printed in the first decades after the invention of the printing press. Many of these early printed books were designed to look like handwritten manuscripts, because printers at the time wanted their work to resemble familiar objects.
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