See what we do

HistoBistro is a collaboration of Maastricht University Library, Centre Céramique, the Regional Historic Center Limburg, the Royal Limburg Historical and Archaeological Society (LGOG) and the Limburg Museum, which revolves around historical recipes, the historical kitchen, gastronomy, agriculture and decorum. Activities include lectures, workshops, exhibitions, historical food tasting, and podcasts. HistoBistro is part of the Limburg Collection, a cooperation of cultural heritage organizations in Limburg that wants to preserve this collection for the future, make it (digitally) accessible, and make it more visible, sustainable and usable for a broad audience as well as for scientific purposes. Follow the HistoBistro Facebook page for updates.

Listen to the HistoBistro podcast.

Spoken Word is a yearly event organised by Maastricht University Library at the Dominicanen Bookstore during Museumnacht Maastricht (Museum night Maastricht) in April. In collaboration with Dominicanen Bookstore and Fashionclash, aspiring writers, poets and singer-songwriters showcase their talents with performances revolving around a different theme each year, such as Ancient Greece, lucky/unlucky or Lost in space. Books from our Special Collections serve as an inspiration. Spoken Word is part of Museumnacht Maastricht, a presentation of exciting venues around Maastricht with diverse cultural activities Maastricht has to offer.

During the fair, a small exhibition on the theme of Travel and Discoveries was provided by the Art and Heritage Committee and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Maastricht University. In the MABP Magazine you can read articles about travel books from the Jesuit collection of the Maastricht University Library.

This exhibition on masculinity and femininity, marital need and marital happiness includes erotic advice from the Jesuit collection of Theodoor van de Velde at the beginning of the 20th century. The gynecologist Van de Velde  (1873-1937) was taboo-breaking in his time. He dared to write on female sexuality. In The Ideal Woman (1933), he explicitly focused on ‘the woman’. This book – with no fewer than 480 film images and 54 full-page illustrations – was a kind of guide full of gymnastic exercises to improve sex efficiency. The aim was to “fully develop the sexual abilities of women”, so that women as self-aware individuals could enjoy sex much more actively (and please her husband). Visit the exhibition.

In collaboration with the Regional Historic Center Limburg, Center Céramique and the University Library an exhibition was organized in the Sint Jans Church. Three students did an internship: Yasmin Geradts, Maxime Hallatu and Nabilah Noordin explored special collections in these institutions. Yasmin Geradts researched the, nowadays, not well known books on sexual education from the Beyart Brothers. Maxime Hallatu focused on Theodoor Hendrik van de Velde (1873-1937), a gynecologist, who made history with his popular and often piquant sexual advise for married couples. Nabila Noordin researched Japanese, erotic woodblock prints or Ukiyo-e between the 17th and 20th century from Center Céramique. On these prints, beautiful women expose body parts, in such a ‘risky’ manner that would be considered taboo in the West. After completing their internships, the students received a certificate undersigned by all involved parties. Visit the exhibition.

As a phenomenon, the travel guide is closely connected with the emergence of modern tourism in Europe from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, when an extensive railway network came into being. Tourists were looking for pleasure and relaxation. But they also wanted to widen their cultural horizon and improve their physical health. This exhibition shows how the travel guide, as a steady companion, detailed for the tourist what was worth a visit: which cities, which buildings, which resorts, which mountain areas, which panoramas and so on.

In September 2022 this exhibition was brought back to life for the Travel Bureau Europa event.