GM! The central library of the…

GM! The central library of the Catholic University of Leuven.

In the 15th century a new golden era began in Leuven with the founding of the largest and oldest university in the Low Countries in 1425.

By the turn of the 16th century, Leuven had become a major European center for art and knowledge with humanists like Erasmus and Hieronymus van Busleyden working there. In 1517 the latter founded the Collegium Trilingue in which the three ancient languages: Latin, Greek and Hebrew were taught. It promoted the critical study of classical literature and the Bible.

Religious persecutions of Protestants, followed by greater religious and political turmoil starting in the late 1560s, greatly affected intellectual life in Leuven. Many professors and alumni moved abroad. The newly founded University of Leiden in Holland, amongst others, would profit greatly from this brain drain.

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