In this volume, Mrs. Elly Cockx and Professor Pierre Delsaerdt present the results of their research on the famous Special Collection of Duke Engelbert-Auguste d'Arenberg (1824-1875). This important library was located in Brussels, close to the Egmont Palace, where the Arenberg family already had an important study and reading library.

The Special Collection consisted for the most part of printed works from the Low Countries dating from the 15th and 16th centuries. It was intended to illustrate the history of the Low Countries and literature in Dutch and should therefore be understood as a testimony to the patrimonialization of books in the 19th century. It was a first-rate collection, with many rare and even unique incunabula and post-incunabula.