Amerongen Castle was built between 1674 and 1680 on the site of a medieval castle that had been burned down by the French in 1673. The gardens still contain historic elements such as a conservatory dating from the 1890s. In 1918 the former German Kaiser Wilhelm II signed his abdication here and stayed till 1920, when he moved to Huis Doorn.
The Library of Amerongen Castle is one of the few preserved nobility libraries from the 18th century. Almost all books are the original inhabitants of the castle. An important characteristic of a nobility library is that it includes books which were considered important at the time to participate in court life, as well as books of interest for the management of the estate.
The Library includes many important works, which needed treatment. Examples include a Statenbijbel with calf leather strap (1650), in which the manuscripts were found by members of the Van Reede family. There is a two-part atlas of the famous Dutch cartographer Johannes van Keulen (1724) and The Gardeners Dictionary (1759) written by the English botanist Philip Miller.
RNA worked together with 17 volunteers from the Castle. We cleaned the books, did a quick condition assessment and put the info in a database. And we performed first aid for books on site. From the collection 65 books were selected who needed major restoration in the studio. Friends of the castle we asked to adopt a book and many books were treated.