Cis van Heertum

Education and Work Experience

I studied English Literature under the late – and lamented, but also fondly remembered – Professor T.A. Birrell at the University of Nijmegen. After finishing my dissertation in 1989, I worked in the British Library, London (1990-1991) before moving back to the Netherlands and straight into the wondrous world of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam (1991-2011).

For this library I curated exhibitions (Johannes Reuchlin, 2005; Benedictus de Spinoza, 2008) and contributed to many more. While preparing his own Bijlmer Spinoza Festival exhibit, Thomas Hirschhorn (photo) visited the library early in 2009 to be shown the library’s Spinoza holdings.

I was responsible for the library’s publishing house (In de Pelikaan), producing catalogues, essay volumes and text editions. I also delivered web articles for the library’s site and kept most, but probably not all, readers happy in the course of my career. I am currently still working for this library on a freelance basis.

Translation work

Since 2011 I am an independent translator, kicking off my career with a wonderful project, Ina Kok’s Woodcuts in Incunabula printed in the Low Countries, a monumental study which had been meticulously edited by book historian Koert van der Horst before I had the privilege of translating it. Published by HES & De Graaf Publishers in 2013, the four-volume Woodcuts in Incunabula was winner of the 2015 Menno Hertzberger Prize for Book History and Bibliography and Winner of the 17th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography (2018). Since then I have had the pleasure of working for a number of museums and private clients. My specialty is book history, but I am also involved in art projects as a translator and editor.