Dr. Jan Storm van Leeuwen (1943) studied Art History at the University of Utrecht. From 1968 until his retirement in December 2005 he was employed by The Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague, where he worked for the larger part of his career as a rare book librarian specializing in book bindings. He also lectured at the Plantin Society in Antwerp, Belgium and the Rare Book School in Charlottesville, USA. He has published many articles on books and the art and history of bookbinding, including De achttiende-eeuwse Haagse boekband in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek en het Rijksmuseum Meermanno-Westreenianum (The Hague, 1976) (which was his dissertation subject), ‘The well-shirted book-binding, on chemise bindings and Hülleneinbände’, in: Theatrum Orbis Librorum. Liber Amicorum presented to Nico Israel… (Utrecht, 1989) and 100 trésors de la reliure Néerlandaise du XVIIIe siècle. Exposition Bibliothèque Royale (The Hague, 1997).