LOUVAIN LIBRARY

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 80, 28 December 1929, Page 27

LOUVAIN LIBRARY

It. will be remembered that through the generosity of certain American donors, funds were collected to build a new library for Louvain University in place of that burned by German troops at the beginning of the war. Mr. Whitney Warren, the American architect in charge of the reconstruction, placed the following inscription on the principal balustrade of the new building: "Furore Teutonico Diruta, Dono Americano Restltuta” (“Destroyed by German violence, rebuilt by American generosity”). Cardinal Mercier approved of this inscription, but Mgr. Ladeuze, the Rector

THE INSCRIPTION DISPUTE

of the University, objected to the inscription as being in debased Latin and ipaccurate, and ordered that it should be omitted from the balustrade. Disturbances followed, and a workman destroyed the uninscribed balustrade as a protest against the Rector’s decision. In July last year Mr. Whitney Warren applied for an injunction against the Rector, and the decision of the Court, which was made known a few weeks ago, is in his favour. It orders the University to replace the original inscription on the balustrade. The Rector has been allowed eight days in which to carry out the order of the Court.