AioloZ was founded in 1985 as we started selling books at small markets and fairs in Holland, Belgium and France. The next year we opened our shop in the historic centre of Leiden and began issuing catalogues. Our passion for literature and art was immediately recognized  by a wide range of collectors who made it possible to sell and buy not only the usual second-hand books but also the finest and rarest in the fields we subsequently explored: (Dutch) literature, (Avant garde) art and photography.

The purchase of the author’s own copy of the most legendary Dutch novel of the 20^th century for a then unprecedented price (Gerard Reve’s De Avonden, 1947) was the first in a long and ongoing series of acquisitions that raised the attention of the media, very unusual for the trade. It became one of the side-ambitions of our firm and still remains a very strong conviction: in order to survive in a changing world antiquarians shouldn’t just be happy with their remote little corner in society (cum libello in angulo), selling books only to their kindred spirits (as those are all very mortal), but turn our splendid profession into one of the visible pillars of culture, asking for the same attention as new books, theatre a. s. o.  

In the last fifteen years AioloZ was frequently in the news with antiquarian manifestations and the discovery of ephemeral publications and autographs and established a firm reputation as a pearl diver. Among the acquisitions that raised the attention, we mention: an unknown juvenile poetical manuscript by Gerrit Komrij, several debuts published on one’s own (Reve, Hermans, Komrij), a pristine copy of the Kelmscott Chaucer in pigskin binding, the only complete collection of the Gogmagog Press, the author’s first copy, important correspondences and manuscripts by Couperus, Slauerhoff, Reve, Büch, Hermans, Kouwenaar, Vestdijk, Roland Holst, Kosinski and Thelen.

Monique and Piet van Winden

1988 First exposition of the books by Gerard Reve

1994 First exposition of the books Louis Couperus (Royal Theatre, The Hague)

1997 Celebration 50^th anniversary of De Avonden (Allerheiligste Hartkerk, Amsterdam)

1999 Participation Willem Frederik Hermans Festival (De Balie, Amsterdam)

2001 Auction of the private collection of Baroness Angele Manteau (Brussels)

2003 Foundation of the Gerard Reve Museum (Amsterdam)

2004 Celebration of the 60^th Birthday of Gerrit Komrij, National Poet of the Netherlands, Sale of a private collection of his books and autographs