The town library of Zutphen, in the east of the country, was first opened in the 1560s, shortly before the outbreak of the conflict. It was plundered five times between 1572 and 1591, and its collection declined from 357 works to barely a hundred. The desperate librarian at one point tried to cement up the door of the library, but he found that this was no serious obstacle to soldiers on a quest for the gilded clasps that adorned the bindings in the collection.

Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile Hist…, loc. 414