The Margaretha Convent (other side of the road), along with St. Jan’s Church possessed one of the biggest libraries in medieval Gouda. They were merged in 1594-1642. The convent was the only one pillaged during the siege of Gouda in 1572. It is unclear which documents originated from the Margaretha collection. The current library also owns the collection from the monastery of Stein, where Erasmus studied as a monk. Because of this, it owns a few of Erasmus’ original manuscripts.