Vienna: Austrian State Library

April 2019

Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

At one time the internet was awash with photos of grand libraries of the world. Each time I saw one, I racked my brain trying to remember if I had been to a grand old library besides the Library of Congress [see: Library of Congress] in Washington. The answer seemed to be "no". I must give honorable mention to both the New York Public Library and to the St Louis Public Library. They are incredible spaces dedicated to books and the preservation of knowledge, but both are serious and austere, not dripping in Baroque detail. On my trip to Vienna I decided to check out the Austrian State Library - just wow.

The library collection grew at first through intermarriage. As male Habsburgs would marry royals from other countries part of the dowry was often a significant collection of books. In a male-dominated library world, the Hapsburg collection was actually grown by women, even if indirectly. Those pre-printing press days speak volumes to the value of hand-scribed books. The Hapsburg library grew with each marriage. The collection was sometimes housed solely in Vienna and sometimes divided up between different imperial cities. Eventually it was all centralized in the Hofburg Palace with its ceremonial heart being the Prunksaal:

The wing was begun in 1721 by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach and finished after his death in 1723 by his son Joseph Emanuel. The sculptures on the wing are by Lorenzo Mattielli. The hall is divided, after the original list of the books, into two opposite "war" and "peace" sides, which is reflected also in the wall frescoes, from Daniel Gran. The fresco in the central dome represents a kind Apotheosis of Emperor Charles VI, whose image is held by Hercules and Apollo. Around the image of the emperor, several types of allegorical figures meet in a complicated theme, which symbolize the virtues of the Habsburgs and the wealth of their domains. Located in the hall are marble statues of emperors with the statue of emperor Charles VI in its centre, created by the sculptors Peter Strudel and Paul Strudel. The four large globes are by Vincenzo Coronelli.

(Wikipedia)

The Prunksaal was breathtakingly over the top. The architecture, the displays of very old texts, the old globes and maps. I could have spent hours there studying the knowledge of the past. I have always been intrigued by staunchly held ideas that are later discarded. Maps and globes are among them - I look at those old tools of navigation and find it miraculous any ship actually arrived safely at its destination. In a city full of museums, the Austrian National Library was welcome diversion for being something different even if it was also a museum of books.

Although I loved the Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress, its pedestal was mightily shaken after my visit to the Imperial Library of the House of Hapsburg.