Abbey library of Saint Gall

The Abbey Library of St. Gallen is the Abbey Library of the former Benedictine monastery of St. Gall. This grew out of the cell, which founded the Irish monk St. Gallus to 612 in the high valley of the Steinach. The Abbey Library of St. Gallen in Switzerland and one of the largest and oldest monastery libraries in the world 's oldest library. It has 2100 manuscripts, 1650 incunabula (printed before 1500) and early prints ( printed 1501-1520 ) as well as about 160000 books. In 1983, the library was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with the Abbey District of St.Gallen.

Meaning and History of the Abbey Library

To the holy Gallus and the cell founded by him still rallied his lifetime students. Even after Gallus ' death - probably around 640/650 - could the hermits cell to survive the decades. 719 took over the Alemanne Otmar St. Gallen management of the community and turned it into a Benedictine imperial abbey, which had its first economic, religious and intellectual flowering in the 9th century. The manuscripts needed for use in church, school and administration presented the monks in their own scriptorium ( writing workshop ) ago, this is the monastery of St. Gallen since the middle of the 8th century detectable.

The number of manuscripts in the St. Gallen monastery grew steadily. The oldest, resulting 850-880 Catalogue of Main Library lists, divided by subject, with 294 entries total of 426 titles. In addition there were a school and a church library, and private collections of books.

By the invasion of the Hungarians of 926 and the conflagration of 937 many manuscripts were lost. However big losses could be due to the Wiborada prevented. This had the Hungarian invasion predicted, so that the manuscripts were brought to the island of Reichenau in safety. Wiborada himself was killed by the Hungarians in their cell. As the first woman in the history of the Church in 1047, she was officially canonized by the Pope. It is considered today as patron of libraries and book lovers.

The Reformation also brought turmoil to 1529 the library no great sacrifice, as the reformer and mayor of the city, Joachim von Watt ( 1484-1551, called Vadian ) was aware of the value of the library as a humanist.

However, a number of manuscripts of high-level dignitaries were taken away over the centuries. The most significant losses suffered by the library in the Toggenburg 1712, when the victorious Zurich and Bernese troops led the monastery occupied and numerous manuscripts and printed by Zurich and Bern. The resulting therefrom "cultural property dispute " between St. Gallen and Zurich was settled in 2006 with a conciliation by the Federal Council. The copy produced under this agreement by the St. Galler globe is on display in the Abbey Library since 2009.

In 1805, two years after the founding canton, the Abbey of St. Gall was dissolved, which was one of the most important, most prosperous and most learned monasteries of the West to the last. The abbey library and the monastery archives were preserved in their original locations. The library went fully into the possession of the Catholic confessional part of the canton of St. Gallen.

Was raised that the Convent of St Gall in 1983 by UNESCO to the rank of world cultural heritage, is mainly due to the manuscript collection of the Abbey Library. Around 400 manuscripts of about 2100 are from the period before the year 1000, ie from the actual heyday of the monastery of St. Gall. Among them is, among other things, the oldest German book, called Abrogans. The Neumenhandschriften from this period, especially those from the Codex Sangallensis 359, have large for the restitution of Gregorian chant importance. The Abbey Library of St. Gallen is known also for its collection of early medieval Irish manuscripts, the largest of its kind on the European continent. Another important document of that time, which is still preserved in the Abbey Library, is the so -called " Carolingian monastery plan ." This ideal plan of a Carolingian monastery, have created two large Reichenau monks 819 He is the oldest surviving building plan in Europe from the Middle Ages.

An important document for the Germanistic Medieval Studies owns the Abbey Library with the so-called Nibelungen Manuscript B, the oldest manuscript collection of Middle High German courtly epic. The resulting around 1260 in the Alpine region manuscript contains known works such as Parsifal and the Willehalm the poet Wolfram von Eschenbach, the Nibelungenlied with the subsequent to the epic action as well as the Karl Knitter.

A special feature is the Egyptian mummy of Schepenese located since 1836 along with their sarcophagi owned by the library. Their life time is given by about 650-610 BC.

The library hall

The Books hall of the Abbey Library, elaborately decorated and well-balanced in its masses, is regarded as the most beautiful non- religious Baroque area of ​​Switzerland and one of the most perfect in its form library buildings in the world. The hall was built in 1758-1767 under the abbots Celestine II Gugger congestion roof and Beda Angehrn. About the portal flanked with columns of Baroque hall a cartouche containing the inscription in Greek ΨYXHΣ IATPEION, which freely translated " sanatorium of the soul " or " souls pharmacy » is. The hall is designed in the form of a wall fünfjochigen pillared hall. Halfway up is around the hall around a gallery. In length to bookcases and window niches change from wavy. The pillars are indented in the hall and reinforced at the corners with Corinthian decorative columns. Between such shallow pilasters and the books are barred in bookcases. Unique and worthy of protection the floor is made ​​of fir wood, in which four large stars and tendrils Schlingungen are embedded in walnut. The hall may be entered only with slippers that are provided at the entrance. The ornate interiors made ​​of wood, which have been prepared in the monastery's workshop, shapes the space and give it its quiet dignity. The ceiling is equipped with numerous ornate stucco and arched images. A part of the image sequence refers to the function of a monastery library. The largest images represent the first four ecumenical councils ( Nicea 325, Constantinople Opel 381, 431 Ephesus, Chalcedon 451). In the so-called lateral side caps Doctors of the Church are symbolically represented. Smaller grisaille paintings ( soft shades of gray ) show the scientific care of the monastery. Painting of the two builders Celestine Gugger (1740-1767) and Beda Angehrn (1767-1796) are mounted on the narrow sides of the hall in the amount of the gallery.

On construction involved were Peter Thumb, father and son, from Bezau in Vorarlberg as a builder; the stucco-work by the brothers Johann Georg and Matthias Gigl from Wessobrunn, the ceiling painting by Joseph When leaders from Tomerdingen; the woodwork were made ​​by Friar Gabriel Loser Wasserburg near Lindau and his staff.

The Abbey Library today

Today the Abbey Library of St. Gallen serves both as a museum with changing exhibitions a year in which they will be performing pieces of their manuscript and Inkunabelbestände other hand, it is still active lending library, which is open to all interested parties free to use. As a specialized library with a focus on medieval studies, Codicologie and palaeography it is used by researchers from around the world. It has approximately 170,000 books and other media, of which appeared after 1900 documents can be borrowed. In addition, the older printed books can be used in the reading room. The manuscripts and incunabula, however, can not be borrowed and also the inspection of the reading room is possible only in exceptional cases. However, to enable the reading and viewing of the manuscripts to a broader user base, the medieval and a selection of early modern manuscripts since 2002 as part of the " codices Electronici Sangallenses " project ( CESG ) will be digitized and made available through a virtual library is available since 2007. On 4 November 2010 398 digitized manuscripts were available.

List of pin librarians in St. Gallen

• Father Pius Kolb from Füssen ( 1712-1762 )
• Father Magnus Hungerbühler
• Johann Nepomuk Hauntinger (male librarian from 1780 to 1823 )
• Ildefonso von Arx (male librarian from 1823 to 1833 )
• Alois Fuchs ( pin librarian from 1833 to 1836 )
• Anton Henne (male librarian from 1855 to 1861 )
• Adolf Fäh (male librarian from 1892 to 1932 )
• Josef Müller ( pin librarian from 1933 to 1947 ) (see also Martin Vogt )
• John fragrance (male librarian from 1948 to 1981 )
• Peter Ochsenbein (male librarian from 1981 to 2000 )
• Ernst Tremp (male librarian from 2000 to October 2013)
• Cornel Dora (male librarian as of November 2013)