Xylotheque

A wooden library or Xylothek (from Greek ξύλον xylon, wood ' and θήκη counter, storage place ') is a collection of wood and other components of various tree species. The individual exhibits are designed here in the form of books.

Wooden book

A box consisting of the wood of the tree, inside it contains other ingredients such as dried leaves and fruits. The narrow side of the box is glued and labeled in the form of a spine with the bark of the tree.

History

While herbaria were made in the Middle Ages, appeared wood collections until the 18th century, under the name Wooden Cabinet (based on the then- kind cabinets ). While these things were initially purely as a collection of objects, you went from increasingly systematic under the influence of the Enlightenment and the taxonomy of Linnaeus. From the idea of ​​wood and plant to present as a whole, erected in the late 18th century, the timber libraries. For these to be a contemporary document about the state and the perception of forests.

Examples of timber libraries

• The Schildbach Wood Library in Ottoneum in Kassel was created 1771-1799 by Carl Schildbach and includes 530 volumes. It is considered the first wooden library at all and is unsurpassed in detail and scope, as a model, she served in the following years many natural history collections. The selection of objects resulted from the consideration: " collection of wood species, Hessen Country of nature produces ."
• Hohenheim wood library now consists of 189 books, which are divided on a linguistic older A-Series ( 44 volumes ) and a more modern language, apparently a little younger B- series (145 volumes).
• Ebersberg Wood Library, created by Candid Huber (1747-1813), a Benedictine monk from the monastery Niederaltaich. It is now on display in the Museum Ebersberg Forest and Environment. More about 130 books from Huber's work can be found in the library of the Cistercian Abbey of Lilienfeld in Austria.
• Wood Library at Castle Guttenberg, 93 volumes.
• In the Museum of the Forest Research beings in the former Academy of Forestry Mariabrunn, Vienna, Austria there is a Xylothek of the most important tree species in Austria and a collection of around 1,500 tree species.