Library interiors in Rosersberg Palace, Sweden (watercolours c. 1797)
Library designs by Erik Palmstedt (Swedish, 1741-1803)
Proposal for a Neoclassical library, by Axel Nyström (Swedish, 1793–1868)
Proposal for a Neclassical library, by Carl Fredrik Sundvall (Swedish, 1754-1831)
Design for a Neoclassical library, by Erik Palmstedt (Swedish, 1741-1803)
The Master of the Brussels Initials is the notname of an artist who decorated gorgeous illuminated manuscripts for royalty like Charles the Noble and the Duke of Berry - perhaps the most extravagant book collector ever to have lived.
This artist, active at the turn of the 14th to 15th century, is notable not only for making works of great beauty, and having an important role in the development of late Gothic art, but also for being a keen observer of nature. The small bug in this full-size miniature depicting the Annunciation, is perfectly identifiable as a firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus. In fact, G. Evelyn Hutchinson, the "father of modern ecology", wrote an entire fascinating article about the Master of the Brussels Initials and insects depicted by him, available here. He argued that this was more than a curiosity, it was an example of a development within manuscript decoration towards a more naturalistic world view, "part of the same movement that produced the contemporary studies of optics and mechanics in England, France and Germany" and which continued with the production of formal natural history treaties in the 16th century.
So, while it may not have been the only such seed, one impulse to the modest beginning which would eventually give us modern science could be said to be found in the beautiful decorations of medieval manuscripts.
One last bookplate which is so charming I have to provide some comments (See the other ones here, here and here.)
This is the bookplate (or ex libris) of German politician, lawyer and Enlightenment figure Johann Daniel von Olenschlager (1711-1778), It depicts an ideal of a library which is made clear already in the Latin motto inscribed in the elaborate, Rococo frame, which translated into something like “I wish to be both useful and to be of enjoyment.”
The depicted library room is an open loggia covered with a roomy vault. The side walls are entirely covered by bookshelves, giving that pleasant, comfortable impression of being lost in a sea of reading material. The floor, we may imagine, is a cool stone floor - because at the rear end, the loggia opens generously to a gorgeous Baroque garden. The shadows falling from the pillars to the left, the fountain trickling and the garland having from the roof to frame the entrance all give away a vague feeling of an eternal summer day. Pruned trees, a gravel path and a balustraded stair emanate an atmosphere of peace and order. Two figures move towards us from the garden; we can almost hear the bright voices of our friends approaching. In a few moments they will be with us, laughingly teasing us to finally drop our books and get out into the sunshine with them. I wouldn’t mind at all.
A third (see also here and here) very charming bookplate or ex libris (mark of book ownership) is this, the bookplate of Louis or Ludwig (or quite possibly Lodewijk) Bosch, priest in Temse, modern day-Belgium. It is from the first half of the 18th century.
The owner displays himself seated in an ornate but comfortable char by the table, covered in a thick, frilled tablecloth, and is busy jotting some recent thought or discovery down in a notebook. All around him are books. The walls are covered by bookshelves from floor to ceiling, bar the window behind the priest that gives light enough to read and write, and books are also on the table and even on the floor. The scene is framed in a Rococo-style frame, a bit pompous but also playful.
The Latin motto at the bottom translates into something like “a hunt in such a forest never wearies” - a phrase that will bring a smile to anyone who has ever had the pleasure of diving in after some faint trace from some fascinating subject in a well-equipped library, and making joyful new discoveries on the way.
Source: +
Another (see also my earlier post) very charming ex libris or bookplate is that of Georg Andreas Weise (1737-1792), a German theologian. Curiously, he was born in Astrakhan in Russia.
In any case, his bookplate captures much of the simple, dignified atmosphere of German Neoclassicism and Biedermeier style. It also indicates a serious relationship to books and learning, with the overfull stacks behind the plain but pleasant desk and not least the lit and shaded lamp. Here is the bookplate, it seems to say, of a man perhaps with limited means, but with a great thirst for knowledge and love of books, who would stay up late, reading and working hard, with only the sound of the quill against the paper impeding on that peaceful yet creative atmosphere.
Source: +
The library of Marienstatt cistercian monastery, Germany.
The library is considerably older than the current library building, constructed 1907-1909. It contains more than 100,000 volumes, of which 21,500 are considered historically important. Since 2017 the library is considered a nationally important cultural heritage.
Photos from the monastery webpage here.
Watercolour interior portaits of the library at Ditton Park, Berkshire, England. By Simon Jacques Rochard (?).
Part of the Buccleuch collection.
Osek monastery library, Czech Republic
”At the University of Coimbra in central Portugal, there are bats in the biblioteca. They swoop through the stacks, winging over a first-edition of Dionysius of Halicarnassus’s “Roman Antiquities” and past a 15th-century book of hours and Homer’s “Opera Omnia” — snapping up bugs as they go.”
The library in the seminary of Casale Monferrato, Italy, founded in 1738 by Bishop Pietro Gerolamo Caravadossi.
Picture source: +
Source: comune.casale-monferrato.al.it
The library of the Seminario Santa Catalina in Mondoñedo (Spain) contains around 30,000 volumes, including 22 incunables.
Photos by Paco Gisbert and Ana Mary Aliaga