Places for Books: Monastic Libraries of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries in South Germany

The dissertation explores the relation between the form of the monastic library and its function as both a place for storing and displaying books and a significant element in the self-definition and self-presentation of the landed abbeys in the southern German-speaking regions of the Holy Roman Empire. Examination of library treatises and earlier, primarily Italian traditions of library design establishes an important relation between the use of wall cases and book classification schemes designed to transform the library into a tool for the use and understanding of the knowledge contained in its books. Library and architectural treatises describe how the room should be positioned and constructed to protect its contents from natural and human hazards. While scholarship was of vital importance to the Old Orders (Benedictines, Cistercians, Canons regular and Premonstratensians), its role in monastic life was not universally accepted within the Orders, nor taken seriously by lay society. Large and magnificently decorated libraries thus became a means to demonstrate an active and productive commitment to scholarship in the service of monastic discipline and Church doctrine. As a major element of the monastery complex, the library was built and decorated according to contemporary conventions for the visual and iconographic unity of decoration with the form and function of important rooms. Well-documented building histories show the care taken in the design of the libraries and the steps by which they were constructed and decorated. A survey of the library rooms and their furnishings shows how the above needs were fulfilled within the rigidly regular plan of the monastery complexes. It also traces the growing importance of ancillary spaces for special book collections and for the "scientific" collections considered essential for a complete library. A survey of the programs for decoration in fresco and sculpture examines the strategies employed to define the nature and goals of monastic scholarship. Letters from the architects of two libraries to their patrons and a summary catalogue of the monuments are appended.