Everything about The Bibliotheca Palatina totally explained
The
Bibliotheca Palatina ("
Palatinate library") of
Heidelberg was the most important library of the
German Renaissance, numbering approximately 5,000 printed books and 3,524
manuscripts.
In the 1430s, Elector
Louis III founded the
Stiftsbibliothek in the
Heiliggeistkirche, which had good light for reading. This library formed the core of the Palatine Collection established by Elector
Ottheinrich in the 1550s, together with the
Heidelberg University library. Essential manuscripts from the original Bibliotheca Palatina include the Carolingian "
Lorsch Evangelary", the
Falkenbuch (
De arte venandi cum avibus, cpl 1071), commissioned by
Frederick II, and the
Codex Manesse (cpg 848)
Further important manuscripts were acquired from the collection of
Ulrich Fugger (d. 1584), notably the illustrated
Sachsenspiegel (cpg 164).
Joseph Scaliger considered this
Fugger Library superior to that owned by the Pope; the manuscripts alone were valued at 80,000 crowns, which was a very considerable sum for the 16th century.
The Palatinate suffered heavily in the
Thirty Years War, and in 1622 Heidelberg was sacked by the
Catholic League, whose leader
Count von Tilly was in the employ of
Maximilian of Bavaria. Although many books were torn or "dispersed among private hands". The books were transported across the Alps to Rome on 200 mules under the supervision of scholar
Leo Allatius.
Since 1623, the entire library has been incorporated into the
Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, with each volume preserving, as a memorial, a leaf with the
Wittelsbach arms.
By the
Treaty of Tolentino (1797), the Pope ceded 37 manuscripts to the
French Republic which had them deposited in the
Bibliothèque nationale,
Paris. After the
Vienna Congress decreed "the general restoration of works of art, of which the French had robbed other countries"
, the contested manuscripts were conveyed from Paris to Heidelberg, rather than to Rome.
In 1816,
Prince Hardenberg and
Ignaz Heinrich von Wessenberg persuaded
Pope Pius VII to make a gift of 852 MSS (mostly in the German language) to the University of Heidelberg. For the University Jubilee, some other books were brought back from Vatican to be displayed at the Heiliggeistkirche.
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