Austrian National Library

The Austrian National Library in Vienna is the Republic of Austria’s principal scientific library that is open to the public.The historical collections and administration are accessible from the adjoining Josefsplatz, which is housed in the Neue Burg am Heldenplatz.Other departments can be found throughout the Hofburg and at the Palais Mollard-Clary on Herrengasse.The Federal Chancellery is the Austrian National Library’s responsible supervising authority.

As a national library, it gathers, among other things, all printed content published or created in Austria.All dissertations authorized by Austrian universities are included.Legal deposits have been collected on electronic media since July 2000.Historical newspapers and periodicals are also being digitised and made available online as part of the ANNO initiative.

From 1867 in Austria-Hungary, the library was one of the most extensive universal libraries in the world as the Vienna Court Library until the conclusion of World War I.Today, the collection’s emphasis is on the humanities.

The Austrian National Library, as a federal museum, also includes five special offerings: the State Hall, the Papyrus Museum, the Globe Museum, the Esperanto Museum, and the Literature Museum of the Austrian National Library in the listed former Imperial and Royal Court Chamber Archives at Johannesgasse 6 in Vienna’s 1st district.

Location and building

The Austrian National Library is located in the Hofburg neighborhood of Vienna.The ancient entrance was on Josefsplatz, whereas the modern entrance to the reading room in the Neue Burg is on Heldenplatz.

The state hall was the first structure created expressly for the court library; previously, the volumes were kept in the Minorite monastery.Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach began construction in 1723 and his son Joseph Emanuel finished it following his death in 1726.Lorenzo Mattielli created the sculptures on the structure.The state hall is separated into a war and a peace side, which is mirrored in the frescoes, according to the original layout of the books.Daniel Gran created these.The central dome fresco shows Charles VI’s apotheosis, which carried the figure of Hercules and Apollo.In a sophisticated program, several allegorical characters are assembled around the emperor’s portrait to represent the virtues of the Habsburgs and the prosperity of their kingdoms.Emperor sculptures by Peter and Paul Strudel and four globes by Vincenzo Coronelli can be found in the court library building.Antonio Corradini sculpted the major statue of Charles VI as Roman-German Emperor in the State Hall in 1735.

Under Maria Theresa, cracks in the dome were already obvious, so court architect Nikolaus Pacassi strengthened it with an iron ring.Franz Anton Maulbertsch repaired the Gran ceiling fresco (where a remnant of a fissure may still be observed).At the same time, the wings that join the library to the Hofburg and the Augustinian Church, forming the Josefsplatz, were constructed.

Collections

The gathering and archiving of all publications occurring in Austria (including electronic media) is one of the Austrian National Library’s key objectives. Depending on the medium, four copies must be supplied to the National Library by periodic printing elements appearing in Austria, and by other printing elements, two obligation copies each.

Furthermore, the library gathers all works by Austrian authors published abroad, as well as works on Austrians or the Austrian spirit and culture. Additional international publications are accepted, with an emphasis on the spectrum of the Geisteswissenschaften. The national library’s tasks and services include the development of its existence and its supply in the form of local-loan, remote-loan, and search services, as well as Auskunfts, information, and reproduction services.

Cooperation between universities, schools, and adult education systems ensures that the legally mandated general order for education is followed.

The library comprises around seven million artifacts in total, nearly three million of which are printed.

Map Collection and Globe Museum

The map collection has been in existence since 1906, but the maps have been in the imperial royal library since the 16th century.Following the First World War, the Habsburg collection, known as the Habsburg Family Fideikommiss Library, was also taken over.

The world’s only Globe Museum, which includes 695 globes and other celestial instruments, is attached to the map collection.It has been in operation since 1956 and is presently housed in the Palais Mollard-Clary on Herrengasse.Stocks, on the other hand, have been around since the 16th century.The majority of the globes were manufactured before 1850.The collection includes pertinent expert literature.

Papyrus Collection and Papyrus Museum

With the papyrus collection, an important sub-collection of the library was established at the court library around the end of the nineteenth century.The collection dates back to Archduke Rainer’s private collection.On August 18, 1899, he submitted it to Emperor Franz Joseph I, requesting that the collection be assigned to the palace library.

The papyrus collection has around 180,000 artifacts dating from the 15th century BC to the 13th century AD. Papers, clay tablets, engraved wooden and wax tablets, stone tablets, leather, textiles, and bones, as well as gold, silver, and bronze artifacts with inscriptions, round out the collection.This makes the National Library’s papyrus collection one of the world’s largest.

Music collection

The music collection was not founded, but rather developed through time as a particular collection within the holdings of the erstwhile Imperial and Royal Court Library.It includes several scores and first editions of works by well-known composers including Anton Bruckner and Richard Strauss.The purchase of Albert Fugger’s library provided the court library with priceless pieces of music.Gottfried van Swieten is also quite important. From 1777 until 1803, he served as library prefect and was a tireless promoter of musical affairs.

The acquisition of the former properties of the court band was a crucial increase in 1826.The Austrian National Library’s music collection is both the largest music archive in Austria and a modern academic library.Music manuscripts and prints, librettos for operas and vocal pieces, sound recordings, musicological literature, and the estates of notable Austrian composers are all part of the collection.The collection was relocated to Palais Mollard-Clary (Vienna 1st, Herrengasse 9) in 2005.

Collection of manuscripts and old prints

The “Manuscripts, Autographs, and Bequest Collection” and the “Collection of Incunabula, old and valuable prints” were united in April 2008, and their collection holdings can now be viewed in the Augustiner reading room.The collection comprises incunabula, printed matter dating from 1501 to 1850 and beyond, as well as rare and expensive prints with no chronological constraints.Among the most precious antique prints are the nearly 8,000 incunabula (the world’s fourth greatest collection).The collection contains around one-fifth of all books produced in the 15th century, making it the world’s fifth-largest historical publishing organization.In addition to the world’s most important manuscript collection (such as the Fugger newspapers), the Austrian National Library’s manuscript collection also holds several signatures and estates.The collection of bindings and the library’s Sinica and Japonica holdings enhance the collection of manuscripts and antique prints.

Image archive and graphics collection

The Austrian National Library’s picture archive is the largest photo documentation center in Austria, with around two million artifacts from a wide range of historical media forms.It also houses the old House of Habsburg-Lorraine royal library, which was handed to the Republic of Austria in 1921 and integrated into the National Library.It includes, for example, books by Empress Maria Ludovika Beatrix of Austria-Este, wife of Franz I, who was counseled on the acquisition of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s writings.

The graphics collection contains almost 600,000 prints, watercolours, sketches, and art items.Portraits of members of the House of Habsburg, graphic bundles with historical, geographical, and natural history representations, and bookplates from the 16th to the 20th centuries are the major emphasis of the graphic holdings.Topographical and architectural photography, modern history, portrait photography, theater photography, and Austrian posters are also featured in the picture documentation.

Literature archive

The Austrian National Library’s literary archive gathers literary bequests and legacies of Austrian authors of the twentieth century, particularly since 1945, and makes them available for scientific study.It manages stocks on Günther Anders, Erich Fried, Egon Friedell, Peter Handke, dön von Horváth, Ernst Jandl, Alfred Kolleritsch, Robert Menasse, Andreas Okopenko, Heidi Pataki, Elisabeth Reichart, Margit Schreiner, Manès Sperber, Hilde Spiel, Thomas Bernhard, and Dorothea Zeemann.The material conservation and preservation of the records is inextricably related to the archive’s continuing research and publication operations.Exhibitions, readings, scientific conferences, and “archive talks” are held twice a year to support it.

Collection for Planned Languages and Esperanto Museum

The planned languages collection holds the world’s biggest specialty library for interlinguistics.There are over 500 proposed languages, the most prominent of which being Esperanto and Interlingua.The collection focuses on the planned language Esperanto, which was created in 1887 by the Polish ophthalmologist Ludwik Lejzer Zamenhof and has now evolved into a full language spoken by several million people.The collection also houses numerous significant estates and legacies, such as those of Eugen Wüster, the creator of international terminology work, and Catalan-Portuguese writer Manuel de Seabra.The Austrian National Library’s Esperanto Museum is attached to the collection and tells visitors about the dramatic history of Esperanto.

Archive of the Austrian Folk Song Works

The Austrian Folk Song Works archive was given to the Austrian National Library in 1994 and has documentation of musical, lyrical, and dance expressions.In addition to handwritten notes on texts and melodies, the library offers Austria’s greatest collection of printed books on folk songs, folk music, folk dance, and folk poetry.The collection of audio materials includes shellacs, LPs, tapes and cassettes, as well as digital tapes and CDs.The content is completed with image papers and song booklets.The collection is held at the Austriaisches Volksliedwerk’s chambers.

Vienna, Austria