GREAT ROCOCO LIBRARIES

I have written extensively about the magnificent Rococo Churches and secular buildings, particularly in Central and Eastern Europe, and about the wonderful Rococo artistic collections in England. I have neglected a description of one of the most spectacular types of buildings – the Rococo Library.

The State Hall, National Library, Vienna

The template for Rococo libraries is the secular National Library in Vienna, part of the huge Hofburg Palace, home of the Habsburgs. It was completed in 1721 by the favourite court architect J.B Fischer v Erlach and is a riot of frescoes, heroic statues and rich ornamentation.

The imperial example was followed by a succession of Austrian and South German Abbeys who expended great treasure on their ecclesiastical libraries. We would expect fine libraries at Melk and at Ottobeuren but others are in remoter places. An example is Benedictine Altenburg in Lower Austria, built in 1740 by Joseph Munggenast, with frescoes by Paul Troger.

Altenburg Abbey Library, Austria

The frescoes depict the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of God and the Light of Faith. All this makes me uneasy. Rococo is an aristocratic style which in secular buildings celebrates Joy and Life: in religious buildings it is emotionally devotional and transcendental. These libraries were meant for learned monks, novices and theological students. Our modern concept of a Library as a place where sources of knowledge are to be found and promoted was not current in the 18^th century although gradually modern scientific books were added to the collections. We may doubt that Newton, Locke, Diderot or Voltaire adorned the revered shelves, let alone later Darwin!

Similar to Altenburg is Schussenried, a Premonstratensian monastery in Upper Swabia, with a library by the famed architect Dominicus Zimmerman in 1763.

Schussenried Abbey Library, Upper Swabia, Germany

Fresco of Divine Wisdom, Schussenried

The Library is magnificent but it is clearly an ultra-Catholic building with a fine fresco of the workings of Divine Wisdom and statues of 8 False Teachers arrayed against 8 True Teachers, elegant 18^th century propaganda.

Wiblingen, near Ulm, in Baden on the Danube, is another fabulous and huge Abbey with a memorable Library by Christian Wiedemann from 1730 assisted by the creator of Ottobeuren J.M Fischer. It was a Benedictine Abbey, later secularised by Napoleon, and much of the Abbey is now the medical faculty of Ulm University. Again the Library is a stately Rococo confection, hugely enhanced by elegant statues and painted ceilings.

Wiblingen Abbey library

The final German library is Waldsassen Abbey’s, a Cistercian outpost in Bavaria built in 1726, with carving by Karl Stilp. 

The Library at Waldsassen with its limewood carving

This idiosyncratic Library features carved limewood grotesques depicting vices like Vanity, Ignorance and Boastfulness.

A Grotesque from Waldsassen

From the same Rococo period we find the sumptuous Library at St Gallen Abbey, Switzerland, the work of the Austrian architect Peter Thumb. The abbey was dissolved in 1805 but its very valuable collection of rare books was preserved.

St Gallen Abbey Library, Switzerland

Moving outside the wholly German-speaking world, we find the restrained and historic Rococo library at Rolduc in the Netherlands, famous in its time as a centre of Catholic learning, in an area rent by sectarian divisions. 

The Library at Rolduc, Netherlands

Much larger and more significant was Strahov Abbey, Prague in former Bohemia and the modern Czech Republic. This vast abbey has one of the finest of libraries, with the Rococo Theological Hall of 1720 complementing the later Neo-classical Philosophical Hall of 1779. Beautiful ceilings and frescoes give light and lustre to this ravishing place.

Strahov Abbey Library, Prague

My final library is in Austria and is said to be the largest monastic library in the world. This is Admont Library attached to the Benedictine Abbey and completed by the architect Joseph Huebst in 1776.

It is totally splendid and its Rococo design and decoration are matchless. Yet just think how the world was in 1776. The United States had declared its Independence in stirring and unforgettable language: Britain was well into its Industrial Revolution eventually enriching its citizens beyond their wildest dreams. The whole world was changing quickly and old ideas were being overthrown in the Age of Reason.

We would revere these lovely Rococo Libraries so much more if those who studied there were in the vanguard of the new knowledge and its science. But the fact is their denizens were largely fortresses of reaction and resistance to change, last-ditch defenders of a world soon to be swept away. 

Enjoy their breath-taking beauty and their uplifting architecture and draw a discreet veil over their historic negativity.

The Library at Admont Abbey, an anachronism by 1776

SMD

20.10.13

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2013