Martinus Library

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Entrance of the Arnsburger Hof

The Martinus Library (lat. Bibliotheca Sancti Martini Moguntina ), formerly the library of the Episcopal Seminary , in the Arnsburger Hof in the old town of Mainz is the public scientific diocesan library in the seminary of the Diocese of Mainz . It is stocked with around 300,000 volumes and 200 periodicals. There are also 900 incunabula and 120 manuscripts dating back to the 9th century. It is one of the largest public special libraries for philosophy and theology as well as the location for the history of the (arch) diocese of Mainz , source editions and church history , especially that of the Mainz area. The Martinus Library, with its 350-year history, and the Mainz City Library are the two oldest libraries in Mainz.

history

The history of the library and thus also of the collection goes back to the second half of the 17th century, when Archbishop Elector Johann Philipp von Schönborn set up his own library on November 8, 1662 for the Mainz seminary that he built. After the Mainz City Library as the municipal successor to the old university library founded in 1477, the seminary library is the oldest library in the city of Mainz . The base of the book was the dean of the cathedral, Johann von Heppenheim, called vom Saal , the elector's grand cousin. In 1804 the collection was dissolved by the French. The current library has existed again since 1805.

In 1968 the seminary was spun off as an independent diocesan library and, at the same time, the company moved to its own building in the immediate vicinity: the Arnsburger Hof in Grebenstrasse. Since January 1st, 2000, the previous "Library of the Episcopal Seminary" has been named after the diocese patron St. Martin. Long-standing academic library director is Helmut Hinkel.

Special collections

The stock could be saved over all wars. It also came about through a number of particularly valuable bequests. The library underwent a significant expansion of the collection in 1862 when the widow of the Frankfurt patrician Johann Friedrich Heinrich Schlosser (1780–1851), a relative of Johann Georg Schlosser , bequeathed the 35,000 volumes of Schlosser's library to Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler . This originally came partly from the Neuburg Abbey near Heidelberg, another part consists of a collection of all literature from Goethe's time. Schlosser was a distant relative of Goethe and was won over to the Catholic faith by Klemens Maria Hofbauer (1751-1820). Other original editions, especially of German literature from the 16th to 19th centuries, round off the collection.

In its early years the library acquired a considerable part of its holdings through the seminarians. Studying theology was free - in return, students from well-to-do families had to commit to leaving their books in the seminary library.

Rara

Page from Bernhard von Breidenbach's travel book : Sanctae peregrinationes , illustrated and printed in Mainz by Erhard Reuwich , February 11, 1486

A sacramentary from the end of the 9th century from the so-called Mainz writing room of the St. Alban Abbey near Mainz (Mainz, seminary, Ms. I (saec. IXex)) is one of the rarities in the Martinus Library. It is 100 years older than the Mainz Cathedral . The book lay in the attic of the Gotthard Chapel for about 500 years. About 120 calves had to leave their skin for the parchment of the book. The colors for the initials and lines of colored capital letters were mixed from ground gemstones. One side alone, the “purple leaf”, already had a relative value “of three farms” during production.

There is also an extensive Judaica collection, Peter Schöffer's “ Cronecken der Sassen ”, various first editions by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe , the first translation of the Koran from 1746, a travel guide from 1519 and a Bible translation from 1483 that was written before Luther .

One of the few copies of the illustrated travelogue that Bernhard von Breidenbach published about his pilgrimage to the Holy Land and that was published by Erhard Reuwich in Mainz in 1486 is also in the library. In this incunable the form of the leporello was used for the first time in the history of printing . Along with the Gutenberg Bible, it is one of the most beautiful Mainz incunabula.

A Carolingian manuscript, which was used as waste to reinforce a book cover , is currently being removed from the cover in the Gutenberg Museum . Four pages of Augustine's writing are expected. This would add a rarity to the manuscript holdings in the Martinus Library. Because they were written in the 8th or even 7th century. It has not yet been clarified whether these are Carolingian minuscules .

In 2007 a well-preserved manuscript of a Jewish Purim game from 1751 was rediscovered in the archive . Purim games were usually only passed on orally and very rarely written down, which is why the manuscript is an example of the lively Ashkenazi life in the 18th century and of the variety of theater forms in this time, as well as of the beginning of the Jewish Enlightenment in the period of 1770 until 1880.

Arnsburger Hof

Building front in the old town of Mainz (Grebenstrasse)

The Arnsburger Hof in Grebenstrasse served primarily as the town courtyard of the Arnsburg Monastery in the city for economic and ecclesiastical purposes. Since the dissolution of the monastery in 1803, the building has been used alternately.

The warehouse of the Martinus Library extends over five floors. There is also a treasure chamber underneath, which keeps the rarity at a constant 18 degrees room temperature and 60 percent humidity. The reading room of the Martinus Library offers 20 workstations. A striking oak gate forms the entrance to the courtyard or the library.

Exhibitions

  • 2014/2015: Ramon Llull - from the medieval handwriting of a universal genius to the splendid baroque Mainz edition .

literature

  • Anton Philipp Brück : From the history of the library of the Episcopal Seminary in Mainz . In: Klaus Reinhardt (Red.): Augustinerstraße 34. 175 years of the Episcopal Seminary in Mainz . Mainz n.d. [1980], pp. 379-390.
  • Helmut Hinkel: Goethe cult and Catholic romanticism. Fritz Schlosser (1780-1851) , (New Yearbook for the Diocese of Mainz, special volume 2001/2002, edited by Barbara Nonweiß ). Verlag Philipp von Zabern , Mainz 2002, ISBN 3-934450-07-5 or ISBN 3-8053-2838-9 .
  • Helmut Hinkel (ed.): Nibelungen Schnipsel. News from the old epic between Mainz and Worms , (New Yearbook for the Diocese of Mainz 2004). Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-8053-3303-X [essay volume created on the occasion of the discovery of fragments of the Nibelungenlied manuscript L in the Martinus library].
  • Helmut Hinkel (ed.): The seminar. 200 years of the Mainz seminary in Augustinerstraße and prospects for priest training today , published on behalf of the seminary. Publications Diocese of Mainz, Mainz 2005, ISBN 3-934450-23-7 .
  • "... to the ends of the world". The Society of Jesus and World Mission. Cabinet exhibition from the holdings of the Martinus Library Mainz (...) (From the Martinus Library, issue 5). Martinus Library Mainz, Mainz 2006.
  • Helmut Hinkel (ed.): Friedrich Schneider . A Mainz cultural prelate 1836–1907 , (New Yearbook for the Diocese of Mainz 2008). Publications Diocese of Mainz, Mainz 2008, ISBN 978-3-934450-34-9 .
  • Joachim Glatz: Dom in the book - book in the cathedral. The Mainz bishop's church and the books (from the Martinus library, issue 7). Publications Diocese of Mainz, Mainz 2009, ISBN 978-3-934450-42-4 . [Book accompanying the cabinet exhibition in the Martinus Library from September 9 to November 13, 2009].
  • Helmut Hinkel (ed.): Anton Ph. Brück. Commemorative sheets for the 25th anniversary of death . (From the Martinus library, booklet 8). Martinus Library Mainz, Mainz 2010.
  • Sabine Gruber, Ralph Zade: “From Babylon to Jerusalem”. The writer Ida Hahn-Hahn (1805–1880) (Mainzer Perspektiven: From the history of the diocese, vol. 6). Publications Diocese Mainz, Mainz 2011, ISBN 978-3-934450-52-3 [Accompanying publication for the cabinet exhibition in the Martinus Library from October 28 to February 17, 2012 as a contribution to the 200th birthday (December 28, 1811) by Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler ].
  • Jürgen Blänsdorf (ed.): The library found again. Ancient and medieval authors in parchment fragments from the Martinus Library in Mainz (from the Martinus Library, No. 9). Martinus Library Mainz, Mainz 2012, ISBN 978-3-934450-54-7 .
  • Helmut Hinkel (ed.): Bibliotheca S. Martini Moguntina. Old Books - New Finds , (New Yearbook for the Diocese of Mainz 2012). Publications Diocese Mainz / Echter Verlag, Mainz / Würzburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-934450-56-1 / ISBN 978-3-429-03569-3 [Comprehensive commemorative publication on the 350th anniversary of the Martinus Library with articles on the book inventory, the medieval manuscripts, the book history of important works as well as the Arnsburger Hof and the seminary including a greeting from Karl Cardinal Lehmann u. a. and lecture by Kurt Flasch ]
  • Helmut Hinkel (ed.): With dance and violin playing. The Mainz miniatures from “Christ and the mincing soul” . (New yearbook for the diocese of Mainz 2013). Publications Diocese Mainz / Echter Verlag, Mainz / Würzburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-934450-58-5 / ISBN 978-3-429-03677-5 .
  • Helmut Hinkel: Fides Moguntina - Studies on Mainz Church History . Nünnerich-Asmus Verlag, Mainz 2013, ISBN 978-3-943904-34-5 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the diocese of Mainz on Domdean Johann von Heppenheim, named by the hall
  2. ↑ Eric Palazzo: Les sacramentaires de Fulda. Étude sur l'iconographie et la liturgie à l'époche ottonienne (Liturgical scientific sources and research. Publications of the Abbot Herwegen Institute of the Abbey of Maria Laach 77). Aschendorff, Münster 1994, p. 226f.
  3. ↑ Josef Bamberger, “'Le-Haman' - A Purim Game from Frankfurt. Edition, Commentary and Analysis “Yiddistik Mitteilungen, 40 (2008), pp. 7–12.
  4. ↑ Manuscript with a Jewish game of Purim rediscovered in the Martinus Library in Mainz
  5. ^ In the footsteps of Ramon Llull in FAZ of October 21, 2014, page 42

Web links

Commons : Martinus Library Mainz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 49 ° 59 ′ 51.9 ″  N , 8 ° 16 ′ 28.6 ″  E