The ‘Liberey’ of Duke Ernst of Bavaria (1500-1560)

Abstract

Passionate pursuit of humanistic scholarship, religious controversy, and princely ambition conspired to create impressive book collections at numerous sixteenth-century German courts. Whether conceived as utilitarian repositories for scholars or polemicists, or as treasure to enhance the splendor of a prince's court in competition with his peers, most of these late Renaissance collections were to form the great territorial and national, public and university libraries of modern Germany. The present-day Bavarian State Library, in many respects a typical example, owes its origin to the magnificent book collection amassed by Duke Albrecht v during his reign (1550-1579). Outnumbered only by the imperial library in Vienna, Albrecht's collection of about 11,000 volumes was considered at the time of his death the second largest library in Germany.