(about 100,000 vols.) after that at Berlin. Alsace-Lorraine has the most recently formed of the great German collections—the Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek at Strassburg, which, though founded only in 1871 to replace that which had been destroyed in the siege, already ranks amongst the largest libraries of the empire. Its books amount to 922,000 vols., the number of MSS. is 5900.
The Adressbuch der Bibliotheken der Oesterreich-ungarischen Monarchie by Bohatta and Holzmann (1900) describes 1014 libraries in Austria, 656 in Hungary, and 23 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Included in this list, however, are private lending Austria. libraries.
The largest library in Austria, and one of the most important collections in Europe, is the Imperial Public Library at Vienna, apparently founded by the emperor Frederick III. in 1440, although its illustrious librarian Lambecius, in the well-known inscription over the entrance to the library which summarizes its history attributes this honour to Frederick’s son Maximilian. However this may be, the munificence of succeeding emperors greatly added to the wealth of the collection, including a not inconsiderable portion of the dispersed library of Corvinus. Since 1808 the library has also been entitled to the copy-privilege in respect of all books published in the empire. The sum devoted to the purchase and binding of books is £6068 annually. The number of printed vols. is 1,000,000; 8000 incunabula. The MSS. amount to 27,000, with 100,000 papyri of the collection of Archduke Rainer. The main library apartment is one of the most splendid halls in Europe. Admission to the reading-room is free to everybody, and books are also lent out under stricter limitations. The University Library of Vienna was established by Maria Theresa. The reading-room is open to all comers, and the library is open from 1st Oct. to 30th June from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; in the other months for shorter hours. In 1909 447,391 vols. were used in the library, 45,000 vols. lent out in Vienna, and 6519 vols. sent carriage free to borrowers outside Vienna. The number of printed vols. is 757,000. For the purchase of books and binding the Vienna University Library has annually 60,000 crowns from the state as well as 44,000 crowns from matriculation fees and contributions from the students.
The total number of libraries in Vienna enumerated by Bohatta and Holzmann is 165, and many of them are of considerable extent. One of the oldest and most important libraries of the monarchy is the University Library at Cracow, with 380,000 vols. and 8169 MSS.
The number of monastic libraries in Austria is very considerable. They possess altogether more than 2,500,000 printed vols., 25,000 incunabula and 25,000 MSS. The oldest of them, and the oldest in Austria, is that of the monastery of St Peter at Salzburg, which was established by Archbishop Arno (785–821). It includes 70,000 vols., nearly 1500 incunabula. The three next in point of antiquity are Kremsmünster (100,000), Admont (86,000) and Melk (70,000), all of them dating from the 11th century. Many of the librarians of these monastic libraries are trained in the great Vienna libraries. There is no official training as in Prussia and Bavaria.
Information about income, administration, accessions, &c., of the chief libraries in the Hungarian kingdom, are given in the Hungarian Statistical Year Book annually. The largest library in Hungary is the Széchenyi-Nationalbibliothek at Budapest, founded in 1802 by the gift of the library of Count Hungary. Franz Széchenyi. It contains 400,000 printed vols., 16,000 MSS., and has a remarkable collection of Hungarica. The University Library of Budapest includes 273,000 printed books and more than 2000 MSS. Since 1897 there has been in Hungary a Chief Inspector of Museums and Libraries whose duty is to watch all public museums and libraries which are administered by committees, municipalities, religious bodies and societies. He also has undertaken the task of organizing a general catalogue of all the MSS. and early printed books in Hungary.
The libraries of the monasteries and other institutions of the Catholic Church are many in number but not so numerous as in Austria. The chief among them, the library of the Benedictines at St Martinsberg, is the central library of the order in Hungary and contains nearly 170,000 vols. It was reconstituted in 1802 after the re-establishment of the order. The principal treasures of this abbey (11th century) were, on the secularization of the monasteries under Joseph II., distributed among the state libraries in Budapest.
Among the Swiss libraries, which numbered 2096 in 1868, there is none of the first rank. Only three possess over 200,000 vols.—the University Library at Basle founded in 1460, the Cantonal Library at Lausanne, and the Stadtbibliothek at Berne, which since 1905 is united to the University Switzerland. Library of that city. One great advantage of the Swiss libraries is that they nearly all possess printed catalogues, which greatly further the plan of compiling a great general catalogue of all the libraries of the republic. A valuable co-operative work is their treatment of Helvetiana. All the literature since 1848 is collected by the Landes-Bibliothek at Berne, established in 1895 for this special object. The older literature is brought together in the Bürgerbibliothek at Lucerne, for which it has a government grant. The monastic libraries of St Gall and Einsiedeln date respectively from the years 830 and 946, and are of great historical and literary interest.
Authorities.—Information has been supplied for this account by Professor Dr A. Hortzschansky, librarian of the Royal Library, Berlin. See also Adressbuch der deutschen Bibliotheken by Paul Schwenke (Leipzig, 1893); Jahrbuch der deutschen Bibliotheken (Leipzig, 1902–1910); Berliner Bibliothekenführer, by P. Schwenke and A. Hortzschansky (Berlin, 1906); A. Hortzschansky, Die K. Bibliothek zu Berlin (Berlin, 1908); Ed. Zarncke, Leipziger Bibliothekenführer (Leipzig, 1909); J. Bohatta and M. Holzmann, Adressbuch der Bibliotheken der österreich-ungarischen Monarchie (Vienna, 1900); Ri. Kukula, Die österreichischen Studienbibliotheken (1905); A. Hübl, Die österreichischen Klosterbibliotheken in den Jahren 1848–1908 (1908); P. Gulyas, Das ungarische Oberinspektorat der Museen und Bibliotheken (1909); Die über 10,000 Bände zählenden öffentlichen-Bibliotheken Ungarns, im Jahre 1908 (Budapest, 1910); H. Escher, “Bibliothekswesen” in Handbuch der Schweizer Volkswirtschaft, vol. i. (1903).
Italy.
As the former centre of civilization, Italy is, of course, the country in which the oldest existing libraries must be looked for, and in which the rarest and most valuable MSS. are preserved. The Vatican at Rome and the Laurentian Library at Florence are sufficient in themselves to entitle Italy to rank before most other states in that respect, and the venerable relics at Vercelli, Monte Cassino and La Cava bear witness to the enlightenment of the peninsula while other nations were slowly taking their places in the circle of Christian polity. The local rights and interests which so long helped to impede the unification of Italy were useful in creating and preserving at numerous minor centres many libraries which otherwise would probably have been lost during the progress of absorption that results from such centralization as exists in England. In spite of long centuries of suffering and of the aggression of foreign swords and foreign gold, Italy is still rich in books and MSS. The latest official statistics (1896) give particulars of 1831 libraries, of which 419 are provincial and communal. In 1893 there were 542 libraries of a popular character and including circulating libraries.
The governmental libraries (biblioteche governative) number 36 and are under the authority of the minister of public instruction. The Regolamento controlling them was issued in the Bolletino Ufficiale, 5 Dec. 1907. They consist of the national central libraries of Rome (Vittorio Emanuele) and Governmental libraries. Florence, of the national libraries of Milan (Braidense), Naples, Palermo, Turin and Venice (Marciana); the Biblioteca governativa at Cremona; the Marucelliana, the Mediceo-Laurenziana and the Riccardiana at Florence; the governativa at Lucca; the Estense at Modena; the Brancacciana and that of San Giacomo at Naples; the Palatina at Parma; the Angelica, the Casanatense, and the Lancisiana at Rome; the university libraries of Bologna, Cagliari, Catania, Genoa, Messina, Modena, Naples, Padua, Pavia, Pisa, Rome and Sassari; the Ventimiliana at Catania (joined to the university library for administrative purposes); the Vallicelliana and the musical library of the R. Accad. of St Cecilia at Rome; the musical section of the Palatine at Parma; and the Lucchesi-Palli (added to the national library at Naples). There are provisions whereby small collections can be united to larger libraries in the same place and where there are several government libraries in one city a kind of corporate administration can be arranged. The libraries belonging to bodies concerned with higher education, to the royal scientific and literary academies, fine art galleries, museums and scholastic institutions are ruled by special regulations. The minister of public instruction is assisted by a technical board.
