#baroque library

It was magical !

Baroque Library at Clementinum

Kloster Metter (Metten Abbey) Baroque Library, Bavaria, Germany.

Also known as Michel’s Abbey, this Benedictine monastery was first built around 766 by Gamelbert of Michaelsbuch, a Christian priest. The monks were very active in education, members of the abbey were not only schoolteachers, but also members of the Bavarian Academy of Science in Munich and professors of philosophy and theology in Freising and Salzburg. There is evidence of a small and personal library first developed around the 1260s, which was then built up and expanded over the years. A writing room was added at the start of the 1500s and the Abbot Johannes Nablas archived many varied manuscripts during the 16th and 17th centuries.

Records show that in 1722,  Abbot Roman II Märkl  commissioned a fleet of artists and carpenters to revive the abbey with frescoes, sculptures, and custom bookcases, creating the grand baroque library we see now. The library now houses around 35,000 books, although most aren’t original to the Baroque-era makeover. 

Between 1803 and 1815, during secularisation, the abbey’s property was seized by the state and auctioned off.  Over a number of years Johann von Pronath acquired the greater part of the former premises and succeeded in persuading King Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1830 to re-establish the monastery, which by 1837 had been set up to incorporate a boarding school, in continuance of its educational traditions, which the monastery has run to this day.  Some of Metten Abbey’s old books were returned upon its reestablishment, while other volumes were donated from estates and shuttered monasteries. Over time, the library acquired new books relating to religion, philosophy, and history for the boarding school students taught onsite.

Some of the library’s most prized possessions include the Mettener Antiphonary, an original collection of 15th century music manuscripts and a receipt from 1715 for 500 guilders paid to German artist Cosmas Damian Asam, who painted the monastery’s altarpiece.  The vaulted ceilings were painted by the Italian-born artist Innozenz Waräthi with the likenesses of religious and academic leaders and philosophers. Portraits of ecclesiastical icons Saint Augustine, Saint Ambrose, Saint Gregory, and Saint Jerome hover over copies of the books they penned; Saint Jerome reads a text by Cicero.