UNIVERSITY OF COLOGNE

Bachemer Str. 24
50354 Hürth–Gleuel

Tel.: +49 2233 933206
Fax: +49 2233 933207

E-Mail:

Bibliothekssigel: Hür1 = Y9077

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The collection - 195 titles in 211 volumes, plus 9 modern manuscripts - essentially shows the typical picture of a pastor's library in its composition. As expected, theological literature clearly predominates. One quarter of the collection is taken up by moral theology, homiletics (mostly collections of sermons) and liturgy. The last quarter comprises the remaining theological literature (exegesis, dogmatics, church history, pastoral theology and devotional writings), but also the entire non-theological holdings, including textbooks, texts by classical authors, philosophy, dictionaries, history or medicine. Especially in this last quarter there are quite a few rare and unexpected titles.
The history of the collection can be read primarily from the provenances noted in the books. According to this, the development is as follows: the beginning was obviously the collection of books that the Hermülheim priest Albert Wortmann, who was introduced in 1695, had already collected since his student days. One of the manuscripts and several of the prints go back to him; some of them still show in which phase of school and studies - both he completed in Cologne - he acquired them. From him, who died in 1726, the books passed to the pastor Franz Albert Rhedecker in Gleuel. There they survived until today, unfortunately not without losses.
After the collection had stood unnoticed in the Gleuel parsonage for a long time, it was restored and catalogued at the end of the 20th century. With the inclusion of the titles in the North Rhine-Westphalian Union Database, this literature is now available for scholarly use nationwide.