Xanten - Chapter
Stiftsbibliothek Xanten
Kapitel 21
46509 Xanten
Tel.: +49 2801 987780
Fax: +49 2801 9877822
E-Mail: info
stiftsmuseum-xanten.de
Internet: www.stiftsmuseum-xanten.de
Library abbreviation: X1 = Y9098
Contact: Frau Claudia Kienzle M.A.
Katalog starten
The chapter library Xanten has an important collection of manuscripts, incunabula and old prints, primarily from the 16th to 18th centuries. Since 2010 it has been part of the Chapter Museum Xanten, together with the Stiftsarchiv and the Domschatz (Cathedral Treasury), which is run by the Catholic Propsteigemeinde St. Viktor.
The beginnings of the library and the archive probably date back to the 8th century, when the canons' monastery of St. Viktor was founded. Under the name "Xantener Evangeliar" a manuscript from the beginning of the 9th century is kept in the Royal Library in Brussels (Ms. 18732), which probably originated in Aachen in the palace school of Charlemagne and was used in the Xantener monastery. In 1109, the archives and library of the cathedral also fell victim to a devastating fire. The extensively preserved cathedral construction accounts show expenditures for a library from the 2nd half of the 14th century onwards (in 1392, for example, for security chains); however, there is no evidence of a regular acquisition budget. In the following years the library grew mainly through donations from canons and other patrons. From 1547/48 the library had its own rooms above the west wing of the cloister. During the secularisation around 1800 valuable book property of Xanten monasteries, among others the Carthusians, the Capuchins, the Jesuits and the Birgitten monastery Marienbaum, became part of the library. The book collections, which had not been destroyed, sold or wasted, were collected here and waited for transport by the French commissioners to Paris. Fortunately, the majority of Xanten's holdings did not get this far; they remained there. From 1876 onwards, the books of the monasteries and the parish library - albeit an insignificant one - were merged, catalogued and placed in 19 subject groups. During the Second World War, the book collection suffered great damage; after the bombing of the city and the severe destruction of the cathedral in 1945, the valuable prints were exposed to the weather for several months and largely unsecured. Since 1970 at the latest, the holdings of the Abbey Library have been catalogued on behalf of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The catalogue was published in 1986. It is thanks to the Support Association StiftsMuseum Xanten e.V. and the NRW Foundation (link in German) that the entire collection was comprehensively preserved, which was completed in 2005. In the meantime, the historical library rooms have been renovated, air-conditioned and structurally modernised. Today, the holdings of the Chapter library Xanten comprise approx. 13,000 volumes, including almost 450 incunabula.
Literature (in German):
- Feldmann, Reinhard: Stifts- und Pfarrbibliothek Xanten. In: Handbuch der historischen Buchbestände in Deutschland. Bd. 4, 1993
- Föhl, Hildegard ; Benger, Anita [Bearb.]: Katalog der Stiftsbibliothek Xanten. Kevelaer 1986