Bibliotheca Bipontina

Most visitors of the State Library in Bamberg have no idea that the impressive Baroque building also houses a magnificent princely library.
The so-called Bipontina Room on the first floor, which is only open to the public during guided tours, hides a truly royal treasure of books: the Library of Duke Karl II. August of Pfalz-Zweibrücken.

This virtual exhibition recounts the story of the collector and how his collection of books found its way to Bamberg. Subsequently, we present some selected items from the exhibition.

On top of the Karlsberg near Homburg, Karl August had built a magnificent castle which became his residence in 1779. The imposing complex was supposed to incorporate his manifold collections which included not only books and paintings, but also prints and drawings and a natural history collection.
At the same time, the castle mirrored the duke's self-conception as an absolutistic monarch.
This coloured drawing by Friedrich and Wilhelm von Lüder from 1791 shows the entire complex.

Munich, Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Inv.No. 21853 Z

Christian IV was an art-loving monarch who owned an impressive collection of paintings and books. He supported painters, musicians and composers. At Zweibrücken, he founded a printing press and a porcelain factory. He maintained a friendly relationship with the court of Louis XV of France.
Christian IV owned a palace in Paris, which served as a meeting point for important representatives of the French Enlightenment.

When he ascended to the throne, Christian IV transferred his private library to Zweibrücken. It comprised mainly French titles.

The covers of numerous books are adorned with his coat of arms which, among other things, shows the Lion of the Palatinate and the Bavarian "Wecken" (diamonds).

In 1751, Christian IV married Marianne Camasse, a French dancer at the Mannheim court. Upon Christian's request, the King of France granted her the title of a Countess of Forbach.
Their six children, however, were not entitled to inherit the duchy.

When Christian IV died suddenly in 1775, his oldest nephew Karl August therefore succeeded him as Duke of Pfalz-Zweibrücken.

Their only son Karl August Friedrich, however, died already at the age of eight in 1784. Thus, the hereditary rights fell upon Karl August's younger brother Max Joseph.

The Wittelsbach rulers in Munich and Mannheim did not have descendants entitled to an inheritance either. Elector Maximilian Joseph III resided in Munich until 1777. His death marked the end of the Bavarian line of the dynasty. Therefore, his succeessor was Karl Theodor of Palatine, who moved his residence from Mannheim to Munich. Yet Karl Theodor's only marital son had already died in 1761 during birth. Therefore, Karl August had the chance to inherit the thrones in Mannheim as well as in Munich.

Painting by Johann Jakob Dörner the Elder:
Bavaria and the Fine Arts pay hommage to Carl Theodor, 1794
Munich, Bavarian State Painting Collections, Inv. 3079

Deposit copies by printers from Zweibrücken as well as different acquisitions completed the library.
Inside the castle, the books were located in several rooms: apart from the actual library, there was a separate gallery for the arts. Duchess Maria Amalie had her own collection of books.
Books were also provided for the ducal guards and the pages.

The library was composed of four large rooms, each about 50 meters long. The room-height display cases along the walls had either barred doors or red or blue taffeta curtains.
The spines of the leather-bound books were beautifully gilded, some were even covered with velvet or silk.
Tables and stairs had been put up for readers. However, the Duke carefully guarded his treasures. As the books were primarily reserved for his own use, only a few guests were allowed to visit the library.

The key event of the French Revolution was the storming of the Bastille on July 14th, 1789. The city prison of Paris, which served as a symbol of the absolutistic rule, was taken by the insurgents with heavy losses on both sides.
Under pressure from the population, King Louis XVI had to move from Versailles to Paris. In 1790, the monasteries were dissolved and all church property was nationalized.
Attempts of the King to flee abroad remained futile.

In August 1792, the National Assembly of France ended the monarchy and imprisoned the royal family. The trial against Louis XVI ended in January 1793 with the death penalty.
The revolution soon came dangerously close to Zweibrücken: From 1789 onwards, numerous noble emigrants from France arrived at the city. Modern ideas of liberty spread amongst the population of the Palatinate.
In 1792, French revolutionary soldiers crossed the border. The areas on the left bank of the Rhine became battlegrounds.

In the night of February 9th, 1793, Duke Karl August hastily fled Karlsberg Castle to avoid being imprisoned. He confided his collections to his gallery director Johann Christian von Mannlich (1741–1822) who was able to bring them to a safe place in April.
Karlsberg Castle was set on fire in July and reduced to rubble.

Incursion of French Troops at Karlsberg Castle on February 10, 1793 (Fantasy Representation)
Copperplate Engraving, Augsburg 1793
Speyer, Historical Museum of the Palatinate, BS 849
(Photographer: Peter Haag-Kirchner)

Amongst them was Duke Karl August, who however died from a stroke already on April 1st, 1795 at the age of 49. Only a few months later, Mannheim surrendered to the French.
Karl August's library and collections, which had been transferred to Mannheim from Kaiserslautern, seem to have been fully rescued, as even smaller and less spectacular items have been preserved.

Max Joseph, the younger brother and heir of Karl August, went into exile to Ansbach. As his territories were occupied by France, he did not have any income. Moreover, he had inherited vast debts from his brother. The Munich inheritance was expected, but as elector Karl Theodor continued to live until 1799, Max Joseph was forced to sell parts of his heritage.

A bookseller from Mannheim estimated the value of the books from Karlsberg Castle. The auction catalogue was printed in 1000 copies and comprised 3665 titles. They were priced with a value of around 25000 guldens. Only 675 works were sold, rendering a total of 5450 guilders.
Numerous books remained in the hands of family members like Max Joseph and his son Ludwig.

Würzburg and Bamberg had become part of Bavaria after the dissolution of the prince-bishoprics in Franconia. But as early as in 1806, Würzburg was handed over to the Habsburg Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Tuscany. Hence, the plan to incorporate the books from Schloss Karlsberg into the university library of Würzburg failed.

In consequence, Karl August`s remaining collections were moved to the nearby city of Bamberg.
The paintings were brought to the city`s New Residence, whereas the books were deposited in the premises of the former salt authority, a large buildung opposite Geyerswörth Castle.

However, the books were not save there. After an attempted burglary, the books were relocated to the Royal Library, since 1803 situated in the former Jesuit college (today part of the University library).
The members of the Wittelsbach family who resided in Bamberg only reserved a few books for their personal use.

On June 1st, 1815, Marshal Louis Alexandre Berthier fell to death from a window of the New Residence. He was married to a niece of King Max Joseph and had served Napoleon as general and minister of war.
Already before Napoleon's deposition, he had switched sides to the King of France. It remains unclear until today whether his defenestration was an accident, suicide, or even murder.

In 1818, Max Joseph granted a constitution for the Kingdom of Bavaria which endorsed the Constitutional Monarchy as form of government and stayed in force until the German Revolution of 1918.

The 25th anniversary of Max Joseph's accession to power as elector and successor of Karl Theodor was celebrated throughout Bavaria in 1824.

On the occassion of the 25th government anniversary of Max Joseph, the magistrate of Bamberg wanted to erect a monument for the King. The town authorities opted for a design by Daniel Joseph Ohlmüller. However, the work came to a halt soon after the pedestal was completed. In the year 1874, the idea of integrating the memorial into a fountain was born. This fountain was finally put up in Maximilian's Square in July 1880 for the 500th anniversary of the reign of the House of Wittelsbach.

However, the King died already in the following year at the age of 70. Funeral services were held in all of Bamberg's churches.

The 'Bibliotheca Bipontina' stayed in Bamberg. Until 1965, it was housed in the former Jesuit College. As the rooms there did not provide enough space for the growing collections of books, the State Library moved to the New Residence in Cathedral Square in 1965.
At the new location, a separate room was dedicated to the Bipontina, giving an authentic impression of the collection's former glory and thematic variety.

Doctors as well as artists and collectors sought to acquire a deep knowledge of the human bone structure and the muscular system. In German, muscles were called "Mäuslein" (little mice), a translation of the Latin word musculus.

In the light of the high infant mortality rate, which did not spare the offspring of noble families, works about obstetrics were of particular interest for princely courts.

The "Dreck-Apotheke" (dirt pharmacy) of the town doctor Paullini (1643-1712) from Eisenach is based on ancient theories of body fluids and traditional medical practices. His recommendations concerning the therapeutical use of excretions were already controversial amongst his contemporaries.

The French translation of his work was released in 1729. It contains numerous illustrations of Kaempfer's paintings. Expensive paper made of gold brocade and embellished with chinoiseries was used as endpapers.

The Jesuit Joseph-Anne-Marie de Moyriac de Mailla (1669-1748) served as a missionary in China for several decades and translated Chinese works into French. His history of China was printed in 1777, thirty years after his death.

The travel reports about James Cook's (1728-1779) journeys in the Pacific Ocean were of great interest.
The news of his murder by indigenous people at Hawaii shocked readers throughout Europe.

Anecdotal tales about travels in Germany were read as a pastime. Under the name Androphilus, a young nobleman reports from his experiences in Franconia and Saxony. Vivid conversations and descriptions were intended to amuse the reading public.

This tournament book by the imperial herald Georg Rüxner, which was first printed in 1530, contains descriptions of 36 tournaments that had taken place since the 10th century.
Even though the narrative is in some instances fictional, it fulfilled the purpose of legitimating the nobility's eligibility for tournaments.

The coats of arms of the participating knights are rendered in colour. For Rüxner's contemporaries and for posterity, the book therefore served as a genealogical manual demonstrating the nobility's ability for tournaments.

Tournaments were also held in Bamberg. The coat of arms of the city shows the knightly saint George, patron of Bamberg cathedral.

The tournament book is dedicated to Johann II of Pfalz-Simmern (1492-1557), who had a printing plant established at Simmern Castle. His son Friedrich became the elector of Palatinate in 1559.
The lines Pfalz-Zweibrücken and Pfalz-Simmern shared common ancestors.

Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther was published in 1774 and became a bestseller. Even though Duke Karl August collected illustrations related to Goethe's Werther, he apparently did not read the French translation of the novel, as the pages are not cut through.

The painter Johannes Friedrich Müller (1749-1825) was the son of a baker. Duke Christian I discovered his artistic talent and supported him. In his poems, Müller celebrated the idyllic country life in the Palatinate. In 1778, he moved to Rome, where he spent the rest of his life.

In 1719, Daniel Defoe had published The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. The first realistic novel is based on the travel experiences of an English sailor. As a result of the immense popularity of the book, Robinsonades came into fashion in Germany as well.

Christian Friedrich Hunold (1680-1721) was a successful author of gallant novels, which he published under the pseudonym Menantes. The financial assets he had inherited were already used up during his studies. Therefore, he fled to Hamburg, where he made a living as an author.

Christian IV and his wife often stayed in Paris, where they owned a palace.
For several months, the composer and opera reformer Willibald Gluck was their guest there while preparing the first performance of his opera Iphigenie in Aulis.

At Zweibrücken, the construction of a court theatre began in 1775 and was completed under Karl August. Karlsberg Castle also accommodated a small box theater.

The gardens produced fruits and vegetables for the court table as well as flowers and potted plants for decorating the rooms.

Birds were held in cages and were taught popular songs by playing the flute to them or by using small hand organs. The girl in the red dress is holding such an instrument, a serinette, on her lap.

For banquets, cages with nightingales were hung between flowering trees.

The vegetable gardens were later transformed into an English landscape park.
The court gardener was, among other things, responsible for the maintenance of the forestry and the tree nurseries.

The French physicist and military architect Bélidor (1697–1761) published the first manual of hydraulics, in which he described how water power could be used to drive mills and machines. Thus, castle gardens could be watered and embellished with fountains.

The clergyman Nollet (1700–1770) was the first professor for experimental physics in Paris. He also taught the children of King Louis XV and demonstrated the impact of electricity to a wider audience.

Today, about 11600 books from the 'Bibliotheca Bipontina' are preserved in Bamberg. As many volumes consist of several pieces, more than 15000 items exist.
The printed works can be accessed as .