The year is 1798, and the entire present-day state of Rhineland-Palatinate is under French occupation. The University of Mainz, founded in 1477 by Archbishop Diether von Isenburg, is dissolved by the French occupying forces. “The entire university?” would be a fair question here. “No, not the entire university! Its library survived, and it was not the only thing to do so!” A few years later, in 1805, it became the city library, and continues to exist to this day.
It is a stroke of good fortune that the existence of the communis liberaria can be traced all the way back to the earliest years of the university. Even so, it is no longer possible to reconstruct its full development throughout 550 years without any gaps. Long before the French period, the library’s history was repeatedly disrupted by neglect and war. However, by examining the university’s surviving book collections and other material evidence, it is possible to shed light on selected periods and events. In the anniversary year of 2027, a series of lectures and guided tours, along with a comprehensive exhibition, will highlight some of these nearly forgotten chapters in the library’s history.
The exhibition will open with a keynote lecture on Wednesday, May 19, at 6:30 pm in the reading room of the City Library. In addition to particularly significant volumes from the library’s holdings, the exhibition will feature bindings from the collections of the archbishops as well as historic ownership stamps, and will recall the various locations within the city where the library was housed in the past.
