Werke aus Geschichte, Politik und Dichtung als Vermittler der italienischen Kultur in der Sulzbacher Hofbibliothek

The ancient catalogues of the library of Prince Christian August of Sulzbach (1622-1708) are an important document for the description of the history of libraries and of culture. Indeed the Prince’s library collects those spiritual trends that, from the Renaissance and the Reform onwards, influenced European thought and fascinated the Prince, i.e. alchemy, cabala, hermetism, neoplatonism, mystique. This paper contains an initial exploration of the library’s endowment, which to this day has never been examined. It does not focus on a specific topic; rather, while looking for the Italian titles, it explores all the thematic domains present in the library. This initial endeavor allows identifying certain specific organizational principles on which the library is based. Indeed the 261 Italian titles are not the result of a casual choice. Many can be traced back to Christian August’s education, his study of the foreign language, and his long stay in Italy. Corresponding to each stage of his journey, he collected touristic guides and treaties on the history of the region and on its Saints. In addition to these books, there are the volumes directly related to the scholarly world flourished around the University of Padua, famous for being a place of groundbreaking research in all fields of knowledge. It is possible to organize most of the titles in three thematic groups: history, politics and literature. Slightly smaller is the group of the theological volumes. Taken together, these four thematic domains correspond to the four pillars of the Prince’s education, as it is described also in the 'Institutio methodica', the recommendations for his children’s upbringing left by Christian August’s father, who died prematurely.