An old buttress barn, built in natural stones and with the vault construction that is typical for the southern french “Causses”, hosts the “Old Library” with medieval flair. A second, “New Library”, the central piece of the new building complex, offers modular working spaces equipped with the most modern technology. With their ca. 50 000 books, comprising many precious works, the libraries are a main pillar of the project of a free university in the countryside. Stemming from a german “scholar’s library”, the collection now contains scientific and aesthetic literature as well as reference books in german, french, english, italian, spanish, russian, polish, latin, greek and hebrew.
In fitting with the focus of the main work, the acquisition of books is guided by the following topics:
- Development of the public consciousness, our collective worldviews, as they are reflected by the common reference books, encyclopedia and dictionaries from the Middle Age to nowadays, available in great extent and in nearly all editions, e.g., the Encyclopedia of Isidor of Sevilla (Etymologiarum sive originum, 7ème siècle); Hrabanus Maurus (de Universo, 9. Jh.); Encyclopedia of Suidas (Suidae Historica, 10. Jh.); Moreri (Le grand dictionnaire historique, 1674ff); Bayle (Dictionnaire historique et critique, 1696ff); Iserlin (Lexicon histor.-geogr. Universalis, 1726ff); Zedler (Grosses vollst. UniversalLexicon aller Wissenschaften und Künste, 1732ff); Encyclopédie française (Encyclopédie de Diderot et d’Alembert (1751ff)); Encyclopaedia Britannica (1766ff); Ersch/Gruber (Allg. Enzyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste, 1818ff); «Wundermaier» (Ed. Null ! of the Encyclopädie von Maier, 1840ff).
- Book art, incunables and manuscripts – originals and facsimiles – and precious books.
- Natural and cultural history of doves. This nearly complete, special collection contains works such as rare and precious editions of Buffon, several editions of Histoire naturelle, Temminck-Prevost, Les Pigeons par Madame Knipp, 2 vol., 1809-1843; Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Iconographies des Pigeons, 1857; Boitard et Corbié, Les Pigeons. Histoire Naturelle et Monographie des Pigeons domestiques, 1824; Gesner, Gesnerus redivivus auctus & emendatus, 1669; Ray, J., The ornithology of Francis Willughby, 1678; Vollenhoven, Beschryvinge der duiven, 1686; Frisch, Vorstellung der Vögel in Deutschland, 1733; Moore, Columbarium: or, the pigeon house, 1735; Brisson, A.D., 1760. Ornithologia, 1760; A Treatise on Domestic Pigeons. London 1765. Sabbagh, La Colombe, 1805; Neumeister, Das Ganze der Taubenzucht, 1837.
- Cultural history of Europe.
We work on making this library accessible to the public as soon as possible.