{"id":26804,"date":"2024-05-08T10:05:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T08:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/bibelsammlungen-und-bibeln-als-sammlungsobjekte\/"},"modified":"2024-06-19T10:55:23","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T08:55:23","slug":"bibelsammlungen-und-bibeln-als-sammlungsobjekte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/bibelsammlungen-und-bibeln-als-sammlungsobjekte\/","title":{"rendered":"Bible collections and bibles as collectibles"},"content":{"rendered":"
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8 May 2024<\/em><\/p>

The Herzog August Bibliothek holds a collection of bibles whose main elements can be traced back to Elisabeth Sophie Marie zu Braunschweig-L\u00fcneburg (1683\u20131767). From 1714, Elisabeth Sophie Marie reigned as duchess in Wolfenb\u00fcttel at the side of her husband, August Wilhelm (1662\u20131731). After his death and as stipulated in their marriage contract, she came into ownership of the as yet unfinished Grauer Hof, now known as the Brunswick Palace, for use as a widow\u2019s residence, where she began putting together a remarkable collection of bibles\u00a0\u2013 an exceptional undertaking even by the standards of the time. This collection, on display in some of the palace\u2019s most prestigious rooms, was viewed by numerous individuals, including scholars and aristocrats, and many of these signed their names in the duchess\u2019s visitor book. The digital edition of the visitor book can be viewed here<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n\t\t\tVisitor book belonging to Elisabeth Sophie Marie, bound (or: digital edition of the visitor book, screenshot) Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 125.25a Extrav.<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\"\/\/www.hab.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Reimann_Abb.-4_Besucherbuch-ESM_Einband.jpg\"\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/use>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\tVisitor book belonging to Elisabeth Sophie Marie, bound (or: digital edition of the visitor book, screenshot) Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 125.25a Extrav.<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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As the duchess had no surviving children, in 1764 she ordered this collection of nearly 1,200 bibles to be transferred in its entirety to the royal library in Wolfenb\u00fcttel, now the Herzog August Bibliothek (HAB), where it was to be displayed. It is still held by the HAB and has grown thanks to later additions.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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When the opportunity arose, during the 1740s, Elisabeth Sophie Marie purchased entire collections from bourgeois bible collectors with the aim of rapidly expanding her own collection. Other aristocratic bible collectors adopted a similar approach. For example, Herzog Karl Eugen von W\u00fcrttemberg (1728\u20131793) travelled to Copenhagen for the express purpose of acquiring a bible collection belonging to theologian Josias Lorck (1723\u20131785).<\/p>

In any case, bible collecting\u00a0\u2013 particularly in the Protestant areas of northern Germany and Denmark in the 18th century \u2013 was a surprisingly popular activity. At times even the collectors themselves appear to have been amazed by the trend. For this reason, Lorck, a self-styled \u2018bible collector\u2019, even went so far as to describe his era as the \u2018biblical century\u2019. The Hamburg senior pastor Johann Melchior Goeze (1717\u20131786), known primarily for his role as Lessing\u2019s opponent in the Fragementenstreit<\/em> (Fragments Controversy), was a bible collector as well, of course. Reflecting on his own collecting activities, he wrote:<\/p>

\u2018As pleasant, as useful and, in many instances, as necessary as it is to have a collection of the rarest and most unusual bibles\u00a0\u2013 one that is as complete as possible or at the very least large \u2026 up until the beginning of the current century our ancestors gave scant thought to the matter, investing in the enterprise little of the necessary care, effort and expense.\u2019 (Goeze, 1777, p. 1)<\/p>

The existence of dozens of 18th-century bible collections has been established, mostly by examining printed catalogues. Only a few of these collections have survived, one of them being the collection belonging to Herzogin Elisabeth Sophie Marie von Braunschweig-Wolfenb\u00fcttel now held by the Herzog August Bibliothek and Karl Eugen\u2019s collection in the W\u00fcrttembergische Landesbibliothek (W\u00fcrttemberg State Library) in Stuttgart.<\/p>

No two collections are the same, however, for there are many different kinds of bible collections. The nature of these collections meant that none of them were identical in terms of the books they contained, and none of them were amassed in a haphazard way. It is also important to note that they were compiled in line with their collectors\u2019 wide variety of interests: most bourgeois collectors, many of whom had a background in theology and a limited budget, were active in the area of what was known as the \u2018biblical library\u2019, meaning they collected bibles in a particular language or dating to particular periods, for example. Some of them developed even more specialised collections that spanned a few decades or were limited to individual printing locations. The purpose of these bourgeois collections was to enable scholarly evaluation of the bibles they held and to allow their bibliographical peculiarities to be described in print publications. Such publications helped their authors garner a scholarly reputation within their discipline. If they were to publish the definitive work on one of these specialised areas, then they needed to be sure that they had the most complete collection in their particular area, although collectors could of course never be sure that they had achieved this.<\/p>

Here the matter of visual inspection also played an important role. Only individuals who had direct access to the book at issue and could answer any questions that arose by consulting the original were seen as experts capable of commenting on the subject in bible-collecting circles. This also explains why collectors sometimes travelled to inspect other collections or asked for excerpts from particular copies of a work, although ongoing access to the originals continued to be more important as an indicator of one\u2019s own expertise. Temporary access\u00a0\u2013 based, for instance, on a visit to a collection or the evaluation of other collection catalogues (of which Goeze owned no fewer than 150, according to the auction catalogue for his library)\u00a0\u2013 was thought to provide an inferior form of legitimacy.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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\n\t\t\tReconstructed network of bible collectors associated with Elisabeth Sophie Marie zu Braunschweig-L\u00fcneburg Reconstruction: C. Reimann<\/span>\n\t\t\t\n\"\/\/www.hab.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Reimann_Abb-3_Netzwerk-der-Bibelsammler.jpg\"\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t<\/use>\n\t\t\t<\/svg>\n\t\t\tReconstructed network of bible collectors associated with Elisabeth Sophie Marie zu Braunschweig-L\u00fcneburg Reconstruction: C. Reimann<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Having one\u2019s own collection was advantageous in that collectors were able to read and understand the books themselves\u00a0\u2013 collectors only acquired books for their \u2018biblical libraries\u2019 written in languages they had sufficient command of. Goeze describes this phenomenon in his usual direct fashion:<\/p>

\u2018Collecting bibles in languages that I do not understand has never been my aim. What use would I have for these? Whenever I chanced upon one or the other of these, I did indeed acquire it. But as collections of this kind are not to everybody\u2019s taste, they nonetheless deserve the distinction they achieve when men of standing or scholars who are able to cope with the attendant difficulties undertake such collections. There is something impressive, something very moving about the sight of printed bibles in nearly every language known on earth; it can add penetrating insight to the weightiest reflections on the fulfilment of divine promises and on the maintenance and propagation of the Word of the eternal truth of God\u2019s watchful benevolence.\u2019 (Goeze, 1777, p. X)<\/p>

Here the Hamburg-based theologian is referring to the second type of bible collections. Creating such a collection\u00a0\u2013 as Goeze also stresses\u00a0\u2013 was reserved for those collectors with access to significant funds and a large network. These individuals could acquire bibles without linguistic, temporal, or geographical limitations, although such collections, too, also tended to have recognisable focuses. Contemporaries viewed these as genuine \u2018bible collections\u2019 as opposed to the \u2018biblical libraries\u2019 referred to above. The capital requirement involved meant that this type of bible collection was often the province of aristocratic enthusiasts, such as Elisabeth Sophie Marie: although her collection focuses on bibles in German, we also find in it examples of bibles in Arabic, Icelandic, Hungarian, Tamil and Welsh.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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These collections were also catalogued and the results published\u00a0\u2013 after all, without the resulting publicity, collectors could not expect to be recognised as \u2018bible collectors\u2019. In the case of the collection in Brunswick, the serving librarian and court chaplain Georg Ludolph Otto Knoch (1705\u20131783) not only compiled the catalogue but also penned the comprehensive Historisch-kritische Nachrichten<\/em> (Historical-Critical Dispatches) in which he referenced numerous other publications.<\/p>

Another characteristic of early modern bible collections is that they were made accessible to researchers. This could take the form of physical access to the books, made possible by a readiness to produce excerpts or even to lend out individual copies. Collectors also engaged in regular correspondence. Analysis of these contacts clearly shows that 18th-century bible collectors maintained a close-knit network consisting of personal contacts, written correspondence and the citation of each other\u2019s work in their publications. It is within this network that the bible collection belonging to Elisabeth Sophie Marie was created and received by her contemporaries. Other 18th-century collectors describe it as the \u2018most renowned and significant treasury of bibles\u2019.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Cover image: Self-presentation of Herzogin Elisabeth Sophie Marie as a bible collector, in Ludolph Otto Knoch, Bibliotheca Biblica, Brunswick 1752, frontispiece, copperplate print. Herzog August Bibliothek, BA I, 633.<\/span><\/em><\/p>

PURL: http:\/\/diglib.hab.de\/?link=184<\/span><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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The author<\/h2>\n\t\t\t

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\n Dr. Caren Reimann<\/a>\n \n \n
\n +49 5331 808-238<\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n <\/use>\n <\/svg>\n E-Mail Schreiben<\/span>\n <\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t
\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

T\u00e4tigkeitsschwerpunkte F\u00fcrstinnenbibliotheken und Wissenspraktiken im deutschsprachigen Raum des 18. Jahrhunderts (https:\/\/www.hab.de\/fuerstinnenbibliotheken-und-wissenspraktiken-im-deutschsprachigen-raum-des-18-jahrhunderts\/)   Curriculum Vitae Seit Okt. 2024: Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin\/Projektleiterin, DFG-Langfristvorhaben: \u201eF\u00fcrstinnenbibliotheken und Wissenspraktiken im deutschsprachigen Raum des 18. Jahrhunderts: Rekonstruktion, Funktion und Bedeutung\u201c, Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenb\u00fcttel Apr.-Sep. 2024: Stipendiatin des Landes Niedersachsen am Zentralinstitut f\u00fcr Kunstgeschichte, M\u00fcnchen. Forschungsprojekt: \u201eDie Tipografia Poliglotta della Sacra Congregazione […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":26483,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[141,274],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-info","category-hablog-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26804"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26815,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26804\/revisions\/26815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hab.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}