Fürstliche Bibliothek Corvey
The Fürstliche Bibliothek Corvey is a princely library in the Princely Abbey of Corvey, a former Benedictine abbey, near Höxter in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It consists of around 74,000 volumes and is one of the largest and most valuable private libraries in Germany. The library houses one of the world's largest collections of Romantic literature and the largest collection in the world of "popular fiction in English between 1798 and 1834".
Room in the Bibliothek Corvey, 2015
The Princely Abbey of Corvey is a former Benedictine abbey and ecclesiastical principality now in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was one of the half-dozen self-ruling princely abbeys of the Holy Roman Empire from the Late Middle Ages until 1792 when Corvey was elevated to a prince-bishopric. Corvey, whose territory extended over a vast area, was in turn secularized in 1803 in the course of the German mediatisation and absorbed into the newly created Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda. Originally built in 822 and 885 and remodeled in the Baroque period, the abbey is an exceptional example of Carolingian architecture, the oldest surviving example of a westwork, and the oldest standing medieval structure in Westphalia. The original architecture of the abbey, with its vaulted hall and galleries encircling the main room, heavily influenced later western Romanesque and Gothic architecture. The inside of the westwork contains the only known wall paintings of ancient mythology with Christian interpretation in Carolingian times. The former abbey church was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.
The Westwork of Corvey Abbey
Territory of the Princely Abbey of Corvey in the 18th century
Initial page of the Wernigerode Gospels. A 10th-century book illumination from the scriptorium of Corvey Abbey, now in the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.
Courtyard of Corvey Abbey