The St. Johns herald., 1899-05-13
EMPeRoR'S BIG LIBRARY.
Francis Joseph Has Nine Rooms Filled
 with Rare Books.


 Although a private library. yet in
 importance interest and wealth that belonging to Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria ranks among the foremost within the Hofburg Palace, Vienna and contains, says the St. James Bud get. nine large and lofty rooms, filled from top to bottom with books, manu- scripts. photographs, drawings and prints, including many of the utmost rarity and of the greatest value. Whether we look at the number Of vol umes of his "Familien Bibliothek des Kaiserhauses" (under which title it is known in Vienna), or at the nature of their contents, at the drawings and prints, at the countless manuscripts, one and all leave no doubt upon our mind as to the valuable character of the collection. Although not open to the general public, admission is gladly granted to it by the courteous chief librarian, Dr. Adolf Karpf.
 The foundation of the library was laid by Emperor Francis H., who brought his collection of books with
 jim from Florence. Constant addi. tions increased the contents of this per sonal library from year to year up to the time he became Emperor of Austria in 1792. Thenceforth it be- came his special hobby, and his taste for books found full vent in continu- ally adding new treasures to it. In 1928 an opportunity offered itself to the Emperor to buy the unique collec- tion belonging to the celebrated physi- ognOmiSt, Lavater. consisting of no fewer than 22,000 sketches, most of ameters, and in his own handwriting. Later on were added to this library the private collections of Emperor Ferdi- hand V. and of Emperor Francis Jo- seph, and since 1889 its official title has been "K. und K. Familien-Fideicom- mis-Bibliothek."
 The treasures of this library are very numerous, and space forbids the men, tiOn of more than a few, as will be un- derstOod when we say that the number of its volumes is more than 130,000, be sides which are S10 incunabula, 21S valuable manuscripts, 10000 maps, S0,0O0 portraits and etchings and 10000 watercOlor drawings of animals. There are also 5000 illuminated addresses presented to the Emperor in the twen. ty-ffth year of his reign and on vari- ous other occasions of national con- graduation. But these figures convey very inadequate idea of the valuable character of the library, which is. in- deed. the most famous and most i'm p0rtant of the private libraries of all the reigning houses in the world. Everything of historical value and in- terest relating to the house of flaps burg is there deposited, and the col lection of portraits is priceless as works Of art and is a gold mine for the stu dent and historian. There are no fewer than 167 portraits of tine Emperor Leo- pold I. in this collection, 142 of Louis XIV, 129 of the Emperor Jo- seph II. and ninety-one portraits de picting various periods of the life of the Empress Maria Teresa.
 Of the 130,0OO volumes of the collec- ton the majority bear an encyclopedia character, with works dealing with natural science and travel. Most of the books are in the German language; but every European language, Turkish alone excepted, is we'll represented on the shelves, especially the Italian, ] French and English, the latter chiefly in works of biography and travel. The treasures are mostly of Bel gian origin, while the incunabula are almost without exception in the Latin language. Thanks to it's chief libra rian, the whole of this collection has been methodically arranged and cata- logued. In doing this Dr. Karpf brought into practical use for the first | time an ingenious system of catalogu- ing which is extremely simple and cn- ables the librarian to find instantly any single one of the 27,000 typographical views contained in this collection. No praise that can be bestowed is too great for the arduous labor which this task of cataloguing involved. and which has placed pr. Karpf in the foremost rank of modern biblIograph.