The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1899-10-13
AN EEPEROR'S LIBRARY.
Fraucis Joseph Has Nine Spaciuus
Rooms of Rare Literature.

Francis Joseph Has N:He pncious
Room. Of Rare Literature.
Although 1t private library. yet in i'm
IC1tanHe, interest and w-al1h that be-
longing to the Emperor Francis Joseph
Of Austria ranks an.oIg the foremost IL
brarirs Of the world. 1T il situated with
i'll the Hofburg palace, Vienna. and CON
tains nine large ami lofty rooms filled
from top to bottom with books. nianu-
scripts, photo graphs, drawings and
prints, including many Of thu utmost
rarity and Of the greatest value. Whether
we look at the number uf volumes Of this
Famiilen Rbliothek DIES kaiserhauscs
'unGrr which Name it is known in Wen
ma, or at tn" nature Of their contents,
at the drawings and prints. at the count
less manuscripts. On" and all leave no
d"'!Lt upon our mind as to the valuable
character Of the collection. Although not
open to the general public, admission is
gladly granted to i, by the courteous
chief librarian. DR.. Alois karpl
Inc foundation Of the library was laid
b! the Emperor Francis H., who
brought his collection of books with him
from Florence. Constant additions in
creased the contents Of this personal IL
brary nom year to year up TO the time
ne became Emperor of Austria in 1892
and his taste for books found full vent
IN continually adding new treasures to
II. In 1873 an opportunity offered itself
" the Emperor to buy the unique cOllec-
tlcn belonging to the celebrated physiog-
nolnist, l-l'dtcr, consisting Of no fewer
thah z2.NE) portraits, wattr-color draw
lngs and sketches. most CT which bear
i.aVaters remarks in htXametcrs. and i'll
his own handwriting. Later on were.
added to TINS library the private collec-
! tons Of the Emperor Ferdinand V. and
OF the Emperor Francis Joseph, and
since 1889 it's official title has been n
thek."
The treasures Of this library are very
numerous. and space forbids the mention
OF more than few, as will be understood
when we say that the number of its vol
umes is more than 10000. besides which
there are so incunabula. 21S valuable
manuscripts, 10000 maps. $1,000 pnr-
traits and etchings, and 10000 water
also 1000 illuminated addresses present
ed to the Emperor in the twenty-hf,h
year of his reign and on various other &C.
caslons OF national cnngratulation. But
these figures convey very Inadequate
idea of the valuable character of the IL
brary' which is indeed. the most famous
| and most important Of the private L.
braricS of all the reignins houses in the
world: Everything Of historical value
and interest relating to the house <f
HapsburS is there Deposited and til. col,
lection Of portraits is priceless as work.:
| OF art. and Is a gold Mine for the student
| and historian. There are no fewer than
| l6I portraits of the Emperor Leopold /.
in this collection, 142 of Louis XIV. ~,
Of the Emperor Joseph H.. and ninety
one portraits depicting various periods IF
the life Of the Empress Maria Teresa.
OF the 10000 volumes Of the coll.r
ton. the ma iority bear an encyclopedia
character. with works dealing with nat
ural science. history and travel. Most Of
the books are in the German language.
but every European language. Turkish
alone excepted. is well represented on the
shelves. especially the Italian. French
and English. the latter chiefly in works
Of biography and travel. The manu-
SCRIPT treasures are mostly Of Belgian
origin. while the incunabula are almost
without exception in the Latin language.
Thanks to its chief librarian the whole.
OF this collection has been methodicallr
arranged and catalogued. In doing this
DR.. karpf brought into practical use for
the first time most ingenious system of
cataloguing. which is extremely simple.
and enables the librarian to find instant
~ any single one of the - 600 topocraph-
ical 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 DR. Karpf in the foremost
ranks OF modern photographers