On location in the library

Hello again from Slim in Lübeck! 

One of my first priorities upon arrival was to gain entry to the Lübeck city library. Well, anyone can gain entry, but I wanted to be able to check stuff out! So, Stretch and I first had to 'meld uns an', or register with the city. So, we spent about an hour in one of those temporal vacuums known as a bureaucratic waiting room, but I have to say that the entire process was about as smooth and painless as these things get! We obtained the necessary paper, and thence went I to the library and got my card! And here it is:

So while I was getting acquainted with the library, I noticed that they offer a free tour of the historic areas of the building on the first Wednesday of each month at 5:30, so I went and availed myself of this opportunity. We were guided by the very knowledgable Herr Schnoor, who I had met before via my membership in the Buxtehude Society.

Like most things in Lübeck, the library has a long history. In the 1520's, in the midst of his reforming, Martin Luther wrote to the city council of Lübeck to encourage them to create a place where the citizens could go to read and educate themselves. It took about 100 years, but finally the city created their 'Bibliotheca publica'.

The oldest room we saw dates from the 14^th century. It was originally a dormitory of the Katharinenkloster (monastery of St. Catherine). It is lined with shelves filled with historical volumes, plus portraits of prominent citizens of Lübeck and other important people, such as the aforementioned Martin Luther, and his emissary Bugenhagen. (Luther never visited Lübeck, but Bugenhagen did.)

Here's a picture I took in this room during my visit to Lübeck in 2012:

That's Meno Hanneken, a prominent Lübeck pastor. Buxtehude dedicated a work of learned counterpoint to his son, Meno Hanneken, Jr. A very jolly drinking song, to be precise. :-)

Herr Schnoor showed us a very interesting volume during our tour: a Bible printed in Hamburg in the 17^th century. Not only the contents were of interest, but also the manner in which one accessed the pages.

Picture your mental image of an ancient book. It's big and thick, right? With a wooden cover, and metal clasps? Exactly. But how do you open it? Well, I thought the metal clasps had something that you pressed on to release the clasping mechanism. Wrong! You thump the cover of the book with your fist in two places to release the clasps! Wow, I never saw that coming.

Funnily enough, in German, you still say 'aufschlagen' (to hit or crack open) when you talk about opening a book! Does English have an equivalent phrase? I was trying to remember. I guess we say 'crack open a book'.

Anyway, the contents of the Bible were as interesting as the manner in which it was accessed. The text was printed in German, Latin, Hebrew, and Greek! Each page had these four columns of text. It's almost miraculous to consider that each page was set by hand in moveable type!

Another interesting tidbit that I learned is that several of the oldest and most valuable volumes in the library are not kept on shelves at all, but in fire resistant cases. Even though the building is very fire resistant, in case of fire, the employees are charged with saving these two very important cases!

After the tour I scanned the shelves for a little while, and saw several 16^th century volumes, including an old and new testament translated by Erasmus, dating from 1519 and 1522!

To conclude this entry, here are a couple more gratuitous Lübeck pictures:

Here I am on my way to the library on my 'first day of school' if you will (check out the KMFA bag!):

Here's another charming street view:

And here's what I call 'Climbing Mount Dom'. The Lübecker Dom, or cathedral, is built on a steep hill. When you are standing on the bank of the Trave river, it towers over you like a small mountain. This picture was taken at the base of a steep and narrow set of stairs.

Next time: a report from the Buxtehude-Tage!

Alles gute,

Slim

PS- If you read this before 12:30 PM Central Time on May 8, you may want to know that the first concert of the Buxtehude-Tage will be broadcast live from St. Mary's, Lübeck via the Internet! Here's the link to the live feed:

http://www.fr-live.com