Library
The library of the University of Kassel serves as a Library of the State of Hesse (an important function in the German system of libraries). It was formed by merging the Landesbibliothek (founded 1580 be Landgraf Wilhelm IV. of Hesse) and the Murhardsche Bibliothek (founded 1845 by the testament of scholar Friedrich Wilhelm August Murhard and his brother Friedrich Wilhelm August Murhard and oened 1905 as a city library).
A special focus of the library is the collection of early medieval manuscripts (over 10.000 in the collection) and early prints (mainly from the personal library of the Landgrafen, who devoted themselves to natural history, natural philosophy, astronomy, astrology and alchemy).
The two most impressive items of the collection are the Hildebrandslied (from c. 830) and the proof copy of the Children's and Household Tales, the famous fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm (the Kinder - und Hausmärchen der Gebrüder Grimm) (1812/1815), an annotated copy that was chosen as part of the UNESCO Memory of the World in 2005.
The library holds an early medieval text preserved in a manuscript from c.810, known as the Kassel conversations (in German: Kasseler Gespräche).
A few of the most important items have been digitized.
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Famous quotes containing the word library:
“The fear of failure is so great, it is no wonder that the desire to do right by one’s children has led to a whole library of books offering advice on how to raise them.”
—Bruno Bettelheim (20th century)
“Our civilization has decided ... that determining the guilt or innocence of men is a thing too important to be trusted to trained men.... When it wants a library catalogued, or the solar system discovered, or any trifle of that kind, it uses up its specialists. But when it wishes anything done which is really serious, it collects twelve of the ordinary men standing round. The same thing was done, if I remember right, by the Founder of Christianity.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“Readers transform a library from a mausoleum into many theaters.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)