Library
In the order of importance of the rooms in a Benedictine monastery, the library comes second only to the church.
The artistic, valuable decoration shows the high regard the monks had for their library. The ceiling fresco by Paul Troger (1731/32) shows, in contrast to the secular scenery of the Marble Hall, a symbolic depiction of Faith. In the center a female figure is recognisable; the allegory of Faith. She is surrounded by four groups of angels, who stand for the four Cardinal Virtues: Wisdom, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance. The four wooden sculptures are depictions of the four faculties: Theology, Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence.
The library of the Melk abbey consists of a total of twelve rooms containing about 1.888 manuscripts, 750 incunabula (printed works before 1500), 1700 works from the 16th, 4500 from the 17th, and 18.000 from the 18th century; together with the newer books, approximately 100.000 volumes in total. About 16.000 of these are found in this library room. They are organized by topics: beginning with editions of the Bible in row I, theology (rows II to VII), jurisprudence (row VIII), geography and astronomy (row VIIII), history (rows X to XV), and ending with the baroque lexica in row XVI.
Small Library Room
This room contains mainly historical works from the 19th century onwards, which testify to the interests of this time period.
The spiral staircase with Roccoco grate leads to other rooms of the library, which are not open to the public.
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