Fürstliche Bibliothek Corvey, Private library in Höxter, Germany
The Fürstliche Bibliothek Corvey is a private library in Höxter with fifteen rooms lined with approximately 200 wooden bookcases carved from walnut, maple, and cherry wood. The collection spans works in English, German, and French across various periods and genres.
Victor Amadeus and Elisabeth of Hesse-Rotenburg built the collection in the early 1800s, establishing one of Europe's most important private book collections. Preserving this inventory within their original structure maintains a living record of early 19th-century reading culture.
The library houses rare English fiction from the early 19th century and functions today as a window into the reading cultures of that era. Walking through the rooms, visitors encounter the literary tastes of the period and discover names that had faded from public memory.
The library can only be visited through guided tours that provide detailed insight into the collections and the architecture of the rooms. It is advisable to check beforehand which languages are available for the tours offered.
The collection contained over 400 female authors whose names had nearly vanished from literary history, contributing significantly to our modern understanding of women's literature. This discovery reveals how a single collection has recovered entire chapters of women writers' histories.
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