Library interiors in Rosersberg Palace, Sweden (watercolours c. 1797)

Library designs by Erik Palmstedt (Swedish, 1741-1803)

Proposal for a Neoclassical library, by Axel Nyström (Swedish, 1793–1868)

Proposal for a Neclassical library, by Carl Fredrik Sundvall (Swedish, 1754-1831)

Design for a Neoclassical library, by Erik Palmstedt (Swedish, 1741-1803)

Alexandre Serebriakoff, watercolours of Château de Groussay (France). Serebriakoff (1907-1995) was a Ukrainian-born watercolour artist who lived and worked most of his life in France. He developed contacts with French and English high society, and made watercolour albums depicting the richly furnished interiors of French chateaux and London flats, so-called Zimmerbilden or portraits d'intérieur. It was once a popular and charming genre of art, of which older examples are often of interest for the cultural historian, but has faded from the mainstream. Serebriakoff was one of the last masters of the genre.

Pics from here, which also provides an interesting read.

The Hermitage of Saint Gerbold in Normandy, France. Built as a church in the Middle Ages, it was transformed into a hermit's dwelling - a hermitage in the true sense of the word - in the 17th century. The last hermit died in 1840.

The Master of the Brussels Initials is the notname of an artist who decorated gorgeous illuminated manuscripts for royalty like Charles the Noble and the Duke of Berry - perhaps the most extravagant book collector ever to have lived.

This artist, active at the turn of the 14th to 15th century, is notable not only for making works of great beauty, and having an important role in the development of late Gothic art, but also for being a keen observer of nature. The small bug in this full-size miniature depicting the Annunciation, is perfectly identifiable as a firebug, Pyrrhocoris apterus. In fact, G. Evelyn Hutchinson, the "father of modern ecology", wrote an entire fascinating article about the Master of the Brussels Initials and insects depicted by him, available here. He argued that this was more than a curiosity, it was an example of a development within manuscript decoration towards a more naturalistic world view, "part of the same movement that produced the contemporary studies of optics and mechanics in England, France and Germany" and which continued with the production of formal natural history treaties in the 16th century.

So, while it may not have been the only such seed, one impulse to the modest beginning which would eventually give us modern science could be said to be found in the beautiful decorations of medieval manuscripts.

One last bookplate which is so charming I have to provide some comments (See the other ones here, here and here.)

This is the bookplate (or ex libris) of German politician, lawyer and Enlightenment figure Johann Daniel von Olenschlager (1711-1778), It depicts an ideal of a library which is made clear already in the Latin motto inscribed in the elaborate, Rococo frame, which translated into something like “I wish to be both useful and to be of enjoyment.” 

The depicted library room is an open loggia covered with a roomy vault. The side walls are entirely covered by bookshelves, giving that pleasant, comfortable impression of being lost in a sea of reading material. The floor, we may imagine, is a cool stone floor - because at the rear end, the loggia opens generously to a gorgeous Baroque garden. The shadows falling from the pillars to the left, the fountain trickling  and the garland having from the roof to frame the entrance all give away a vague feeling of an eternal summer day. Pruned trees, a gravel path and a balustraded stair emanate an atmosphere of peace and order. Two figures move towards us from the garden; we can almost hear the bright voices of our friends approaching. In a few moments they will be with us, laughingly teasing us to finally drop our books and get out into the sunshine with them. I wouldn’t mind at all.

A third (see also here and here) very charming bookplate or ex libris (mark of book ownership) is this, the bookplate of Louis or Ludwig (or quite possibly Lodewijk) Bosch, priest in Temse, modern day-Belgium. It is from the first half of the 18th century.

The owner displays himself seated in an ornate but comfortable char by the table, covered in a thick, frilled tablecloth, and is busy jotting some recent thought or discovery down in a notebook. All around him are books. The walls are covered by bookshelves from floor to ceiling, bar the window behind the priest that gives light enough to read and write, and books are also on the table and even on the floor. The scene is framed in a Rococo-style frame, a bit pompous but also playful.

The Latin motto at the bottom translates into something like “a hunt in such a forest never wearies” - a phrase that will bring a smile to anyone who has ever had the pleasure of diving in after some faint trace from some fascinating subject in a well-equipped library, and making joyful new discoveries on the way.

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Another (see also my earlier post) very charming ex libris or bookplate is that of Georg Andreas Weise (1737-1792), a German theologian. Curiously, he was born in Astrakhan in Russia. 

In any case, his bookplate captures much of the simple, dignified atmosphere of German Neoclassicism and Biedermeier style. It also indicates a serious relationship to books and learning, with the overfull stacks behind the plain but pleasant desk and not least the lit and shaded lamp. Here is the bookplate, it seems to say, of a man perhaps with limited means, but with a great thirst for knowledge and love of books, who would stay up late, reading and working hard, with only the sound of the quill against the paper impeding on that peaceful yet creative atmosphere.

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Johann Michael von Loën was a German enlightenment writer and statesman, and the uncle of Goethe. He had a very detailed and elaborate ex libris, or bookplate, which would be pasted on the inside of the front of his books to show that they belonged to him.

It depicts the idealised but not unrealistic library of a wealthy man of the times, with tall bookshelves framed by decorated columns, surmounted by playful festoons and statuettes, probably depicting ancient deities or allegorical figures. Special cabinets hold rare manuscripts, and on their sides hang scientific instruments. The cabinet on the left has an unfolded reading surface, indicating recent use. In the middle of the large room is a generous piece of wooden furniture, perhaps holding reference works, offering a convenient place to display open books and more intricate and expensive technological trinkets - a clock, an amarilly sphere and a globe. At the back, an open door indicates further, perhaps infinite library rooms in succession.

The library is one of richness and grandeur, but also one of utility, charm and comfort - typical for the ideals of the early Enlightenment, and I daresay, quite attractive still today.

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House in Tournai, Belgium. Architect: Georges De Poore, 1903

Romanesque baptismal fonts from the province of Scania (Skåne), Sweden. These ancient stone basins have a talismanic power that usually only very old art has.

The village church in Münchsteinach, Germany. Founded as a monastery in the early 12th century but later disused, it still retains much of its early, Romanesque atmosphere.

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The Church of Saint Quentin, Tournai (Belgium).

It contains two Late Gothic wooden sculptures depicting the Annunciation from 1428, made by Jean Delemer and painted by Robert Campin, "the earliest example of the Late Gothic style that was to dominate the sculpture of the Netherlands and most of Europe for the following century."’

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The library of Marienstatt cistercian monastery, Germany.

The library is considerably older than the current library building, constructed 1907-1909. It contains more than 100,000 volumes, of which 21,500 are considered historically important. Since 2017 the library is considered a nationally important cultural heritage.

Photos from the monastery webpage here.