Manuscripts to be sold

Bad news!

Dear colleagues,

You may have heard that the German State of Baden-Württemberg intends to auction off large parts of the manuscript collection of the Badische Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe which has been in public custody since the abolition of the Grand Duchy in 1918/19. Unfortunately, the exact legal settlement made at the time seems to leave some room for dispute, but the suggested compromise between the descendants of the Grand Duke and the State may now lead to the sale of nearly the complete manuscript holdings of the Landesbibliothek, some 3500 manuscripts, including the monastic library of the monastery of Reichenau (Lake Constance) and many other monastic collections which were handed over to the Grand Dukes after the secularization. The expected income is intended to compensate the Dukes for building maintenance of their residence, the former Cistercian monastery of Salem (now mostly used as a boarding school). Manuscripts were chosen for sale rather than other works of art (paintings etc.) which fell to the State in 1918 and are apparently seen as being of greater interest to the general public.

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Jane Austen

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Oscar Wilde

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