The libraries of scholars and scientists, for the purposes of this project, are defined by their owner’s status as a scholar or scientist, regardless of whether they pertain to the natural or social sciences. The scope of research is further delineated chronologically and geographically by the library collections of the institutions participating in the project, with a focus on European libraries from the late Middle Ages to the modern era. The libraries of scholars and scientists rarely contained only literature specific to their owners’ fields; professional literature often did not dominate these collections, and its position is complicated by the evolving systematization of science. In the early modern period, it was common for a physician to also study astronomy, mathematics, and physics, for an astronomer to write treatises on optics and mechanics, or for a lawyer to be an expert philologist. Therefore, the following categories should be understood as overlapping and interpenetrating, with many libraries under study in this project involving their owner’s activities in several of these categories. Similarly broad is the concept of scientific literature, as defined for the project’s investigation into the libraries of laypeople. This encompasses literature related to the roots of modern science, including various medical and surgical treatises, herbals regardless of their scientific rigor, alchemical and metallurgical writings, as well as theological and historiographical works, musicological studies, and writings on auxiliary historical sciences. Starting in the 17th century, alongside monographs, professional periodicals also appeared. The libraries also contained books resulting from the application of scientific knowledge to modern industrial fields such as engineering, transportation, food production, and textile manufacturing.
Lawyers’ Libraries and Legal Literature in Libraries
From the Middle Ages, the foundation of legal libraries typically comprised editions of the individual parts of Emperor Justinian’s Codex Iuris Civilis and the foundations of ecclesiastical canon law, especially Gratian’s Decretum (Concordia discordantium canonum), the Extravagantes, and similar texts. This core was later expanded by territorial constitutions and municipal laws. Specialized legal manuals covered areas such as feudal law, matrimonial law, and more. Collections of rulings from provincial and municipal courts supplemented these. Legal libraries frequently contained books on the law of war (Ius belli et pacis). Legal literature appeared, in one form or another, not only in professional bourgeois libraries but also in most larger noble and ecclesiastical libraries, as it served not just the owner but also as a necessary tool for the administration of estates, dioceses, etc.
Physicians’ Libraries and Medical Literature in Libraries
Physicians’ libraries typically began with canonical works of Greek and Roman medicine, especially the writings of Hippocrates, Dioscorides, and Galen, but also later works by the Persian physician Avicenna (Ali ibn Sina) or the Spanish Arab polymath Averroes (Ahmad ibn Rushd). Among early modern authors, Paracelsus was particularly popular. These were supplemented by herbals that extended into zoology and mineralogy when relevant to contemporary understandings of medicine. In Czech libraries, besides older editions of Hortus sanitatis, both Czech editions of Mattioli’s Herbal (Prague, 1562 and 1596) and the lavishly illustrated Hortus Eystettensis (Nuremberg, 1612) were frequently found. Manuscript collections of medical recipes or simple treatments for common ailments were also popular. Special attention should be given to surgical and battlefield medicine works. With the development of medical specialization during the Enlightenment, the content of professional literature in medical libraries also changed. In later collections, there are traces of early homeopathy. Medical literature in the form of herbals, household medical guides, and manuals on how to address plague outbreaks, etc., was a common part of lay libraries.
Biologists’ Libraries and Biological Literature in Libraries
This category encompasses libraries that preserve and make accessible books on zoology, botany, and mycology, fields that were much more closely related during the medieval and early modern periods than they are today. At that time, the primary users of these works were physicians and apothecaries. Straddling the line between zoological and botanical literature of the medieval and early modern eras were treatises on nonexistent or mythical animals and plants, which were often categorized alongside real organisms, such as in Hortus sanitatis and other works at the intersection of the natural sciences and medicine. These were often very costly publications with rich illustrative material. In addition to herbals and various zoological books, this genre would also include works on plant cultivation and animal husbandry, despite their affinity with economic literature. Modern libraries in this category, in terms of scientific level, often feature a high degree of specialization and are on a more advanced plane.
Mathematicians’ Libraries and Mathematical Literature in Libraries
Mathematical literature in medieval and early modern libraries typically supplemented works from other natural sciences, such as physics, astronomy, acoustics, optics, and music, as mathematics coexisted symbiotically with these fields, as evidenced by contemporary library catalogs and listings that grouped books from these disciplines together. The foundation of mathematical literature was the works of ancient Greece, including those of Euclid, Archimedes, Pythagoras, and their Arab commentators and successors in Latin translations. Just as in the field of astronomy, mathematics experienced significant changes and developments during the early modern period, reflected in a quantitative increase in mathematical books in scholars’ libraries (not necessarily only mathematicians), as well as their growing diversity. We encounter the application of mathematics and mechanics in military science (in the field of ballistics), in art (in treatises on perspective), or, in later libraries, in statistics. Simple textbooks on commercial arithmetic, which often appear in the libraries of non-scholars, also sit at the intersection of mathematics and economic literature.
Astronomers’ Libraries and Astronomical Literature in Libraries
Beyond modern specialized libraries of astronomers and astronomical institutes, astronomical literature was already present in many medieval and early modern libraries because astronomy was part of the seven liberal arts and a component of education at academic gymnasiums. In the Middle Ages and early modern periods, astronomical literature was closely connected with astrological literature, which dealt with the influence of celestial bodies on earthly events and human lives. Notes on the observation of comets, solar and lunar eclipses are common in both scholarly and lay libraries. The medieval worldview regarding the organization of the cosmos was predominantly shaped by the works of Aristotle. The transition came during the Renaissance with the Copernican shift to heliocentrism and Kepler’s redefinition of planetary orbits from circular to elliptical. These changes are reflected in the composition of early modern astronomical libraries. In addition to planetary position tables, almanacs with lunar phases and eclipse forecasts, works documenting observations of comets and supernovae were also widely circulated. In lay libraries, we most often encounter calendars with astronomical predictions and so-called “minuces,” instructions on bloodletting according to the movement of the planets.
Physicists’ Libraries and Physical Literature in Libraries
In the early modern period, given the Renaissance scholars’ breadth of knowledge, it is very difficult, if not impossible, to define a physical library or a physicist’s library as a separate type. Literature in physics (optics, acoustics, hydraulics, etc.) was typically classified among mathematical books and understood as such. Military applications of physical laws in ballistics played a significant role, as did hydraulics in constructing water-powered machines and garden architecture, or optics in the perspective of fine art. Early modern astronomy also employed physical laws of mechanics and optics. The seminal works of Isaac Newton (Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 1687) slowly made their way into Czech libraries over time. Later publications included treatises on electrical energy and its industrial applications.
Historians’ Libraries and Historiographical Literature in Libraries
General historiographical works and chronicles appeared in the libraries of most scholars and institutions during the Middle Ages and early modern period, not only among those directly engaged in historical scholarship (e.g., Hartmann Schedel’s Liber chronicarum – Nuremberg, 1493, or Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini’s Historia Bohemica – Rome, 1475). These works were often viewed not just as records of the past but also as moral and political lessons (e.g., Václav Hájek of Libočany’s Kronika česká – Prague, 1541). Some were also conceived as epic narratives and served an entertaining function. According to the interests and horizons of the owners, these works could cover world, national, local, or municipal history, as well as institutional, ecclesiastical, or personal histories. From today’s perspective, some also display notable overlaps with geography and ethnography. Starting in the early modern period, with the rise of critical historiography, libraries began to include literature from auxiliary sciences, such as heraldry and genealogy, and later on added fields like diplomatics, paleography, chronology, numismatics, and more (e.g., Jean Mabillon’s De re diplomatica libri VI – Paris, 1681). The Enlightenment brought an increased interest in material relics of human activity, which led to the inclusion of archaeology in libraries.
Philologists’ Libraries and Philological Literature in Libraries
In addition to the libraries of professional philologists, typically university or gymnasium professors specializing in classical and living languages, philological literature is also found in lay libraries. These often included language textbooks and other linguistic works from the owner’s student years, which they continued to use in later life when composing occasional Greek or Latin poetry. The first specialized studies on languages, not solely focused on their practical usage, primarily concerned classical languages—Latin and Ancient Greek—which long dominated the field. With the Renaissance and Reformation, interest expanded to other biblical languages, particularly Hebrew, though works on these languages were sometimes viewed as part of theological studies. The scope of philology significantly broadened during the Enlightenment and the national revivals, extending to other languages, their groups, and their developmental phases. This expansion also covered literature, culture, and history, intersecting with other sciences.
Architects’ Libraries and Architectural Literature in Libraries
From the early modern period, books on architecture were an indispensable part of larger aristocratic and ecclesiastical libraries, but they were also frequently found in the libraries of educated townspeople, who used them for general instruction or as inspiration for their own construction projects. The treatise De Architectura Libri Decem by the Roman architect and engineer Marcus Vitruvius Pollio was a seminal work that influenced architectural thought from the Middle Ages through to the Baroque. In the 16th century, original architectural literature began to emerge, such as works by Albrecht Dürer, which dealt with applied geometry and fortifications. Until the 19th century, Andrea Palladio’s I quattro libri dell’architettura and Vignola’s La regola delli cinque ordini d’architettura remained influential. Architectural literature in libraries addressed not only residential buildings and palaces but also garden architecture, interior design, and individual architectural elements. A special category comprised military architecture. Architecture textbooks also emerged during this period. Furthermore, architectural literature often overlapped with technical fields and topography.
Chemists’ Libraries and Chemical Literature in Libraries
Scientific literature related to chemistry has historically been closely linked to other disciplines—alchemy, medicine, and metallurgy—so its primary recipients in the early modern period were often physicians and pharmacists. However, individual works in this field were also found in the libraries of educated laypersons. Alchemy played a significant role in the future development of chemistry, fostering experimental research and leading to the discovery of new substances and processes. Chemistry became a distinct field from the 17th century onward, marked by scientifically accurate publications from experiments, the creation of the first measuring instruments, and a growing interest in the microscopic world. By the 18th century, chemistry was developing along three primary lines: medicinal, economic, and technical. Consequently, chemical libraries could contain works on modern chemistry and related disciplines—such as alchemical treatises (e.g., the works of Raymund Lull) or herbals that included distillation processes and medical works containing recipes that could be classified as chemical.
Geographers’ Libraries and Geographical Literature in Libraries
In the early modern period, geography was closely intertwined with historiography, making it difficult to distinguish the libraries of historians and geographers in earlier periods. Renaissance and Baroque geographical medallions often included historical accounts of countries and estates as part of cartographic presentations. In historical libraries, geographical works include travelogues, atlases, individual maps, and globes. The earliest geographical works combined historiography, cosmography, topography, and ethnography. Ancient and medieval travelogues mixed realistic descriptions with fiction, while in the Renaissance, utopias became a distinct genre. By the 18th century, educational travel writing had overtaken its entertaining function, giving rise to the guidebook genre. In the 19th century, the first geographical textbooks appeared. One of the oldest and most widely disseminated European geographical works was Sebastian Münster’s Cosmographia, which had national adaptations. Atlases in libraries served both educational and representational purposes. Hand-colored collections, comprising dozens to hundreds of maps, plans, and views, reached their peak between the 16th and 17th centuries in Dutch publishing houses like those of A. Ortelius and W. J. Blaeu, from which they spread into book collections across Europe. Heavily illustrated travel and topographical works were a costly investment, making them more common in noble and large ecclesiastical libraries. Similarly, globes and celestial spheres were standard features of library rooms from the Renaissance onward.
Theologians’ Libraries and Theological Literature in Libraries
Theological literature, by its nature, encompasses a wide range of other disciplines, such as philology, philosophy, historiography, and legal literature. Accordingly, theologians’ libraries typically extended beyond theology to include many other works, depending on the owner’s broader interests, such as collections of exempla or chronicles, essential supplements to preachers’ libraries. The main fields of theological literature include systematic theology (dogmatics, symbolism), fundamental and polemical theology and apologetics, biblical theology, as well as church history and practical theology (e.g., pastoral theology, catechetics, liturgics, homiletics, and missiology). Other areas covered include ecumenical ecclesiology, canon law, social theology, Christian ethics, religious studies, and mysticism. Theological libraries could contain a wide range of works, such as theological-historical-legal treatises and manuals, Bibles, sermons, philosophical works with a focus on metaphysics, and various rhetorical guides. They therefore encompass writings that deal primarily with religious faith, its sources, and its subjects in both broader and narrower senses.
Geologists’ Libraries and Geological Literature in Libraries
Geology, along with mining, metallurgy, chemistry (and alchemy), remained a somewhat fluid and interrelated field straddling the natural sciences and technical disciplines until the 18th century. Although geological writings date back to ancient Greece, and Albert the Great wrote De Mineralibus in the 13th century, the field flourished in the 16th century with the repeated publication of three key works: Georg Agricola’s De ortu & causis subterraneorum, Konrad Gesner’s De rerum fossilium, lapidum et gemmarum, and Wenzel Jamnitzer’s Perspectiva corporum regularium, illustrated by Jost Amman. Scientific illustration depicting human tools and activities remained characteristic of early geological literature, with this style persisting into Athanasius Kircher’s works. It was not until the specialized mineralogical treatises of the 18th century that realistic colored engravings became standard. Czech research gained prominence through Ignác Born, who published the two-volume illustrated work Lithophylacium Bornianum sive Index fossilium, which sparked over a century of interest in paleontology. This culminated in Joachim Barrande’s monumental Système silurien du centre de la Bohème (Prague-Leipzig, 1852–1911), comprising 22 volumes, 6,000 pages of text, and 1,160 plates.
Educators’ Libraries and Pedagogical Literature in Libraries
Textbooks and books on education and pedagogy became an integral part of libraries and were found in ecclesiastical and noble collections, as well as in the personal libraries of townspeople and intellectuals. Pedagogical literature, especially textbooks, also appeared in school libraries—whether they were parish, monastic, or town schools or universities. These works often included classical authors such as Cicero, Quintilian, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, or the late antique grammarian Donatus. Pedagogical literature covers textbooks and primers, as well as professional pedagogical and philosophical works on education and schooling. Pedagogical libraries tended to have an encyclopedic character, combining pedagogical works with encyclopedic literature and works focused on education, its history, and development. An example of this is the Roman author Marcus Terentius Varro’s encyclopedia, which defined the structure of the seven liberal arts: the trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music). The foundations of pedagogical libraries, apart from textbooks, included works on education and upbringing. The massive growth of pedagogical literature in the Habsburg Monarchy is tied to the introduction of compulsory schooling by Maria Theresa’s decree on December 6, 1774.
Literary Scholars’ Libraries and Literary Criticism Literature in Libraries
Libraries specializing in literary criticism contain publications focused on the study of literature, the literary creation process, literary history, theory, or textual criticism. Early interest in literary creation in antiquity was connected with rhetoric, poetry, and drama. Therefore, the first literary criticism libraries included works such as Aristotle’s Poetics, one of the earliest texts to discuss literary creation, and foundational to both literary criticism and theory. The writings of Cicero were also commonly found in early literary libraries. Literary science became an independent discipline in the modern period, emerging from rhetoric, poetics, philology, and philosophy, and the structure of literary genres transformed, with more attention given to literary creation itself. In specialized literary science libraries, we find critical editions of literary works, monographs on authors, theoretical studies, literary history, and bibliographies. Since literary science studies literature in its broader social context, these libraries often included encyclopedic or dictionary literature (encyclopedias, literary dictionaries, language dictionaries), as well as foundational works from the social sciences.
Engineers’ Libraries and Technical Literature in Libraries
In the Middle Ages and early modern period, it is difficult to define technical libraries as a distinct category because contemporary technical and technological disciplines were often intertwined with physics, mathematics, chemistry, or alchemy. Likewise, defining the owners of these libraries is challenging. Works on technical subjects can be found in private collections, those of universal scholars, specialists, and in encyclopedic noble and ecclesiastical libraries. Early technical books described material activities, tools, production processes, and machines, effectively making them books about crafts. Initially, the most prominent works focused on mining and metallurgy, although geology formed the foundation for these fields and belonged more to the natural sciences. Until the 18th century, De re metallica libri XII by Georg Agricola, first published in Basel in 1556, was regarded as a key work in this area. Technical literature sometimes also included militaria, works directly related to the techniques of combat or defense, such as Salvator Fabris’ Scienza e pratica d’arme (Copenhagen, 1606). Publications on metallurgy, including the manufacture of weapons and armor, also fell into this category. Books on fortress construction, bridging militaria and technical literature, developed in parallel with other branches of future industry, such as hydraulics or mechanics, which bordered on physics but were essential for practical applications, especially the creation of machines (cranes, cogwheels, presses, mills, etc.). From the late 16th century, works such as Jacques Besson’s Theatrum instrumentorum et machinarum (Lyon, 1578) offered a contemporary view of the field. Starting in the 18th century, treatises on engineering emerged, and with the invention of the steam engine in 1765, texts on industrial topics began to appear. By the 19th century, technical literature expanded to include textbooks for engineers and designers and publications addressing industrial, transport, and mechanization issues.
Economists’ Libraries and Economic Literature in Libraries
The term “economic libraries” initially referred to literature concerning the management of estates and related fields (agriculture, water management, forestry), which was relevant for both large estate owners and small farmers. From the 18th century onward, it referred more broadly to economic literature as economics came to be recognized as a discipline concerned with the management of the state and its citizens’ livelihoods, as defined by Adam Smith in 1776. Printed works on economic topics were found in private and institutional collections, aristocratic and ecclesiastical libraries, and were held by state administrative offices and private collectors. Early economic texts include calendars, initially limited to religious holidays but soon expanded to include astronomical, historical, and, from the late 16th century, economic information. From the 1480s, these calendars also included forecasts, and from the mid-17th century, they began to appear independently, often as small popular publications, known as “peasant almanacs.” From the 16th century, we also find monographs focused directly on specific economic activities, with content gradually becoming more specialized by sector—agriculture, animal husbandry, beekeeping, plant cultivation, garden design, forestry, etc. Economic literature could also include handwritten agricultural rules and instructions issued by estate owners, dating as far back as 1350, providing concise guidance on estate management. These instructions, later printed, belong to a broader group of administrative publications that, from the 16th century, regulated economic matters within state or ecclesiastical governance, particularly addressing trade and production. Instructional texts for merchants, though falling within the realm of mathematics, as well as monographs on trade and commercial law, became prominent by the second half of the 18th century, alongside the emergence of economics as a recognized discipline. The production of these publications steadily increased in line with economic growth.