FAMOUS LIBRARY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 172, 4 May 1936, Page 8

FAMOUS LIBRARY

CULTURAL TREASURES. COLLECTION AT HAMBURG. Hamburg is so famous as a great seaport that not only foreigners but even Germans may be apt to forget that this great Hanseatic city is also a cultural centre of no mean sort, writes a staff correspondent in the “Christian Science Monitor.”

The visitor to Hamburg is generally only “in transit,” hut if during this period ho had time to visit the World Economic Archives “Welt-Wirt-schafts-Archiv”—and the State and University Library, he would see two homes of economic and cultural reference of which any city might well be proud.

In the World Economic Archives are preserved all the most important material on economic affairs, in a form accessible to all inquirers. It is claimed to be the most complete and up-to-date collection of its kind anywhere.

Millions of Clippings, Established in 1908, it now has about 4,000,000 cuttings from German and foreign newspapers and periodicals, and these increase at the rate of about 250,000 cuttings a year. Documentary material is very much in evidence here—legal codes, Customs and tariff agreements, consular reports, statistics, everything to help the business man, the economic expert or the student. A short walk from the Archives to the State and University Library brings the stranger to an entirely different world—that of cultural treasures, ancient and modern, dating from centuries before the Christian era to the present day. This library owes its beginnings to Dr. Bugenhagen, who following Martin Luther’s wish that there should be libraries wherever possible, established this one, in 1529. To-day, it contains about 800,000 books in different languages, and a large collection of papyri and manuscripts from 300 B.C. to the present day. Original letters of Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Bismarck, Hindenburg, manuscripts from Luther and Leibnitz to modern writers like Richard Dehmel and Liliencron, and a great part of Schiller’s library.

Beethoven’s Will, Here one may see Ludwig van Beethoven’s will, which was presented by Jenny Lind, the famous singer. The guide will tell you the story of how on account of his deafness the great composer is supposed to have planned suicide and began writing his will. While writing, his consciousness was suddenly flooded with inspiration for new work and life, so that he abandoned his earlier intentions and added a postscript on the joys of life. One copy of each of the three editions of the first German Bible, published ;in Germantown, Penna., by Christoph Saur, in 1743, 1763, and 1776 is preserved here. The copy of the first edition is particularly interesting, since it is said to be the first translation of the Bible in a European language, published in America, and because it is a “pirate” Bible, having been long in the hands of pirates before it reached its proper destination. Another treasure of interest to Americans is the Eliot Bible. It is said to be a copy of the Indian translation of the Bible made by John Eliot in 1663, and which was “brought to Albany by a Natick Indian in the time of Governor Nicolls, 1664-69.” This library claims to have the i largest papyrus collection in the world. Here is a papyrus showing how Egyptian boys learned the Greek conjugations. Lost Book by Paul. But the most valuable of all the papyri one in book, not scroll form, is probably what is described as the longlost book of the Apostle Paul. A part of this book, according to Professor Gustav Wahl, the director of the library, written in Coptic, was discovered by a’ German scholar in the papyri collection in Heidleberg some years ago. Acting on the assumption that there must be somewhere an original, he continued bis search until successful. Necessary funds have now been obtained from German and American friends to prepare a German translation of the Greek manuscript, and it 'is expected that it will soon appear in print.