With apologies for cross-posting - a serious issue for archive users and manuscript scholars generally, and in this case for medieval religion scholars specifically. Thanks for your attention,
Anna
----- Forwarded message from "Bettina Wagner"-----
From: "Bettina Wagner"
[log in to unmask]To: "Bettina Wagner"
[log in to unmask]Subject: Manuscripts to be sold
Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 09:23:16 +0200
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.
These plans constitute a very serious threat to the integrity of the
German
cultural heritage, to the accessibility of primary research material which
may end up in private ownership and to the long-term future of public
institutions in custody of it. It reflects very badly on political views of
the importance of our written heritage. I therefore ask you to support the
petition attached below.
You can voice your opinion directly on the website of the Minister President
of Baden-Württemberg:
http://www.guenther-oettinger.de/index.php?id=297
Press articles and more information is available under
http://www.blb-karlsruhe.de/blb/blbhtml/aktuelles/aktuellinfo.html An open letter of protest to the government written by Klaus Klein of the Institut für Deutsche Philologie des Mittelalters, Philipps-Universitaet, Marburg, to which signatures are invited, is at
http://cgi-host.uni-marburg.de/~mrep/brief/.
Yours sincerely,
Bettina Wagner
*** This is not an official statement by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
München. ***
----- End of forwarded message from "Bettina Wagner"
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--
Anna Sander (MMiss)
Lonsdale Curator of Archives and Manuscripts
Balliol College
Oxford OX1 3BJ
UK
Fax.+44 (0)1865 277 803
Email
[log in to unmask]http://archives.balliol.ox.ac.uk
