Zoological books between 16th and 18th centuries in the Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma

Abstract

The Library of the Archabbey of Pannonhalma is the oldest one in Hungary. About 200 works are mentioned to be kept there as soon as the 11th century. Its history is rich in turns, but the holdings of the library have been increasing more or less continously and currently the collection contains about 400 000 volumes. Because of the teaching and scientific activity of the Benedict monks among others zoological books have been collected during the centuries. Hovewer, zoological books in the modern holdings have never been listed and analysed from the zoological point of view till now. Nowdays 150 volumes of zoology books are to be found in the library. Most of them are series of books, reference works, dissertations or school-books, but some high quality scientific works of the era, as books of Conrad Gessner, Ulisse Aldrovandi or Carl Linnaeus are also located in the collection. About one quarter of the listed zoological books are kept only in this library in Hungary.