Bodmer Library
Location | Cologny, Canton of Geneva |
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Coordinates | 46°12′55″N 6°10′50″E / 46.2153°N 6.1806°E |
Type | memory institution museum |
Heritage designation | class A Swiss cultural property of national significance |
Country | Switzerland |
Director | Jacques Berchtold |
Website | www |
The Bodmer Foundation (French: Fondation Bodmer) is a library and museum specialised in manuscripts and precious editions. It is located in Cologny, Switzerland just outside Geneva.
Also known as Bibliotheca Bodmeriana (or Bodmer Library), it is a Swiss
History
Martin Bodmer established the library in the 1920s. Bodmer selected the works centering on what he saw as the five pillars of
In 1970, shortly before Bodmer's death, the Bodmer Foundation was established to make the collection accessible and conserve it. In 2003 the building was remodelled by Mario Botta. He connected the cellars of the two houses by a two-story underground structure, pierced by light shafts.[3]
Items
The collection comprises some 160,000 items, including Sumerian clay tablets, Greek papyri and handwritten originals including music sheets. He aimed at representing the historical context by adding political, philosophical and scientific items.[2] Some samples are:
- Oldest surviving copy of the Gospel of James
- A Gutenberg Bible, 1452
- First-edition print of Ninety-Five Theses, 1517
- A copy of Newton's Gottfried Leibniz
- Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's draft manuscript of Nathan the Wise, 1778
- Papyrus 66, Papyrus 73 and Papyrus 74
- Minuscule 556
- A copy of Shakespeare's First Folio, 1623, in its original binding. Digitised by The Bodmer Lab, this copy is available online
Photos
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Entrance of the museum
References
- ^ "Kantonsliste A-Objekte:Geneva" (PDF). KGS Inventar (in German). Federal Office of Civil Protection. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
- ^ a b Koch, Hans-Albrecht: Spiegel der Welt: Die Bibliotheca Bodmeriana zu Gast im Schiller-Nationalmuseum / Deutsches Literaturarchiv in Marbach Archived 2008-11-21 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Mario Botta: Fondazione Martin Bodmer - Biblioteca e Museo, Cologny". Botta.ch. Retrieved 2013-12-29.
Bibliography
- Stella Ghervas, "Manuscrits russes dans la Bibliotheca Bodmeriana," Corona Nova, t. II. München, K.G. Saur Verlag, 2003, 101–126.