Discovering an unknown medieval
library must count as one of the unexpected delights in the career of any
medievalist. In the case of a group of Birgittine scholars, however, our recent
joyful anticipation unfortunately all too quickly turned into anxiety and
concern.
In October of 2015 the
Extraordinary Sensescape work group (
http://sensescapes.asu.edu ) toured several
German monasteries, ending up at the Birgittine monastery at Altomünster, a
market hamlet to the West of Munich. Our group is researching the sensorium of
late medieval nuns, and we have decided to focus on the Birgittines because of
the ways that Saint Birgitta of Sweden founded and fashioned her order with
special architecture, art, music, texts and rituals all of which might today be
characterized as a “Gesamtkunstwerk.”
The
Birgittine monastery at Altomünster was founded in the 1490 and was
continuously inhabited by Birgittines ever since, even though it had been
secularized by the Kingdom of Bavaria in 1803 and refounded as monastery in
1841. Until recently strict claustration prohibited scholars from entering the vast
Baroque building complex of the nuns’ monastery, which also includes a library.
About one dozen manuscripts from the library at Altomünster were known to
specialists of Birgittine liturgy, in addition to the books that were taken to
Munich during the secularisation of 1803. The antiphoners at Altomünster were
considered to be the earliest complete sources for the cantus sororum, the office liturgy of the Birgittines, the only
liturgy composed especially for women during the Middle Ages.
When
our group visited Altomünster we asked Sister Apollonia, the prioress of
Altomünster, to see these manuscripts and she gladly brought them to us to
peruse. When we inquired what the situation of the library was, if there were
more medieval manuscripts and books, she invited several of the colleagues to
join her and see for themselves. What they found was a treasure trove of books,
many medieval, that were unknown to scholarship. Several of these came from
other Birgittine monasteries, including Maria Mai in Maihingen and Maria Troon
in Dendermonde. Some of the tomes contained high quality illuminations. This
discovery indicates that Altomünster contains the most important repository for
liturgical sources of the Birgittine order.
Before
the members of our group left for their homes in the U.S., Sweden, Denmark,
Germany, Finland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, we
approached Sister Apollonia and asked if we could inventorize the library and
digitize the most important manuscripts for our project. Sister Apollonia
approved, and we made plans for a smaller group to return to Altomünster to
work on the books.
Unfortunately,
however, before we could realize our plans we learned through the press that
the Vatican had closed the monastery and had instituted a papal commissar,
Sister Gabriele Konrad, to dissolve the institution. We immediately made
contact, pointing out the importance of the library and offering our help to
secure the undocumented collection through cataloging and digitization. Sister
Gabriele declined our offer, has ceased to answer subsequent queries about the
plans for the collection or allowing access to our project participants, and
has not permitted visitors into the library – neither scholars nor journalists.
The diocese of Munich and Freising, named as heir to the monastic buildings and
their contents in the papal dissolution document, has likewise refused to
communicate with us about the fate of the library.
As
informed scholars we feel an obligation that this important collection, which
we consider to be our shared world cultural heritage, remains accessible to
researchers and is preserved for future generations. In January 2016 our
working group wrote an
open
letter to Sister Gabriele Konrad, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of the
diocese of Munich and Freising and to Cardinal João Braz, head of the
Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic
Life, the institution at the Vatican responsible for papal orders. In our
letter we voiced our concerns, asking that the collection be transferred to a
publicly accessible library. Unfortunately we never received a response.
Almost
one year after our discovery of the library at Altomünster the library’s
contents are still undocumented and its fate unclear. Since several monastic
libraries were sold during the last years – books from the Cistercian Abbey at
Himmerod were auctioned as recently as December of 2015 – we felt that our
group needed to act. We approached the press to inform the public about the
situation, and the Süddeutsche Zeitung published the following article:
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/forschungskrimi-der-buecherschatz-in-der-einkaufstuete-1.3132831.
Subsequently the topic was also picked up by the Deutsche Presseagentur and
distributed to news outlets in the German speaking countries.
As
a result of investigative journalism, the ownership of the books has been
clarified. The State of Bavaria claims ownership to all books that were kept at
monastic institutions secularized in 1803, even if the buildings were sold or
came into other ownership in the meantime. However, since in 1841 the entire
building complex with all of its contents was sold back to re-create the
monastery, the library’s contents today belong to the monastery.
According to this article, the
vicar general, Msgr. Peter Beer doubts the importance of the library and claims
the existence of only one hitherto unpublished medieval manuscript. Based on
the hundreds of photographs and notes taken by the members of our group who
visited Altomünster in 2015, we must refute these claims. The library contains
a significant number of elicit manuscripts, many illuminated and of the highest
quality. One of them is an illuminated edition of the Revelations of Saint
Birgitta, copied in Flanders at the beginning of the 16th century
for the brothers’ library at the monastery Maria Troon in Dendermonde. In
addition, the scholars from our group found many unknown Birgittine antiphoners
dating from the Middle Ages to the 18th century and a significant
number of Birgittine processionals.
Beer
also questions the qualifications and rights of scholars from the USA with
respect to medieval cultural heritage. When asked about the open letter sent by
our group and its failure to elicit a response, Msgr. Beer pointed out: “You
can be assured that we do not need any help from the U.S.A. to understand how
to treat cultural assets of significance for Europe. We have a slightly longer
history and slightly longer experience.” As a group of scholars from eight
countries, including four U.S. citizens, we must take issue with this
statement. Nationality and genealogical background does not determine the
scholarly proficiency of individuals or groups nor should it justify the right
to determine access to historical materials. Our previously published
transdisciplinary work with medieval manuscripts, especially Birgittine books,
as well as our current project plans should provide credentials enough. We need
to stress that it is not only our right as scholars to urge institutions to
protect cultural heritage, but that it is our responsibility to do so. The
rarity of Birgittine materials coupled with the uniqueness of this pan-European
late-medieval order for women, means that much is at stake here. The
safekeeping of the Altomünster library affects more than just Germany and the
diocese of Munich and Freising
We
were pleased to learn from the Associated Press article that the diocese has no
plans to sell the library, but intends to have at least some of the materials
digitized so that scholars can access the files in the future. No date has been
given by when the digital files will be accessible and through which channels. For
scholarly purposes, however, study based solely on reproductions is by no means
adequate; accessing the original books is indispensable. The artistic
techniques and colors of pigments, the codicological composition and structure
of quires, the provenance of watermarks, the quality of parchment and bindings
can only be evaluated on the basis of the original.
Reportedly
some sorting and cleaning of the books and other materials is currently being
carried out. Since the fate of the library has not been decided we feel that
the scholarly community should use its influence to demand that any work
undertaken be executed according to professional archival standards with the
preservation of knowledge and materials as its highest priority.
Volker Schier and Corine Schleif
Arizona State University
