Uppsala University Library
Encyclopedia
Uppsala University Library at Uppsala University
in Uppsala
, Sweden
, consists of 12 subject libraries, one of which is housed in the old main library building, Carolina Rediviva
. The library holds books and periodicals, manuscripts, musical scores, pictures and maps.
, where the academy mill – now the provincial museum
- was later built. In 1566, King Eric XIV
donated the old chapter house, south of the Uppsala Cathedral
, to be used for lectures. After the construction of the Gustavianum in the 1620s, this building was referred to as the Collegium vetus or Gamla akademien ("the old academy"), until it was renamed in 1704 through a decision of the consistory
(university board) and called the Academia Carolina, in honour of kings Charles IX
, Charles XI
and Charles XII
. The library was located in the Academia Carolina from the late 16th century until 1691, when it was moved to one floor of the Gustavianum
. The Academia Carolina was damaged in the city fire of 1702, was later restored but continued to decay and finally demolished in the 1770s. An 18th century plan to return the library to the building was never realized and the new library building intended for the spot after demolition was never built. When a new library building was eventually constructed, it received the name Carolina Rediviva, "the revived Carolina", in honour of the old building, but was located to an entirely different place.
The library remained in Gustavianum, which luckily escaped the flames in 1702, until Carolina Rediviva
was completed in 1841. Carolina Rediviva has since retained the status of central library of the university until a reorganization in the 1990s did away with the concept of a centralized library organization and divided the library into a number of branch libraries of equal status, with Carolina being home of one of the branch libraries dedicated to humanities
and social sciences
. Nevertheless, the central functions of the library system largely remain in the building, as do the "cultural heritage units" (the Department for manuscripts and music and the Department for maps and prints).
Parallel to the development of the central library, the "seminars" (later called "departments") of the university had their own libraries. Currently, the library's collections are dispersed in the subject libraries. In 2004 most of subject libraries within the Faculties of Arts, Languages and Theology were amalgamated to form the new Karin Boye Library in the English Park Centre for the Humanities, next to the old cemetery.
The university library of Uppsala was mainly created through the large donations in the early 17th century of confiscated libraries from monasteries, especially that in Vadstena, and the important collection of Baron Hogenskild Bielke who had been executed in 1605 and whose library was confiscated by the crown and donated by Gustav Adolph in 1621.
The many wars in which Sweden took a part in the 17th century brought many important manuscripts and collections to Sweden as spoils of war, some of which eventually ended up in Uppsala. The most famous example is the Codex Argenteus
, most of what remains of Bishop Ulfilas
's translation of the New Testament into Gothic
, which was taken from Prague. Another example is the Copernicana, the main part of the library of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus
, taken by the Swedish Army in Krakow.
Later donations and purchases include many archives and collections of various Swedish families and individuals, such as the personal papers of King Gustav III
, which were left to the library, to be opened only 50 years after the King's death.
More recently acquired collections include the Bibliotheca Walleriana and the Waller manuscript collection, collected by Dr Erik Waller, and partly donated, partly purchased by the library. One of the largest libraries of books concerned with the history of science and medicine and a manuscript collection mostly of letters from notable scientists. The manuscript collection is in the process of being scanned and published on the web: http://waller.ub.uu.se/
The Bodoni collection is the largest collection of prints of Giambattista Bodoni
(1740-1813) outside his native Parma
. Donated by the industrialist Erik Kempe 1959 and later extended with funds donated at the same time.
The music collections includes the Düben collection
which was accumulated from 1640 until 1718 by the Düben
family, a German family of musicians which included a number of members serving as Hofkapellmeister of the royal court orchestra. It contains a large selection of 17th century music, notably important works by Buxtehude not elsewhere preserved. The Düben collection
has been catalogued and is in the process of being scanned and published on the web: http://www.musik.uu.se/duben/Duben.php
Other music collections are those from the manors of Leufsta and Gimo, the collection of Hugo Alfvén
, that of the Joseph Martin Kraus
, and the various collections that have been taken as spoils of war, such as the Cancionero de Uppsala, a 16th century collection of Spanish music printed in Venice 1556 and not preserved in any other copy.
Uppsala University
Uppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...
in Uppsala
Uppsala
- Economy :Today Uppsala is well established in medical research and recognized for its leading position in biotechnology.*Abbott Medical Optics *GE Healthcare*Pfizer *Phadia, an offshoot of Pharmacia*Fresenius*Q-Med...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, consists of 12 subject libraries, one of which is housed in the old main library building, Carolina Rediviva
Carolina Rediviva
Carolina Rediviva is the main building of the Uppsala University Library in Uppsala, Sweden. The building was begun in 1820 and completed in 1841. The original architect was Carl Fredrik Sundvall. Later additions to the building have been designed by Axel Johan Anderberg and Peter Celsing...
. The library holds books and periodicals, manuscripts, musical scores, pictures and maps.
History
The exact site of the library during its earliest years is not known, but the university from its foundation in 1477, was located on what became known as "Student Island" in the Fyris RiverFyris
Fyrisån is a river in the Swedish province of Uppland, which passes through the city of Uppsala and ends in Lake Mälaren....
, where the academy mill – now the provincial museum
Upplandsmuseet
The Upplandsmuseet is the county museum of Uppsala County in Sweden. The institution is responsible for preservation and conducting research in the area of the cultural history and archaeology of the county, including the city of Uppsala...
- was later built. In 1566, King Eric XIV
Eric XIV of Sweden
-Family and descendants:Eric XIV had several relationships before his marriage. With Agda Persdotter he had four daughters:#Margareta Eriksdotter , married 1592 to Olov Simonsson, vicar of Horn....
donated the old chapter house, south of the Uppsala Cathedral
Uppsala Cathedral
Uppsala Cathedral is a cathedral located centrally in the city of Uppsala, Sweden. It dates back to the late 13th century and at a height of 118.7 m is the tallest church building in Scandinavia. Originally built under Roman Catholicism and used for coronations of the Swedish monarch, since the...
, to be used for lectures. After the construction of the Gustavianum in the 1620s, this building was referred to as the Collegium vetus or Gamla akademien ("the old academy"), until it was renamed in 1704 through a decision of the consistory
Consistory
-Antiquity:Originally, the Latin word consistorium meant simply 'sitting together', just as the Greek synedrion ....
(university board) and called the Academia Carolina, in honour of kings Charles IX
Charles IX of Sweden
Charles IX of Sweden also Carl, was King of Sweden from 1604 until his death. He was the youngest son of King Gustav I of Sweden and his second wife, Margaret Leijonhufvud, brother of Eric XIV and John III of Sweden, and uncle of Sigismund III Vasa king of both Sweden and Poland...
, Charles XI
Charles XI of Sweden
Charles XI also Carl, was King of Sweden from 1660 until his death, in a period in Swedish history known as the Swedish empire ....
and Charles XII
Charles XII of Sweden
Charles XII also Carl of Sweden, , Latinized to Carolus Rex, Turkish: Demirbaş Şarl, also known as Charles the Habitué was the King of the Swedish Empire from 1697 to 1718...
. The library was located in the Academia Carolina from the late 16th century until 1691, when it was moved to one floor of the Gustavianum
Gustavianum
Gustavianum is the former main building of Uppsala University, built 1622–1625 and named after King Gustavus Adolphus. Under the cupola is the theatrum anatomicum, the second oldest in the world added to the building in the mid 17th century by Olaus Rudbeck, professor of medicine and amateur...
. The Academia Carolina was damaged in the city fire of 1702, was later restored but continued to decay and finally demolished in the 1770s. An 18th century plan to return the library to the building was never realized and the new library building intended for the spot after demolition was never built. When a new library building was eventually constructed, it received the name Carolina Rediviva, "the revived Carolina", in honour of the old building, but was located to an entirely different place.
The library remained in Gustavianum, which luckily escaped the flames in 1702, until Carolina Rediviva
Carolina Rediviva
Carolina Rediviva is the main building of the Uppsala University Library in Uppsala, Sweden. The building was begun in 1820 and completed in 1841. The original architect was Carl Fredrik Sundvall. Later additions to the building have been designed by Axel Johan Anderberg and Peter Celsing...
was completed in 1841. Carolina Rediviva has since retained the status of central library of the university until a reorganization in the 1990s did away with the concept of a centralized library organization and divided the library into a number of branch libraries of equal status, with Carolina being home of one of the branch libraries dedicated to humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
and social sciences
Social sciences
Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...
. Nevertheless, the central functions of the library system largely remain in the building, as do the "cultural heritage units" (the Department for manuscripts and music and the Department for maps and prints).
Parallel to the development of the central library, the "seminars" (later called "departments") of the university had their own libraries. Currently, the library's collections are dispersed in the subject libraries. In 2004 most of subject libraries within the Faculties of Arts, Languages and Theology were amalgamated to form the new Karin Boye Library in the English Park Centre for the Humanities, next to the old cemetery.
Some significant manuscripts and collections
The many wars in which Sweden took a part in the 17th century brought many important manuscripts and collections to Sweden as spoils of war, some of which eventually ended up in Uppsala. The most famous example is the Codex Argenteus
Codex Argenteus
The Codex Argenteus, "Silver Book", is a 6th century manuscript, originally containing bishop Ulfilas's 4th century translation of the Bible into the Gothic language. Of the original 336 folios, 188—including the Speyer fragment discovered in 1970—have been preserved, containing the...
, most of what remains of Bishop Ulfilas
Ulfilas
Ulfilas, or Gothic Wulfila , bishop, missionary, and Bible translator, was a Goth or half-Goth and half-Greek from Cappadocia who had spent time inside the Roman Empire at the peak of the Arian controversy. Ulfilas was ordained a bishop by Eusebius of Nicomedia and returned to his people to work...
's translation of the New Testament into Gothic
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
, which was taken from Prague. Another example is the Copernicana, the main part of the library of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive heliocentric cosmology which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe....
, taken by the Swedish Army in Krakow.
Later donations and purchases include many archives and collections of various Swedish families and individuals, such as the personal papers of King Gustav III
Gustav III of Sweden
Gustav III was King of Sweden from 1771 until his death. He was the eldest son of King Adolph Frederick and Queen Louise Ulrica of Sweden, she a sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia....
, which were left to the library, to be opened only 50 years after the King's death.
More recently acquired collections include the Bibliotheca Walleriana and the Waller manuscript collection, collected by Dr Erik Waller, and partly donated, partly purchased by the library. One of the largest libraries of books concerned with the history of science and medicine and a manuscript collection mostly of letters from notable scientists. The manuscript collection is in the process of being scanned and published on the web: http://waller.ub.uu.se/
The Bodoni collection is the largest collection of prints of Giambattista Bodoni
Giambattista Bodoni
Giambattista Bodoni was an Italian engraver, publisher, printer and typographer of high repute remembered for designing a family of different typefaces called Bodoni....
(1740-1813) outside his native Parma
Parma
Parma is a city in the Italian region of Emilia-Romagna famous for its ham, its cheese, its architecture and the fine countryside around it. This is the home of the University of Parma, one of the oldest universities in the world....
. Donated by the industrialist Erik Kempe 1959 and later extended with funds donated at the same time.
The music collections includes the Düben collection
Düben collection
The Düben collection is a collection of musical manuscripts named after the original collector, Gustaf Düben held in the Uppsala University Library which preserves includes many unicae of German baroque music, in particular the only surviving copies of many works by Dieterich Buxtehude.-Selected...
which was accumulated from 1640 until 1718 by the Düben
Düben
Düben is a village and a former municipality in the district of Wittenberg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 March 2009, it is part of the town Coswig....
family, a German family of musicians which included a number of members serving as Hofkapellmeister of the royal court orchestra. It contains a large selection of 17th century music, notably important works by Buxtehude not elsewhere preserved. The Düben collection
Düben collection
The Düben collection is a collection of musical manuscripts named after the original collector, Gustaf Düben held in the Uppsala University Library which preserves includes many unicae of German baroque music, in particular the only surviving copies of many works by Dieterich Buxtehude.-Selected...
has been catalogued and is in the process of being scanned and published on the web: http://www.musik.uu.se/duben/Duben.php
Other music collections are those from the manors of Leufsta and Gimo, the collection of Hugo Alfvén
Hugo Alfvén
was a Swedish composer, conductor, violinist, and painter.- Violinist :Alfvén was born in Stockholm and studied at the Music Conservatory there from 1887 to 1891 with the violin as his main instrument, receiving lessons from Lars Zetterquist. He also took private composition lessons from Johan...
, that of the Joseph Martin Kraus
Joseph Martin Kraus
Joseph Martin Kraus , was a composer in the classical era who was born in Miltenberg am Main, Germany. He moved to Sweden at age 21, and died at the age of 36 in Stockholm...
, and the various collections that have been taken as spoils of war, such as the Cancionero de Uppsala, a 16th century collection of Spanish music printed in Venice 1556 and not preserved in any other copy.
Current organization
The library is headed by a Library Director, the head librarian. The 12 subject libraries are grouped by disciplines, each under its own group manager. Each group also includes some special projects.Library Group Ihre/A (Humanities, Theology)
- The Carolina Library which is housed in the main building which is called Carolina RedivivaCarolina RedivivaCarolina Rediviva is the main building of the Uppsala University Library in Uppsala, Sweden. The building was begun in 1820 and completed in 1841. The original architect was Carl Fredrik Sundvall. Later additions to the building have been designed by Axel Johan Anderberg and Peter Celsing...
. - The Karin Boye Library. (Named after the writer Karin BoyeKarin Boyewas a Swedish poet and novelist.- Career :Boye was born in Gothenburg , Sweden and moved with her family to Stockholm in 1909. She studied at Uppsala University from 1921 to 1926 and debuted in 1922 with a collection of poems, "Clouds"...
.)
Library Group B (Law, Social Sciences, Education and Teaching)
- Blåsenhus Library
- Law Library with EDC, the Europena Documentation Centre
- Dag Hammarskjöld Library. (Named after the UN Secretary General Dag HammarskjöldDag HammarskjöldDag Hjalmar Agne Carl Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat, economist, and author. An early Secretary-General of the United Nations, he served from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961. He is the only person to have been awarded a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. Hammarskjöld...
.) - Library for Economic Sciences
- Library for Housing and Urban Research
- Library for Educational Research and Studies
Library Group Linné (Medicine, Pharmacy, Technology, Natural Sciences)
- Medical Library
- Library of Health and Caring Sciences
- Bio-Medical Library
- Ångström Library. (In the Ångström Laboratory and named after Anders Jonas ÅngströmAnders Jonas ÅngströmAnders Jonas Ångström was a Swedish physicist and one of the founders of the science of spectroscopy.-Biography:...
and his son Knut ÅngströmKnut ÅngströmKnut Johan Ångström was a Swedish physicist. He was the son of physicist Anders Jonas Ångström and studied in Uppsala from 1877 to 1884, when he received his licentiat-degree, before going for a short time to the University of Strassburg to study with August Kundt...
.) - Earth Sciences Library
- Biology Library
Cultural Heritage Group
- Manuscripts and Music
- Maps and Prints
- Early Prints
- Preservation
See also
- Uppsala UniversityUppsala UniversityUppsala University is a research university in Uppsala, Sweden, and is the oldest university in Scandinavia, founded in 1477. It consistently ranks among the best universities in Northern Europe in international rankings and is generally considered one of the most prestigious institutions of...
- Codex ArgenteusCodex ArgenteusThe Codex Argenteus, "Silver Book", is a 6th century manuscript, originally containing bishop Ulfilas's 4th century translation of the Bible into the Gothic language. Of the original 336 folios, 188—including the Speyer fragment discovered in 1970—have been preserved, containing the...
- Carolina RedivivaCarolina RedivivaCarolina Rediviva is the main building of the Uppsala University Library in Uppsala, Sweden. The building was begun in 1820 and completed in 1841. The original architect was Carl Fredrik Sundvall. Later additions to the building have been designed by Axel Johan Anderberg and Peter Celsing...
- Corpus Inscriptionum EtruscarumCorpus Inscriptionum EtruscarumThe Corpus Inscriptionum Etruscarum is a corpus of Etruscan texts, collected by Karl Pauli and his followers since 1885. After the death of Olof August Danielsson in 1933, this collection was passed on to the Uppsala University Library.The CIE serves as a valuable reference index for many Etruscan...
External links
- Uppsala University Library, official site (Swedish/English)
- DISA, the online library catalogue (Swedish/English)
- Collections at Uppsala University Library (Swedish/English)