Vienna - Austrian National Library Österreichische Nationalbibliothek

The historic Augustine Reading Room in the Austrian National Library (Augustiner Lesesaal) was decorated by Johann Bergl in 1773 with beautiful frescoes depicting the Four Faculties.

The Esperanto Museum is housed in the Neue Burg (entrance behind the Prince Eugene Memorial). The basis of the collection consists of the works and stock of the International Esperanto Museum of Vienna, founded in 1927 and taken over by the National Library in 1928. Today the special collection is made up of more than 17,000 volumes; 260 periodicals are being authenticated and put into the archives, including gazettes from China and Korea. As well as text books, autographs, posters and articles written in Esperanto, the museum also exhibits translations of the Bible, Dante's "Divine Comedy", works by Goethe, Heine, Raimund and Vicki Baum.

The Hall of Honor in the Austrian National Library is one of the most splendid of Baroque rooms. Designed by Fischer von Erlach, father and son, it measures 77.7m/250ft long, 14·3m/46ft wide and 19.6m/65ft high. The ceiling frescoes in the massive dome were painted in honor of Charles VI by Daniel Gran in 1730 and restored by Maulpertsch in 1769; the life size marble statues are by Paul and Peter von Strudel (c. 1700). In the middle stand 15,000 gold-stamped books from what was once Prince Eugene of Savoy's library. The Hall of Honor is used for temporary exhibitions.

The manuscript collection on the second floor of the Austrian National Library contains nearly 43,000 sixth C. manuscripts, 8,000 incunabula and some 24,000 autographs. Among the most impressive manuscripts held are the "Vienna Dioskurides", a Byzantine herbalist's treatise, written and illustrated c. 512; the sixth C. "Vienna Genesis"; St Peter's Antiphonary (c. 1160); the "Wenzel Bible" from Prague (1390/95); the beautifully illustrated "Livre du couer d'amour espris" by Count René d'Anjou (c. 1465); the "Black Prayer Book" of Duke Galeazzo Maria Sforza (c. 1470), one of the most valuable examples of Flemish illuminated manuscripts; the Ambras Book of Heroes (16th C.) and a 15th C. Gutenberg Bible from Mainz.

The Map Collection on the third floor of the Austrian National Library currently comprises about 240,000 sheets of maps and 280,000 geographical views. The most valuable items are the copy of a fourth C. Roman map for travelers, the 46-volume Blaeu Atlas, dating from the second half of the 17th C., and a map of the world made for Charles V in 1551. The Globe Museum contains almost 150 exhibits; particularly impressive are two Mercator globes (c. 1550), four Coronelli globes (17th c.) and a magnificently colored celestial globe by Eimmart dating from 1705.

The Music Collection in the Austrian National Library is also housed in the Albertina. Among the holdings are precious manuscripts and original scores, including Mozart's Requiem, Beethoven's Violin Concerto, Haydn's National Anthem, Franz Schubert's autograph, some of the papers left by Anton Bruckner and the score of Richard Strauss's "Rosenkavalier".

The Papyrus Collection in the Austrian National Library, one of the largest in the world, is housed in the buildings of the Albertina. Because of building work it will probably remain closed until 1998; for information regarding special exhibitions during this period tel. 5 34 83. Most of the 100,000 papyri come from Egypt and date from the 15th century BC to the 14th century AD. The most precious possessions are three Egyptian Books of the Dead (the oldest dating from the 15th C. BC) and one of the oldest Greek papyri (fourth C. BC).

The Picture Archive and Portrait Collection (entrance Heldenplatz, Corps de Logis) of the Austrian National Library comprises over 1.5million items and 120,000 volumes of specialist literature. It is the largest and most important institution for the specialist collection of pictorial documentation in Austria, and contains negatives, graphics and photographs of every variety and produced by every known technique.

About 2.5million volumes of the prints housed in the Neue Burg have been catalogued. There is also an open shelf collection of about 56,000 volumes for ready reference at the Austrian National Library.