English Project Description

The private library of Emperor Francis I, later known as the Fideikommissbibliothek of Habsburg-Lorraine is considered a prime example of an imperial book and graphics collections and has been largely preserved at the Austrian National Library in its original form to this day. At the same time, large parts of this library have remained inaccessible until now and the history of its collections has as yet not been duly reviewed. This is most likely the main reason why its collections have remained largely unknown even to scholars and seldom used for research purposes. 

In order to shed more light on the foundation and history of this extraordinary collection the Austrian Fonds of Research financed the alredy completed project "The private library of Emperor Francis I" as well as the ongoing follow-up project "The Familien-Fideikommissbibliothek of Habsburg-Lorraine".

For further information please choose one of the projects listed in the sitemap.