Zürich - ETH-Terasse - Predigerkirche-ZB IMG 0398

''Zentralbibliothek Zürich'' (Zurich Central Library) is the main

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

of both the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

, housed in the ''Predigerkloster'', the former Black Friars' abbey, in the old town's Rathaus quarter. It was founded in 1914 by a merger of the former cantonal and city libraries. Its history ultimately goes back to the ''Stiftsbibliothek'' of the

Grossmünster The Grossmünster (; "great Minster (church), minster") is a Romanesque-style Swiss Reformed Church, Protestant church in Zürich, Switzerland. It is one of the four major churches in the city (the others being the Fraumünster, Predigerkirche Zür ...

abbey, first attested in 1259. Much of the abbey's library was lost in the

Swiss Reformation The Protestant Reformation in Switzerland was promoted initially by Huldrych Zwingli, who gained the support of the magistrate, Mark Reust, and the population of Zürich in the 1520s. It led to significant changes in civil life and state matte ...

, especially in an incident of

book burning Book burning is the deliberate destruction by fire of books or other written materials, usually carried out in a public context. The burning of books represents an element of censorship and usually proceeds from a cultural, religious, or politi ...

on 14 September 1525, reducing it to a total inventory of 470 volumes. From 1532, Konrad Pellikan (1478–1556) began rebuilding the ''Stiftsbibliothek'', especially with the purchase of

Zwingli Huldrych or Ulrich Zwingli (1 January 1484 – 11 October 1531) was a leader of the Reformation in Switzerland, born during a time of emerging Swiss patriotism and increasing criticism of the Swiss mercenary system. He attended the Unive ...

's private library, and the library catalogue in 1551 lists 770 volumes. The city library had been established in 1634, and its policy to allow access only to citizens of Zurich led to disputes with the University, which led to the establishment of a cantonal library in 1835, built from some 3,500 volumes with 14,000 titles of the ''Stiftsbibliothek'', some 340 volumes of the recent University Library (since 1833) and some 1,700 volumes of the ''Gymnasiumsbibliothek'' (since 1827). The ''Zentralbibliothek'' currently houses some 5.1 million items, among these 3.9 million printed volumes, 124,000 manuscripts, 243,000 maps and 560,000 microfiches.

Cultural Heritage

Predigerkirche and the adjoint ''Musikabteilung'' (literally: music department) are listed in the

Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance #REDIRECT Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National and Regional Significance {{R from other capitalisation ...

as a ''Class object''.

References

External links

Official Zentralbibliothek Zürich website
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Main public library catalog (NEBIS)
Libraries in Zürich University of Zurich Buildings and structures in the canton of Zürich Cultural property of national significance in the canton of Zürich Culture of Zürich {{library-stub Academic libraries in Switzerland

Cultural Heritage

See also

References

External links