Nostic Palace aristocratic library

Monday afternoon we attended a lecture at the aristocratic library at Nostic (pronounced NAHsticks) Palace, which has been turned into a Ministry of Culture building, with the library intact.


This lecture was a follow-up to last week's lesson on baroque bourgeois libraries. The Nostic family founded this library in 1670, in the manner of aristocrats whose prestige depended on constantly proving their worth. One way to achieve this was by fighting bravely in wars, and another was education in the arts and sciences, poetry and theology, architecture and law.

The aristocrats opened their libraries to scholars of the time. During this time, universities lacked the money to maintain current collections, so these aristocratic libraries were a great resource for students.


The libraries were developed based upon the principles from the "Bibliotheca Universalis" (the original is shown here by Dr. Richard Sipek), by Gesner in 1545, which is like an index of all worthwhile books to that point. Also used was Gabriel Naudé's "Advice on Constructing a Library" which expressed the importance of accessibility to the library by the public, the inclusion of titles in their original language along with local translation, and the inclusion of all viewpoints.


Otto Nostic, who developed most of the library, was committed to spreading the Catholic faith; his library still contained many "heretical," or protestant texts. Inside each of these, he hand wrote a message claiming to condemn and reject any content that was against the Catholic church.


Despite the blurriness of this picture, you can make out hinges on the right and a handle on the left - this "secret door" led to the living quarters of the librarian.