Germany: Herzog August Library

On 27th April I got nine postcards: four from Germany, two from Austria and three from Turkey.

One of the cards from Germany shows the Augusteerhalle of the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel. The Herzog August Library was founded by Duke Julius of Brunswick-Lüneburg in 1572. It houses a large collection of manuscripts of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period and is one of the oldest libraries in the World which have never suffered loss to its collection. Its most famous librarians were Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing. Today it is a major international research centre for Medieval and Early Modern culture. Some of its rooms are used as museum.

For the 450th anniversary of the Herzog August Library a nice special stamp was issued on 7th April 2022. I used it on the postcard above, which I had bought during a visit to the library in early April. 

Among the most important and famous manuscripts of the library are the Gospels of Henry the Lion, a copy of the Sachsenspiegel, a printed edition of the Latin Psalter with annotations by Martin Luther, Luther's German translation of the New Testament and parts of the Bibliotheca Corviniana Collection. The latter three are even part of the Memory of the World Programme of the UNESCO. Another card which arrived on 27th April shows a book by Bartolomeo della Fonte of the Bibliotheca Corviniana Collection from the library's collection.

On this card I used the same stamp and got the second First Day Special Postmark.

A third card from my trip to the library arrived on 13th May. It shows Duke Augustus the Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, one of the most literate princes of his time who extensively enlarged the library's collection in the 17th century and who is now its namesake. Its portrait is even shown on the stamp.

Here I used the stamp for the third time and got a special postmark from Wolfenbüttel.