Origins

The roots of Würzburg Cathedral Library are closely connected with the foundation of the episcopal see in the year 742 and its first bishop, the Anglo-Saxon Burkard. Renowned for their ambition in the field of education, the Anglo-Saxon Benedictines and their Franconian disciples must have tried to build up a library instantaneously after the first structures of church organisation had been laid.
In an Augustine manuscript from about 800 a first improvisational list of the library‘s holdings can be found. This early catalogue (plus other manuscripts of that time still existing) prove that there were at least some 200 items in Würzburg Cathedral Library around 900. Thus, according to Bernhard Bischoff the collection was likely one of the largest cathedral libraries of the time. The library‘s cultural and ideological significance however does not so much refer to its size, but to the specific choice of texts and commentaries which can be found in its volumes. It mirrors the intellectual backgrounds of early medieval spirituality in the Würzburg diocese and its deep involvement in the literary traditions of late antiquity as well as its assiduous examination of the texts of the church fathers.