AUSTRIA-HUNGARY Owing to the fact that Austria has remained firm in her allegiance to the Roman Catholic Church, the library situation there is rendered interesting by the great number of monastic collections remaining intact. From the view point of the bibliographer they are of immense interest, some of them having been founded in the early medieval period and still in pos session of their ancient treasures. There are 13 of these libraries containing over 50,000 volumes of which the following may be noted: the Benediktinabtei at Admont (1074; 88,000) ; Closternburg (1106; 81,000) •, Kremsmtinster (777 and 1571; 91,000) • Moelk, Salzburg (fd. circa 790 by Archbishop Arno, 72,000). In modern library movements, however, Austria, until recently, has not taken an active part. For a long period the empire possessed the richest collections in Europe, but they have not kept pace with those of Germany, Great Britain and France during the 19th century. In the K. K. Hofbibliothek at Vienna, Austria pos sesses, however, a library of the first import ance. This is based upon the palace collections of Emperor Frederick III, established in 1440, but its growth was limited until the reign of Maximilian I, who is considered to have been the real founder by its noted librarian, Lam brecius. One of its early librarians was Enea Silvio Pictolomini, who later became Pope Pius II. The library is housed in an imposing and elaborately decorated building on Josephplatz and was completed in 1826. It has many exceedingly valuable and interesting collections, among them being the library of the famous Fugger family, manuscripts from the collec tions of Matthew Corvinus, king of Hungary, the library of Tycho Brahe, the astronomer, that of Prince Eugene of Savoy, etc. The collections number about 1,000,000 volumes, 8,000 incunabula and 27,000 manuscripts. Of particular importance is the collection of 100, 000 papyri formed by the Archduke Ranier.
University With the excep tion of the Hofbibilothek at Vienna, the most important collections in Austria are those pos sessed by the universities, the largest being the K. K. Universitats-B at Vienna. This was founded in 1775 by the Empress Marie Theresa, and contains 882,394 volumes, 663'incunabula and 906 manuscripts. Other large university collec tions are Budapest (1635; 491,831 vols.) •, Cra cow (1400; 429,355 vols.) •, Czernowitz (1852; 222,133 vols.) • Graz (1586; 271,000 vols.) ; Innsbruck (1746; 266,812 vols.) ; Klausenburgh (1872; 253,000 vols.) ; Lemberg (1784; 241,000 vols.) ; Prague (1784; 381,000 vols.).
Special The following special collections may be noted: Law, Politics, Statistics, etc.: Fiirstl. Leichsteinische Fidei Kommiss-B. (100,000 vols.) ; K. K. Familien Fideikommiss-B. (1784; 250,000 vols.); Archiv u. B. des K. K. Finanz-Ministeriums (63,000 vols.); B. des 0. Reichsrats (1873; 56, 000 vols.), in Vienna, and B. des K. Ungar Statistiches Amt. (1867; 118,132 vols.), in Buda-Pest ; Theology: Re form-Theologische u.-Rechts-Academie B., Sarospatak (1531 60, 000 vols.) ; Science and Technology: K. K. Geologische Reichsanstalt-B. (1849; 65,000 vols.) ; Hungarian Academy of Sciences (160, 000 vols.) ; the Konigl. Ungar. Josephs-Technis. Hochschule-B. (1850; 105,098 vols.), in Buda Pest, and the K. K. Technis. Hochschule-B. (140,173 vols.), in Vienna. Consult Bohatta and Holzmann, 'Adressbuch der Bibliotheken der oesterreich-ungarischen Monarchic' (Vienna 1900) ; Kukula, oesterreichischen Studien bibliotheken in den Jahren 1848-1908' (Vienna 1908) ; Gulyas, 'Das ungarische Oberinspektorat der Museen U. Bibliotheken) (1909) ; 'Die caber 10,000 Bande zahlenden oeffentichen Bibliotheken ungarns in Jahr 1908' (Buda Pest 1910).