Uncovering the Secrets of the Wedinghausen Monastery Library

Arnsberg. “Wedinghausen’s heyday – new thoughts on old books, education and libraries” – is the topic of a lecture on Thursday, November 23rd, at 7:30 p.m. in the chapter room of the former Wedinghausen monastery, Klosterstr. 7, 59821 Arnsberg. The speaker is Reinhard Feldmann from Münster. With almost detective intuition, the renowned librarian and book historian managed to rediscover a good 200 books from the former Wedinghausen monastery library. Some of his most important finds are currently in the exhibition “Wunder Wissen Wandel. Wedinghausen 1173 – 2023”. Admission to the lecture is free.

The focus of the lecture is the book collection in Wedinghausen

A library tells a lot about the intellectual world of the people who used it. This also applies to the library of the Wedinghausen monastery. The lecture describes the diverse facets of Westphalian monastery libraries from the Middle Ages to secularization in 1803 and analyzes the remaining holdings. A lot of surprising things come to light: heydays stand next to eras of decay, forbidden and unusual things can be found next to “everyday literature”. The focus of the lecture is on the book collections of the Westphalian Premonstratensians, but especially the collection in Wedinghausen. It was considered the most extensive library in the entire Duchy of Westphalia. Even if many of their works are widely scattered or even lost today, the inventory and its history can still be reconstructed.

The lecture on November 23rd promises surprising and new insights into the “Bibliotheca Wedinghausana” and suggests that in Wedingausen people (often) kept up with the times. Admission is free. Before that, the exhibition “Wonder Knowledge Change. Wedinghausen 1173–2023”. It can still be seen until December 17, 2023, on Tuesdays 2 p.m. – 4 p.m., Thursdays 2 p.m. – 8 p.m. and Sundays 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Further information at: www.kulturraum-arnsberg.de/wunderwissenwandel

(Quel­le: Stadt Arnsberg)