When the dukes were very interested in china
There is a new exhibition in the foyer of the coburg state library. By 25. August the show "paths to ‘cathay’: travelogues and regional studies on china from the book collections of the coburg dukes" will take place shown.
The coburg dukes were passionate book collectors. In a time without photography, cinema, television and the internet, books about foreign countries were extremely popular. Since the 16. And 17. In the 18th century, europe’s view of the world gradually opened up, and during the. In the eighteenth century, reports on travels to china and information about the country and its people in the faraway middle kingdom belonged in the library of the educated european.
For the first time, the coburg state library is showing a selection of works with a connection to china that belonged mainly to coburg noblemen and duchesses. They date from the 16. Until the beginning of the 19. Century. The oldest piece on display is even older and once belonged to the coburg chancellor johann conrad von scheres called zieritz (1641-1704), who was an appraiser in nearby wiesenfeld. This manuscript, written on parchment around 1500, contains a top title of the middle ages: the copy of a german version of the probably invented travels of johann von mandeville. Supposedly he was in 1322, the time of marco polo, up to "cathay" (china and southeast asia) reached.
Another highlight in the exhibition developed by the two china scholars dorothee schaab-hanke and martin hanke is the hand-colored edition of the "novus atlas sinensis by the italian jesuit martino martini (1614-1661).
The exhibition is open to the public during the opening hours of the coburg state library: mondays to thursdays from 10 a.M. To 5 p.M.; fridays and saturdays from 10 a.M. To 1 p.M. During the bavarian school vacations the museum is open from monday to friday from 10 a.M. To 1 p.M.
