THE STATE OF LIBRARIES IN 18TH-CENTURY EUROPE - BLUMENSCHEIN,ADALBERTBESCHREIBUNG VERSCHIEDENER BIBLIOTHEKEN IN EUROPA

In his ''Beschreibung verschiedener Bibliotheken in Europa,'' Adalbert Blumenschein (1720-81), an Austrian librarian and priest, described a lmost 2,500 eighteenth-century European libraries, perhaps the largest survey of libraries ever carried out by an individual. After briefly introducing Blumenschein's work, which is preserved in a single manusc ript copy in the Austrian National Library, and comparing it to select ed other library works of the period, this article summarizes its cont ents, including the number and characteristics of the entries, locatio ns and types of libraries covered, and the work's sources of data.