The library of the Admont nunnery
Special exhibition
in the manuscript room
open from 01 April to 30 Sept. 2023
Around 1116/1120, Abbot Wolfhold of Admont founded a women's monastery according to the Benedictine rule, which was attached to the men's monastery and co-administered by its abbot. The first nuns probably came from Nonnberg in Salzburg. They lived in strict enclosure on the left bank of the Admont stream until Abbot Gottfried had larger buildings with a church built to the south of the men's monastery in 1144. The internal management of the nunnery was the responsibility of a magistra. Not only she, but all the nuns were characterised by a high level of education, exemplary piety and literary activity, as the numerous sources prove.
Not only did they compose numerous manuscripts in their own library, they also had a lively exchange of letters, such as with Provost Gerhoh von Reichersberg. Many such texts have been preserved in Admont codices. A number of these manuscripts, which are now kept in the abbey archives, can be clearly attributed to the library of the convent.
Under Christoph Rauber (1508-1536), the abbot of Admont, the complete decline of the women's community began, with Reformation ideas also having an impact. Nuns left the convent and married; in 1550 there were four women in the convent, in 1562 there were only two. In 1570 the convent was declared uninhabitable and in 1582 the last nun, Benigna Zwickl, died in a house in the market town of Admont.
The 2023 exhibition not only sheds light on the history of the nunnery up to its dissolution around 1580, but also shows magnificently designed manuscripts from the Admont scriptorium's book production.
