The library would seem to have been founded as early as 1786 when a small collection of books was transferred from the Archives of Antiquities to the Academy. Important early additions were Queen Lovisa Ulrika’s numismatic book collection at Drottningholm Palace and the bequest of an 18th century member, Baron Shering Rosenhane, who was the last head of this ancient family of collectors and patrons of arts and learning.
Examples from the rare book holdning. Photo: Bengt A. Lundberg, RAÄ
Vitterhetsakademiens bibliotek was not slow in making its collections available to the public and from 1886 annual lists of foreign books acquired by the library were published. Together with his colleague and successor as Secretary-General of the Academy, Oskar Montelius, at the end of the 19th century Hans Hildebrand started and expanded the library’s exchange programme and laid the foundation for establishing the library as one of the most important in Europe within its fields of scholarship, primarily in the areas of archaeology, medieval art, numismatics and the presentation and preservation of the National Heritage.
The library comprises some 7,000 meters of shelving with an annual accession of some 60 meters. The majority of these works come from the 700 or so permanent exchange partners. The yearly media circulation consists of more than 35,000 book loans, most of them in the form of local circulation.
The section of the library’s book collection containing numismatic literature is housed in the Royal Coin Cabinet and its collection of classical archaeology in the Museum of Mediterranean Antiquities, both situated in central Stockholm.
Vitterhetsakademiens bibliotek and former Archives are housed on the premises of the National Heritage Board at Storgatan 41, Stockholm, and mainly financed by that authority. However, the Academy still gives financial support to the library.
For further information, see www.raa.se/bibliotek
