Mount Angel Abbey Library is primarily a library of the humanities and theology. It is open to the public. The collection of 250,000 volumes is about 30% religion, 10% philosophy and 60% literature, history, social science, etc. The following collections are of special interest to specialists and scholars:
The Patristics and Latin Christian Literature Collection (non-circulating, in room 208) is a research collection containing the primary editions and scholarly tools needed to do advanced research in Patristics and Medieval philosophy and theology. It is supported by the library's holdings of secondary works on early and medieval Christianity (approximately 5000 printed volumes, 25,000 volumes on microfilm).
The American Civil War collection (in the regular collection) was begun and developed by Abbot Bonaventure Zerr, OSB. It contains over 5000 volumes, to which about 100 volumes per year are added. It is one of the best civil war collections in the western United States.
The Manuscript Collection (in the vault) contains over a dozen medieval manuscript codices, including a Latin Bible from the 13th-century, a 16th-century Armenian gospel book, and a number of books of hours, breviaries and prayer books. In addition there are more than fifty leaves from medieval manuscripts, enabling the library to display samples of manuscripts of different types.
The Antiquarian and Rare Books consists of over 5000? titles published between 1474 and 1900, most of them Roman Catholic. In the early 1980s the nucleus of this collection underwent extensive conservation and cataloging through funding from the Collins Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since then, the collection has been growing at the rate of several hundred titles per year. These books are housed partially in the vault, partially in Room 110, both of which are open only to researchers.
The Philosophy Collection, augmented by over 10,000 volumes from the library of Richard McKeon, is an outstanding resource for the history of Western philosophy.
Periodicals: Patristics and Latin Christian Literature, Philosophy and Theology are supported by an excellent collection of serials, which is particular strong in twentieth-century European Catholic theological journals.
Biblical Studies: Shelved within the regular collection, the Biblical Studies collection developed rapidly during the years Abbot Bonaventure was librarian and is sustained at that level today. It contains about 8000 volumes.
Christianity Since 1500 is not as intensive as the Patristic and Medieval Latin Christian Literature collection. Nevertheless, it includes some 10,000 volumes.
Nineteenth-Century German and German-American Catholicism: Much of this material is still uncataloged, but can be accessed through a computerized printout.
The library Archives consists of three separate collections: the public records of Mount Angel Abbey, Mount Angel Seminary, and Mount Angel Abbey Library. Access to the Archives is restricted to specialists and scholars engaged in research. To request access, please print the application, complete it, and mail it to Library Administrator, Mount Angel Abbey Library, St. Benedict, OR 97373.
College-Level Collections: The library tries to maintain representative collections in the original-language and English-translation for the major literatures of Europe and America, including classical Latin and Greek. The library has recently emphasized Western American and Latin-American history. Abbot Bonaventure left us with strong holdings on the Hapsburgs, and two donated collections have enhanced our African holdings. The Native American and Medieval European history sections are strong.
Social science is maintained at a minimal college level. Our best resources for recent social science are the journals. We concentrate on psychology and of sociology which has direct relevance to the United States. The Art and Music collections are extensive. The Abbey Library concentrates on art history, especially medieval art and music. The only areas of Science in which we collect beyond a minimum level are the natural history of the Pacific Northwest and ornithology.
Return to Library Home Page
Return to Mount Angel Abbey and
Seminary
Last Updated: February 2007
