Abstract

The article tackles the relationship between circulation and location of knowledge in late 16th century court libraries. It considers the Imperial library in Vienna as a case study. With the support of the documents produced by the Imperial librarian Hugo Blotius and the Aulic Chamber, the author tries to investigate the ideal, spatial and theoretical implications of knowledge organisation, and the relationship between universalistic projects and material constraints, both from an intellectual and imperial viewpoint. Finally the article reconstructs some uses of the library, in order to highlight the different understandings of the imperial library from its readers, including the Emperor and the members of the respublica literaria.