Ulf Dingerdissen und Michael Thimann: Die Bibliotheken für deutsche Künstler in Rom 1795–1900

Ulf Dingerdissen and Michael Thimann: The Libraries for German Artists in Rome 1795–1900

What books did German artists read in Rome? Where did they acquire their knowledge, which ideas shaped their thinking, and what role did libraries play in the intellectual life of the German artistic community?

With their volume “Die Bibliotheken für deutsche Künstler in Rom 1795–1900. Geschichte, Bestände, Wissensgeschichte”, the authors present the first comprehensive study of these libraries. Between 1795 and 1845, four libraries were established in Rome, serving German artists as places of reading, exchange and intellectual networking.

The first was established in 1795 by Carl Ludwig Fernow as a reading library in connection with his lectures on Kant’s philosophy. In 1821, the Library of the Germans was founded on the Capitoline Hill on the initiative of the Prussian diplomat Christian Carl Josias Bunsen and the painter Johann David Passavant. In 1832, under the patronage of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, the Library of German Artists was established at the Villa Malta. From 1845 onwards, the German Artists’ Association in Rome began building its own library for its members.

The authors examine the collections of these libraries and explore their significance from the perspectives of the history of knowledge and intellectual networks. Drawing on a broad range of sources, they reconstruct the reading habits of German artists, the organisation of their intellectual life, and the circulation of philosophical, religious and art-theoretical ideas within the artistic community in Rome.

Ulf Dingerdissen and Michael Thimann present the volume in conversation, offering insights into the history of the libraries, their collections and their significance for the history of knowledge among German artists in Rome.

Ulf Dingerdissen studied language, economics and cultural studies, with a focus on the German-speaking cultural sphere, as well as art history, geography and European ethnology at the University of Passau. His master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation focused on concepts of the image in Romanticism. After working at the Photothek of the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich, he conducted research and taught at the Department of Art History at the University of Göttingen. There, he was particularly involved in the research project Künstlerwissen und Künstlerlektüre im Rom des 19. Jahrhunderts. Die Bibliothek des Deutschen Künstlervereins und ihr wissensgeschichtlicher Kontext, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and carried out in cooperation with the Casa di Goethe in Rome. Since 2023, he has been Curator of 19th-century Art at the Museum Georg Schäfer in Schweinfurt.

Michael Thimann studied art history, classical archaeology, early Christian archaeology and German literature in Kiel, Würzburg, Bologna and Berlin. After completing his doctorate, he held research positions at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max Planck Institute, where he headed his own research group from 2006. He completed his habilitation at the University of Basel in 2008. After holding professorships in Passau and Göttingen, he has been Professor of Art History at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen since 2012. Since 2021, he has also served as Chairman of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Erforschung des 19. Jahrhunderts. In January 2026, he was elected a full member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities.