Allgemeine Lesegesellschaft Basel

The Allgemeine Lesegesellschaft Basel (General Reading Society) was founded on October 26, 1787. This makes it 20 years older than the Museumsgesellschaft Freiburg, established in 1807 as a reading society.

Lesegesellschaften are children of the Enlightenment. Since their foundation, reading societies have offered emancipated citizens a wide range of reading material, including books, newspapers, and magazines.

The website of the Basel reading society reads as follows:

The goals of the seven-member founding fathers have remained the same throughout the years: to facilitate access to literature and contemporary knowledge for an interested population, to offer them a space for lively conversation and contemplative hours, or simply to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea.

On January 25, members of the Freiburger Museumsgesellschaft visited the premises of the Allgemeine Lesegesellschaft Basel.

©Allgemeine Lesegesellschaft Basel/Lang

The building is located directly next to the Basel Minster church and had been occupied before the Reformation by the Canons. The Allgemeine Lesegesellschaft acquired the house in 1832 and renovated it extensively in the Neogothic style.

President Dr. David Marc Hoffmann welcomed the visitors at the entrance.

In the lobby. Board of supporters and patrons of the Allgemeine Lesegesellschaft.

In the social room, the President gave a witty introduction.

View from the large reading room on the Rhine and the Roche towers in Kleinbasel.

View on the Basel Minster church through the oriel window of the Canons.

Stained glass in the oriel window: Die Lesegesellschaft in Basel 1834

A wide range of daily newspapers in many languages invite visitors to read.

A reading corner with a view on Münsterplatz

Order through historic enamel signs ©2023 Ivana Suppan) and ...

... the catalog on classic index cards

Consulting the catalog

Books

More books

Book treasures at the Allgemeine Lesegesellschaft: Dr. Hoffmann presents Erasmus of Rotterdam's famous collection of proverbs, the Adagia. Erasmus began collecting Latin and Greek proverbs in 1500 - most of them from ancient pagan literature - until 1536, when he died in Basel. The collection contains more than 4000 proverbs; it sold like hotcakes and made Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus a rich man.

  

A 1677 edition of Summa Theologica S. Thomae Aquitanis

Our group had lunch opposite, on Münsterplatz 16 in the Reischacher Hof, the seat of the Lesegesellschaft before 1833. The Restaurant zum Isaak is named after Isaak Iselin, the founder of GGG, the Gesellschaft für das Gute und Gemeinnützige (Society for the Good and the Common Good).

Erasmushausin Basel on Bäumlingasse. The name promises a lot, but the visit is somewhat disappointing. The building is not a museum in memory of the great scholar but an antiquarian bookshop, albeit exclusive. It specializes in purchasing and selling manuscripts, autographs, and specially printed books from the 15th to the 19th century. Erasmus spent the last year of his life in this house.

An engraving photographed at Erasmushaus

A final look at Basel Minster and the Allgemeine Lesegesellschaft building

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