From Kilchberg to Verona: the libraries of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer

Abstract

This article examines the multilingual nature of the working library of the multilingual Swiss writer Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, an important figure in nineteenth-century German-language literature. The first part of the study presents the composition of the writer’s library on the basis of available cataloguing data, with particular attention paid to the foreign-language holdings. The second part analyses the relationship between libraries as channels of access to world literature and the author’s literary creation. The third part focuses on libraries as elements of Meyer’s real and fictional settings. The aim of this contribution is to present the author’s multilingual library as a privileged point of access to his work itself.