They had a little trouble at first maintaining proper library procedures. There was a big fire in 1258, the Hussite warriors were a bit nasty in the 1400s, and the Swedes decided to check out a few books after they invaded Prague in 1648 at the end of the Thirty Years War. I wonder what their late fees are!
There are two halls in the library, both with frescoed ceilings. The first is the Theological Hall, built in 1679.
This is a book turning machine. You can use a number of books all at once and simply by turning the handle move from one book to the next. I'm not sure why they don't install these in libraries today.
Shhhh...he's trying to sleep!
The second hall is called the Philosophical Hall and was added later because of the growing collection. It holds 50,000 books.
These are books about different trees. Each book is bound in the bark of the tree that it describes.
These are just ordinary old books.
