Gotha Research Library offers guided tours on Museum Night

Guided tours of the historic showrooms of the library at Friedenstein Castle take place at 8.30, 9.30 and 10.30 pm. The eventful and impressive history of the library, founded in 1647, will be introduced, and its holdings reflect above all the disruptions of the 20th century. Outstanding objects from the diverse collections of manuscripts, historical prints, maps and drawings will be presented, including magnificently illuminated late medieval manuscripts, early modern manuscripts and prints on the Reformation and Enlightenment, documents on the emigrant letter collection and oriental manuscripts.

Guided tours of the rooms of the Perthes Collection in the Perthes Forum (Justus-Perthes-Straße 5) will take place at 7, 8.15 and 9.30 pm. As the only map publishing archive preserved on the European continent, it contains unique source material on the development of cartography and geography in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the unity and interconnectedness of its holdings, the collection documents the last phase of the Age of Discovery, during which the interior of the non-European continents and the polar regions were explored. On display are selected objects on the history of publishing and cartography.