The abbey in Panonhalma was founded in 996, four years before the establishment of the kingdom of Hungary. Sitting on a high hill in the northwest of Hungary, the Abbey houses the oldest book collection in the country, as well as many of its earliest and most important written records.
For more than 1,000 years, the abbey has been between the most prominent religious and cultural sites in Hungary and all of Central Europe, surviving centuries of foreign wars and incursions such as the Ottoman Invasion and the occupation of Hungary in the 16th century.
Ilona ásvanyi, director of the Pannonhalma Archabbey Library, said it is “humiliated” by the historical and cultural treasures that the collection has every time it enters.
“It is vertiginous to think that there was a library here a thousand years ago, and that we are the guardians of the first catalog of books in Hungary,” he said.
Among the most prominent works of the library are 19 codices, including a complete Bible of the thirteenth century. It also houses several hundred manuscripts prior to the invention of the printing press in the mid -fifteenth century and tens of thousands of books of the 16th century.
While older and older prints and books are stored separately and have not been infected, Rasvanyi said that any damage to the collection represents a blow to cultural, historical and religious heritage.
“When I see a book chewed by a beetle or infected in any other way, I feel that it doesn’t matter how many copies are published and how replaceable the book is, a culture has been lost,” he said.
Books will spend weeks in an environment without oxygen
To kill beetles, book boxes are placed in high and tightly sealed plastic bags from which all oxygen is eliminated. After six weeks in the pure nitrogen environment, the abbey expects all beetles to be destroyed.
Before remodeling, each book will be inspected and aspirated individually. Any book damaged by pests will be reserved for subsequent restoration work.
Climate change may have contributed
The abbey, which hopes to reopen the library at the beginning of next year, believes that the effects of climate change played a role in stimulating beetle infestation as the average temperatures increase rapidly in Hungary.
Hajdu, the main restorer, said the highest temperatures have allowed beetles to undergo several more annual development cycles than could in a cooler climate.
“The highest temperatures are favorable for the life of insects,” he said. “So far we have mainly treated mold damage in both deposits and open collections. But now I think more and more insect infestations will appear due to global warming.”
The director of the library said that life in a Benedictine abbey is governed by a set of rules in use for almost 15 centuries, a code that forces them to do everything possible to save their vast collection.
“It says in the San Benito government that all the properties of the monastery should be considered at the same value as the sacred container of the altar,” said Usvanyi. “I feel the responsibility of what this preservation and conservation really means.”
