Västerås: Stiftsbiblioteket
The books from Bohemia and Moravia preserved today in Västerås were originally intended for the gymnasium founded in the city in 1623. As early as the 1630s, Bishop Johannes Rudbeckius requested a book donation originating from the spoils of war; however, the donation was not realised until the years 1650–1653. Additional volumes entered the library’s holdings in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through donations from private individuals. At present, the library holds approximately three hundred books from ecclesiastical and personal libraries in Olomouc, 143 titles from the Rosenberg Library, and about 104 books from the Dietrichstein Library.
The Västerås Library is one of the few institutions that possesses comprehensive provenance data for books originating from the literary spoils of war of the Thirty Years’ War period. A small portion of these books has been published through catalogues (Eugeniusz Gawryś), while the majority is documented in an internal card catalogue (Praeda bellica Arosiensis).