He Had No PAMELA: An Iter Austriacum, 125 Years Later

A hundred and twenty-five years ago, in Bulletin of the Czech Academy of Emperor Franz Joseph for Sciences, Letters, and Arts, right after a snoozefest on inorganic chemistry and before another on “animal respirometry and calorimetry”, Isidor Theodor Zahradník, a Premonstratensian canon and librarian at Strahov, who would later become Czechoslovakia’s railway minister, published an article with a title of modest pretension, Iter Austriacum.¹ He opens: “Desiring to acquire the experience necessary for the librarian’s office, I set out in the autumn of the year 1900 upon a study journey through sundry monastic libraries in Cisleithania.” His first stop was Klosterneuburg, the library of Augustinian Canons some ten kilometres upstream of Vienna on the Danube.

Isidor Theodor praises the local scenery, the architecture, the manuscript collection, librarians’ helpfulness and very useful card catalogues. It seems he did not miss a thing…

Except he did – he had no PAMELA! During my stay here in January 2026, I was luckier. Being welcomed as warmly as my predecessor was, I was put up right at the monastery, in a former librarian’s flat, with full access to the manuscript collection for my research secondment.

Since Zahradník’s time, some things changed: besides the modern equivalent of the card catalogues of course, there is one decent Indian restaurant in the town,² one 90s-vibe Asian fusion place (for when you’re low on MSG),³ and one late-night döner stand.⁴ So, the essentials provided… I would, however, like to draw attention to the canonry’s winery, surprisingly omitted in Zahradník’s laud (both Premonstratensians and agrarian politicians being, in theory, ascetic), although Klosterneuburg wine has been renowned since the Middle Ages. The underground of “Austrian Escorial” is occupied by wine cellars where vintages from one of Austria’s largest vineyards are aged. I must recommend especially St. Laurent Reserve 2022 (pairs beautifully with venison from the Wienerwald), but – to my own surprise – I found a certain pleasure also in the very local “Wiener Gemischter Satz” (this one is fine with that 2 a.m. döner). Of the older vintages, I especially enjoyed St. Laurent 2004. The wine cellar store also sells other organic products from the canonry’s production, so overall it is a very nice place for an academic agro-secondment.

Zahradník’s main goal was to catalogue the bohemica held here; mine was more modest – to complete a colophon database with data from the local manuscript collection. But I came across one Czech colophon, too:

Besides the usual stuff – casual medieval antisemitism, a collection of weird maniculae (pediculi? really per manus et non per pedes?) etc.

I also had the opportunity, however, to see – and touch – some genuinely unique stuff in the possession of the canonry, such as this extant veil sewn into the vellum to cover the painted cross on Good Friday:

Finally, many thanks to the staff in Klosterneuburg for making my stay as pleasant and efficient as it was, as well as to the beautiful PAMELA for making this possible.

1. Isidor Theodor Zahradník, “Iter Austriacum: Klášterní knihovny arcivévodství D. a H. Rakouských a soupis jejich bohemik,” Věstník České akademie císaře Františka Josefa pro vědy, slovesnost a umění 11 (1902): 15–41. ↩︎
2. https://maps.app.goo.gl/ScotaThFWKkfd1Ud6 ↩︎
3. https://maps.app.goo.gl/dNkXzHp9D1yMPSpE6 ↩︎
4. https://maps.app.goo.gl/wyUehPXfksNFSjRp6 ↩︎