The roots of library science in the internal and external discourse of Historia Literaria in Germany

The study aims at assessing the role of Historia Literaria's internal discourse of librarianship and of the discourse of librarianship which is external but concurrent to Historia Literaria in genesis of German library science in the 18th and 19th centuries. An attempt is made to establish to which of these two traditions library science may best be attributed. First, the position of writing on librarianship, Re Bibliothecaria, within Historia Literaria is assessed. The doctrine of Historia Literaria and the position of Re Bibliothecaria therein is reconstructed. Further, writing on library matters outside of Historia Literaria is described and reconstructed. On the basis of a comparison of the reconstructed discourses the conclusion is made that the main root of German library science is in the soil of the discourse of librarianship external to Historia Literaria.