Though, in the following notes, no attempt is made to give an adequate idea of the wealth of the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana, it is no doubt advisable, by way of introduction, to give some information on the origin of the library and explain what has inspired and is still inspiring its development.

The Bibliotheca Bodmeriana is a private collection originating in the passionate interest felt by its founder and present owner, Martin Bodmer, for the greatest literary masterpieces of the world. He has built it up for now nearly forty years with rare devotion and a wholly admirable single-mindedness.

In the sixteenth century, at the time of the Reformation, a Bodmer left his native village in the upper Rhone valley and settled at Zurich, where his descendants soon played a not inconspicuous part in the life of the small republic. In the latter part of the eighteenth century they turned their talents to the already flourishing textile industry, gave it a new impetus and henceforth counted among those citizens who, in the course of the last hundred and fifty years, made of Zurich the important business centre it now is. From his forebears, Martin Bodmer inherited, besides a large fortune, a tradition of wide and deep culture, a genuine love of the arts.