Martin Bodmer dedicated his entire life to building up a unique collection of documents.

Martin Bodmer was born into an affluent Zurich family in 1899, which had made its money in the silk trade. His inheritance allowed him to focus fully on his life’s work from a young age: the collection and preservation of fundamental texts from all cultures.

Fast forward many decades to Cologny in the canton of Geneva, where, in the hushed ambience of an office, a library assistant types the words and thoughts of a sharp-featured man. For almost ten years, Martin Bodmer regularly recorded his intellectual legacy in manuscript fragments, which he referred to as “Chorus mysticus”, a Latin expression in honour of Goethe. Bodmer’s text, as fascinating as it was fragmented, remained incomplete, was never published and was quickly forgotten about.

His collection, however, endured with over 150,000 documents from 80 cultures spread over three millennia. Three weeks before his death, Martin Bodmer signed the foundation deed to establish the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana, ensuring the continuation of his collection. This collection, which he referred to as his “geistiges Bauwerk” (intellectual construction), was more than just a library. It was closer to a museum dedicated to the evolution of the human mind, documented in written texts. Bodmer wanted to show “humankind’s journey of self-discovery” through his collection.

Martin Bodmer’s collection is preserved by his foundation and is open to the public at his own museum in Cologny.

An all-consuming obsession

Martin Bodmer became a bibliophile early in life, studying the classics in detail from early childhood and devouring the works of Goethe and Shakespeare. He started a literature magazine when he was 18 and immersed himself in German literature, driven by his unquenchable thirst for knowledge. This passion remained with Bodmer throughout his life.

Bodmer quickly became a key figure in the intellectual circles of his time, notably when he founded the Gottfried-Keller Prize at the tender age of 22. The prize is for Swiss authors and it was the most generously endowed award in the German-speaking world at the time.

Bodmer later wanted to create a place where the history and culture of humanity would be accessible to everyone. The venue was to benefit posterity and serve as a source of inspiration – in keeping with the concept of “world literature”. This concept was elaborated by Goethe in the 19th century and is based on the transnational dissemination of key works.

[World literature] means the evolution and geographical distribution of the written record and, at the same time, is restricted to those linguistic works that transcend time and national borders. In other words, works defined by the power of the human content and the magic of the language.

Bodmer’s collection comprised literary treasures including the Gutenberg Bible, which originally belonged to the tsar, ancient manuscripts and works by prominent authors of the modern era including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Isaac Newton and Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais. The universal dimension of the collection, however, was very close to his heart. So, he did not restrict his collecting to Europe, instead he strove to include works from all over the world in his collection.

The Mesopotamian peace treaty of 2430 BCE, the original manuscript of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, a handwritten draft of a speech by Napoleon before the Battle of Rivoli in 1797 and the first edition of the Communist Manifesto dating from the mid-19th century: the Bibliotheca Bodmeriana is rich in literary treasures.

Knowledge for all

In 1954, he published the text of Homer’s Iliad from one of the first papyri he acquired. By doing so, he fulfilled his wish of opening up his collection to the public.

During the Second World War, Bodmer worked in the Intellectual Aid section of the International Committee of the Red Cross. This humanitarian programme provided books to prisoners of war to uphold their intellectual and moral dignity. 1.5 million books were gathered on his watch and distributed among the prisoners of the warring countries. He considered this an important source of comfort and education, something to overcome the horrors of war.

In 1939, Martin Bodmer moved to Geneva to work for the Red Cross. The photo shows a conversation at the Intellectual Aid post of the ICRC, Martin Bodmer is on the right side of the table.

Provider of a public service, or in thrall to books?

A number of acquaintances attempted to understand exactly what Bodmer’s collection meant to him. Bernard Breslauer, a book dealer in London specialising in rare books, recalled the solemnity of their meeting in 1938. The impression of Bodmer being synonymous with his collection grew the more time one spent in the salons of his residence. As Breslauer put it: “It seemed sometimes that the library owned him more than the other way round”. Werner Weber, a Swiss literary critic and close confidant of Bodmer, thought the same; he described Bodmer as “changed” in his library, where Bodmer’s gaze seemed to pierce through the centuries, “[…] as if time stood still and he was in constant dialogue with the great minds of his collection.”

Odile Bongard, Bodmer’s personal secretary for 30 years, described his character as that of a “solitary man who valued order and simplicity, but above all, quality”. Every day, he observed the same routines: time with his collections, making notes, before returning to the peace and quiet of his home.

Martin Bodmer with a Red Cross employee, 1942.

The bibliophile’s legacy

Martin Bodmer’s commitment to preserving knowledge is part of a long tradition. Since the Middle Ages, dedicated people and institutions have preserved and copied writings, thus forming an unbroken chain of knowledge preservation. Monasteries in St. Gallen, Engelberg and Einsiedeln played a key role in preserving old manuscripts. After the Reformation and emergence of the printing press, academic and public libraries came into existence. In the 18th century, reading societies contributed to the spreading of knowledge. Cantonal libraries emerged in the 19th century, followed by the rise of the public library in the 20th century. Maybe Martin Bodmer’s real legacy is not so much his collection, but rather his efforts to preserve this knowledge chain.

Martin Bodmer died in Geneva in 1971. On his gravestone is written: “The things you have done are only seen after you die”.

David Chauvier

Martin Bodmer: building a library of world literature