The library of the monastery St. Florian with its approx. 160,000 books, an “old” and rich treasure trove of knowledge collected and printed over centuries, is even called a “holy house” by the title of the entrance door. Those who enter are astonished at the enormous volume of books, and we are astonished at the unmanageable amount of knowledge available to us today.
The ceiling picture would like to invite us to see and imitate it. The “virtual” ceiling fresco, which shows us the virtual, or the virtues, wants to show us a way of dealing with knowledge in a “virtuous” and useful way. The colorful and lively picture program reminds us that “education without education leads to knowledge without conscience.” Does the balanced coexistence of these two human possibilities remain only a “virtual reality” or do they have the chance to become a reality that serves human beings? In this guided tour, curator Harald R. Ehrl shows the library and its colorful baroque “sky.”
