The Library at Rein

HENRIK HORNEMAN:
Ladies and gentlemen, I am Chief Justice Henrik Horneman. Today I have the pleasure of showing you our book collection.

In this library we have collected books from near and far. Some are aquired on my travels abroad, and some are bought in auctions. Our trading ships carry food for the mind, as well as many other goods.

The Horneman’s have been a family of means since before we came to Trondheim in 1681. As a part of the merchant class in town, we kept to the culture and customs of the upper classes in Central Europe.

Some of the books are from my Grand Tour of Europe. I travelled through Germany, Holland, and my beloved France.

We are living in an Age of Enlightenment. Knowledge and reason lead to wealth and progress. Some books are essential in a household that aspire to be cultured. Voltaire, Rousseau, John Locke, Montesquieu, Pontoppidan and Ludvig Holberg. We have them all.

The collection is broad in scope. We have works on art, theology and the sciences, but mainly on history, travel and law. We have had quite a few lawyers in our family. And we are proud to master many languages! The books are in Latin, French, German, Danish, English, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish and Portuguese.

Thank you for visiting! Let me leave you with one of my favourite quotations:
Laissez lire, et laissez danser; ces deux amusements ne feront jamais de mal au
monde.