Programme
The Special Exhibit

The Special Exhibit

Programme

You vote, we exhibit!

In 2025, the Austrian National Library will once again present five "special exhibits" from its extensive holdings in the State Hall.

You can help decide which objects will be exhibited via online voting. In each of the five votings, there are three objects to choose from.

The "special exhibit" on display will be accompanied by a free expert talk, a blog post and a video (only available in German).

The next online voting with the title "Jewish Austria" starts on December 30, 2025.

The next special exhibit

January 13 – April 12, 2026

Praxis Artolloriae Pyrotechnicæ

The winner of our most recent online voting "Explosive times" for the special exhibit is object 3: "Praxis Artolloriae Pyrotechnicæ" (book, 1660). The winning object will be on display in the State Hall of the Austrian National Library from January 12 until April 12, 2026 and will be presented at an expert lecture (in German) on January 20, 2026.

During the Thirty Years' War, new artillery techniques were tested when towns were besieged, such as projectiles with explosive heads or wreaths of straw soaked in pitch and set alight. These experiments had devastating consequences and became a massive threat to town fortifications with their high, narrow walls and towers as had been the usual design until then. In response, these walls had to be rebuilt, armouries reinforced and fundamental reconsiderations given to the art of fortification. The growing interest in specialised literature on artillery and pyrotechnics in the 17th century is also reflected in this work from the private library of Francis I/II, which examines such techniques in detail. The authors of these treatises were mostly gunsmiths or armourers.