A total of four libraries were established to meet the intellectual needs of German artists in Rome, and this book documents their collections for the first time. It all began in 1795 with Carl Ludwig Fernow’s lectures on Kant’s philosophy, intended for artists, which were accompanied by the establishment of a small book collection. In 1821, on the initiative of the Prussian diplomat Christian Carl Josias Bunsen and the painter Johann David Passavant, the Bibliothek der Deutschen was founded on the Capitoline Hill; in 1832, under the patronage of King Ludwig I of Bavaria, the Bibliothek der Deutschen Künstler was established at Villa Malta; in 1845, the German artists’ association in Rome began to build up a library for its members. This book catalogues the holdings of these libraries and reconstructs their significance from a history of knowledge perspective. For the first time, drawing on a wealth of sources, it provides a detailed account of the reading habits of German artists, the organisation of intellectual life in Rome, and the transfer of philosophical, religious and art-theoretical ideas.