I've had a similar issue, over the past 2 years, with "Archive" libraries that I've created and stored on an external hard drive.
What I've discovered and confirmed this weekend is that the current version of Photos requires that the library reside on an APFS volume. My external drives (flash, HDD or SD) are usually formatted as ExFAT, for compatibility with ChromeOS, Windows and my cameras
If I copy the library to my local hard drive (AFPS formatted), it opens. If I copy (a smaller test library) to an external drive partitioned/formatted as APFS, it opens.
I haven't found any documentation stating this, but this appears to be the case, so far.