World's largest collection of incunabula will be digitized!

World's largest collection of incunabula will be digitized!

Dear colleagues,

the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München (BSB) holds the largest
collection of incunabula world wide, which currently comprises 9708
editions in nearly 20.000 copies. The collection is described in a
printed catalogue (BSB-Ink) which is freely accessible online:
http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/Inkunabeln.181.0.html

It is a great pleasure for me to let you know that the Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft has granted funding for a complete
digitization of the collection.

Over the coming years, one copy of each 15th-century edition held in
the BSB will be digitzed. It is intended to start digitization with
the ca. 1150 incunabula in German and the ca. 680 editions of which
the BSB holds the sole surviving copy in a German library. After
that, books printed in the German-speaking countried in the 15th
century and books printed abroad will be digitized. Illustrations
(mainly woodcuts) will be indexed with an iconographic classification
system.

The digital reproductions will be made accessible through the
electronic catalogue BSB-Ink and other databases (e.g. OPAC, union
catalogues). Currently, BSB-Ink online already provides access to
digital reproductions of nearly 700 incunabula, of which ca. 540 are
broadsides. A list of digitized incunabula (by shelfmark only) is
accessible via the Index Search:
http://mdzx.bib-bvb.de/bsbink/einzelindex.html
- Exemplare mit Scans
- mit Anfangsbuchstaben "Alle"
- Anzeigen

Best regards,
Bettina Wagner



_______________________________________

Dr. Bettina Wagner
Abteilung für Handschriften und Alte Drucke
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
Ludwigstr. 16
D-80539 Muenchen
Germany
email: bettina.wagner@bsb-muenchen.de
Tel. +89 / 28638-2982
Fax. +89 / 28638-12982 oder 2266
postbox: D-80328 Muenchen