Bavarian State Library

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The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (right) on Ludwigstrasse, Munich
The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (right) on Ludwigstrasse, Munich

The Bavarian State Library (German: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, abbreviated BSB), located in Munich, is the central library of the German state of Bavaria and one of the largest libraries in the German-speaking world. Its building is situated in the Ludwigstrasse.

The library was founded as the "Wittelsbach Court Library" by Duke Albrecht V, who acquired in 1558 the private library of Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter as a basic stock.

In 1571, Duke Albrecht V purchased the private library of Johann Jakob Fugger, enlarging his own collection by

  • c. 10,000 books acquired by Johann Jakob Fugger's agents in Spain, Italy and the Netherlands
  • manuscripts and incunabula from the library of Hartmann Schedel, at that time one of the most important humanistic private libraries north of the Alps.

Another rush of precious items arrived in Munich in the course of secularization: many German monasteries and abbeys were dissolved in 1802 and 1803, and with them libraries with traditions extending back over 1,000 years. Only a part of these manuscripts and books could be rescued in the rooms of German state libraries.

The library was renamed the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in 1919.

Contents

[edit] Inventory

  • Greek (Codices graeci – Cod.graec.), 645 items
  • Slavic (Codices slavici, Cod.slav.), c. 100 items
  • c. 47,200 subscription periodicals and monographic series (Europe's second largest holding)
  • 19,900 incunabula (the world's largest holding), among them

[edit] References

[edit] See also

[edit] External links


Coordinates: 48°08′50″N, 11°34′50″E