Manuscripts collection
- Stock
- Catalogues
- Dresden digital manuscripts and scripts
- Use
- Fees
- Manuscripts and scripts science on the Internet
Stock
At present, the manuscripts and scripts collection includes some 13,600 volumes, rolls, capsules or folders holding about 372,000 individual autographs. Even the catalogues of the "Liberey" of Elector August (of Saxony) (in office from 1553 to 1586) show many handwriting or script titles in addition to printed works. However, another roughly 200 years would pass before the first dedicated manuscripts and scripts catalogue was to be compiled in 1755.
As the Elector did hardly accept any manuscripts from the libraries of the secularised monasteries to his library during the age of Reformation, the codices from the Middle Ages with 562 volumes only account for a small fraction of the total stock. Rather, the focus of the collection is on manuscripts from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
The manuscripts collection suffered heavy losses in 1945 when parts of the valuable old stock were either fully destroyed or severely damaged as a result of the war. The stock existing today originates from the 9th to the 20th centuries. Here, the term of "handwriting or script" relates to both, medieval codices or manuscripts from the time before the invention of letterpress printing, and German and foreign language manuscripts from the early modern ages and modern times. The content covers antique classics, history and related sciences, literature, theology, law, arts and archaeology. Saxonica has a strong appearance in terms of chronicles, collections on regional history, working manuscripts, biographic or genealogic transcripts, literature of the Saxon court and nobility as well as collections of letters. Finally, there are some 305 estates of written documents.
A special stock within the collection as such is composed of 450 Middle Eastern manuscripts, some of which are extremely valuable. This stock is also documented in a catalogue, just like the significant collection of family albums with more than 300 volumes.
Maya manuscript Codex Dresdensis. 13th century, Yucatan.
This drawing on tree fibre primed with chalk depicts the end of the world drowning in water shedding from the mouth of a celestial dragon.
Catalogues
On-line catalogues
- Manuscripts catalogue of SLUB
- Descriptions of German medieval manuscripts in the manuscripts archive of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Berlin/Brandenburg Academy of Sciences), Arbeitsstelle deutsche Texte des Mittelalters (working party for German texts of the Middle Ages)
Printed catalogues
- Catalogue of manuscripts of the Dresden State Saxon Library (Sächsische Landesbibliothek zu Dresden). Four volumes, Dresden 1979 to 1983 (= corrected and revised edition based on the photomechanical edition of the catalogue of manuscripts of the Royal Public Library of Dresden. Edited by Franz Schnorr von Carolsfeld and Ludwig Schmidt, Leipzig 1882 to 1923).
Digital version
Digital version by Manuscripta mediaevalia - Catalogue of manuscripts of the Saxon State Library of Dresden, vol. 5 (Mscr. Dresd. App. 184 – 1928) / edited by Christian Alschner and Christa Krause. Dresden, 1986.
Digital version
Digital version by Manuscripta mediaevalia - Fleischer, Heinrich Lebrecht : Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium Bibliothecae Regiae Dresdensis, Lipsiae 1831.
Digital version - Directory of Middle Eastern manuscripts in Germany / in accordance with the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft established by Wolfgang Voigt. Continued by Dieter George. Published by Hartmut-Ortwin Feistel on behalf of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences. Wiesbaden 1961ff. (Now includes more individual groups of the Dresden stock).
Service catalogues for supply of information by the manuscripts department staff
- Autograph catalogue (at the same time catalogue of correspondents)
- Addressee catalogue
- Catalogue of owners of family albums
- Catalogue family album clerks
- Catalogue to the visitors’ book of the library 1753 to 1812
- Comprehensive index to the catalogue of manuscripts
- Special directories to individual estates
Dresden digital manuscripts
- Manuscripts in the digital collections
- Deutschsprachige mittelalterliche Handschriften (DFG-Projekt)
- Maya manuscript (Codex Dresdensis)
- The Sachsenspiegel
- Codex Boernerianus
- The chronicle of Thietmar von Merseburg
- Quedlinburger Annalen
- The first catalogue of the library of Elector August
- Victor Klemperer: Diaries 1933 - 1945
- Unpublished works Hermann Henselmann
Use
Manuscripts are made available exclusively for reference, in the Special collections reading room (level -1). We recommend to make a reservation as the number of reading desks is limited here.
Information will be provided upon oral or written enquiries or enquiries by phone.
Orders for reproductions from manuscripts will be passed on to our in-house reprography workshop or to the department of the Deutsche Fotothek. Users will not be allowed to make copies or reproductions from any artwork of the manuscripts collection by themselves.
Reproduction Fee
For further information please refer to the list of charges and fees.Manuscript science on the Internet
Links
- Manuscripta mediaevalia: manuscripts database, on-line manuscripts catalogue, digitised manuscripts, manuscripts links
- Internet sources on manuscripts, incunabula, estates, old prints / Frankfort upon Main Municipal and University Library
- The Virtual Library, German data sources / history: codicology / Karlsruhe University
- Links for staff in charge of manuscripts / Austrian Academy of Sciences, Commission for books and writings of the Middle Ages
Important databases on manuscript science
- Manuscripta mediaevalia: manuscripts database
- KALLIOPE: networked information system on estates and autographs / Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz
- Central database on estates / Federal Archive