Medieval library catalogs

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Page of the St. Gallen catalog

Medieval library catalogs are the library catalogs of medieval libraries .

The collection and publication of medieval library catalogs began in the 19th century and continues to this day.

Outer shape

Often the early medieval catalogs were not written down in their own volumes, but on blank pages of other manuscripts. Due to the small size of the early medieval libraries, there was as yet no need for a catalog as an independent working tool.

reception

Gustav Becker created the first collected edition in 1885. It includes catalogs that have already been edited for today's countries Germany, France, England, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Hungary. In total there are 136 fully reproduced catalogs and references to 207 other catalogs that were created up to the 12th century. There were formal complaints about Becker's edition, but also that neither the sources nor further information on the libraries can be found.

Theodor Gottlieb sharply criticized Becker's edition and published a new standard work in 1890. Gottlieb reproduces European catalogs in excerpts, in alphabetical order and with an indication of the source and edition.

While Gottlieb ignored smaller inventory lists, treasure registers or donations, an edition by Bernhard Bischoff from 1967 concentrates precisely on these smaller documents. For example, these are registers of small book holdings that were not kept in monastery libraries but, for example, in the monastery sacristy .

Numerous detailed collective editions have been produced since the 20th century, including the medieval library catalogs for Germany and Switzerland and the medieval library catalogs for Austria for today's German-speaking countries . Other European editions are the Corpus Catalogorum Belgii , the Bibliothèques de manuscrits médiévaux en France and the Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogs .

Collective editions

  • Gustav Becker: Catalogi bibliothecarum antiqui , Cohen, Bonn 1885 ( digitized version )
  • Bernhard Bischoff: Medieval treasure registers , Prestel, Munich 1967
  • Corpus Catalogorum Belgii , 7 volumes, Brussels 1966–2011
  • Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogs , 13 volumes, London 1990–2008
  • Genevois, Anne-Marie (Ed.): Bibliothèques de manuscrits médiévaux en France. Relevé des inventaires du VIIIe au XVIIIe , Paris 1987
  • Medieval library catalogs in Germany and Switzerland , 4 volumes, Beck, Munich 1918–2009 (not yet completed)
  • Medieval library catalogs of Austria , 5 volumes, Holzhausen, Vienna 1915–1971
  • Theodor Gottlieb: About Medieval Libraries , Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1890 ( digitized version )

Web links

  • Archivalia , weblog on the subject of archiving
  • Quadrivium , private blog on collective editions of medieval library catalogs

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl Löffler : Introduction to cataloging , 3rd edition completely revised by Walther Umstätter and Roland Wagner-Döbler, Hiersemann, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-7772-0506-0 , p. 30.
  2. ^ Gustav Becker: Catalogi bibliothecarum antiqui , Cohen, Bonn 1885.
  3. ^ Theodor Gottlieb: About medieval libraries , Harrassowitz, Leipzig 1890.
  4. ^ Bernhard Bischoff : Medieval treasure registers , Prestel, Munich 1967
  5. ^ Corpus Catalogorum Belgii , 7 volumes, Brussels 1966–2011.
  6. ^ Genevois, Anne-Marie (Ed.): Bibliothèques de manuscrits médiévaux en France. Relevé des inventaires du VIIIe au XVIIIe , Paris 1987.
  7. ^ Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogs , 13 volumes, London 1990–2008.