Virtual cabinet of engravings
The Virtual Kupferstichkabinett is an online database that digitizes and indexes important parts of the prints in the Herzog August Library (HAB) in Wolfenbüttel and the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum (HAUM) in Braunschweig . The database has been online since September 2007. The project is funded by the German Research Foundation and should be completed in spring 2011. The cooperation partner is the Bildarchiv Foto Marburg .
Of the more than 200,000 graphic sheets that have survived in the two institutions, more than 45,000 had been digitized and indexed by the end of October 2011.
History of the collections
After Duke Karl I (1713–1780), a successor to the namesake of the Wolfenbüttel library , August II (1579–1666), moved the residence of the princes of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel from Wolfenbüttel to Braunschweig in 1753 , the Duke August Library lost one a large part of their graphic inventory. Karl I developed into an enthusiastic collector of graphics of all kinds and had numerous graphic sheets from the Wolfenbüttel library sent to Braunschweig.
At the end of the 19th century, the HAB tried in vain to get the graphics back to the Braunschweig Kupferstichkabinett. This historical interdependence is the reason that the two institutions are now working on the joint digital development of their collection.
literature
- Christiane Pagel: Virtual Kupferstichkabinett: Prints of the early modern period online . In: Wolfenbüttel notes on book history . Volume 37, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2012.
- Ad Stijnman, Thomas Stäcker: Old certificates, newly issued . In: forschung 2/2009 (magazine of the German Research Foundation), pp. 16-19.
