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From the MDZ

04/13/2015

Pontifical Of Płock Returns to Poland

Bavaria's Minister of Science Dr. Ludwig Spaenle is to return the oldest Polish Pontifical, the so-called Pontifical of Płock to the Catholic Church of Poland this week. At the Polish Foreign Ministry, Mr. Spaenle will hand over this valuable historical manuscript to the Bishop of Płock, Piotr Libera. Basis of the return is the Washington Agreement.

04/01/2015

Plans, Projects and Perspectives of the Bavarian State Library 1827-1955

An exhibition in the entry hall of our Reading Room for Music, Maps and Images presents several plans, projects and perspectives of the building of the Bavarian State Library which were not realized the intended way. You are cordially invited to follow the thought experiments of imaginary buildings and to ask yourself the question: 'What would have happened if...?'. Until September 18, Monday to Friday 9 AM to 5 PM (CET), closed on bank holidays. Admission is free.

03/10/2015

Dervishes and Dervish Orders of the Late Ottoman Empire

Our library presents a small cabinet exhibition on the topic of 'Dervishes and dervish orders in the late Ottoman empire', forming part of the series 'kOSTproben' (samples from the east). It casts a light on the mystical movement in the late Ottoman empire, dervishes, dervish orders and dervish convents. Until April 17, 2015 in the entrance area of the East European, Oriental and Asian Reading Room. Monday to Friday 9 AM to 5 PM (CET), closed on bank holidays. Admission is free.

02/25/2015

The Bavarian State Library in the Digital Age - a Special Issue of Bibliotheksforum Bayern

The Bavarian State Library in the Digital Age - a special issue of 'Bibliotheksforum Bayern' (in German language). The PDF version (PDF) of the issue is free of charge.

01/23/2015

Newly Digitized Autographs

The Digital Collections have been enriched by a series of valuable autographs. Among them are letters of the philosopher Immanuel Kant, the brothers Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt, German writer E. T. A. Hoffmann, the mysterious Kaspar Hauser, as well as the leader of the Tyrolean rebellion of 1809, Andreas Hofer.

01/08/2015

1.2 Billion Files in Long-Term Preservation

By the end of 2014, our long-term preservation system recorded 1,229,806,792 files (574 terabytes). The growth of the past year was 72 million files (62 TB). The large part of this information comes from the digitization activities in recent years.

12/05/2014

Relaunch of the 'Deutsche Biographie'

'Deutsche Biographie', the historical and biographical information system for the German-speaking world, is online now with extended features. It includes digital full texts of more than 48,000 historical and biographical articles of the Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB, 1875-1912) and the Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB, since 1953). It incudes various information from other biographical dictionaries as well as different online resources such as works and portraits. Realized in cooperation with the Historische Kommission of the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften and supported by Bundesarchiv, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, DLA Marbach, Deutsches Museum München, Deutsches Rundfunkarchiv, Foto Marburg, Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.

10/27/2014

Worlds of Knowledge - the Library and the Chronicle of the Nuremberg Doctor Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514)

On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the death of Hartmann Schedel, the Bavarian State Library shows his personal copy of the Nuremberg Chronicle which came to Munich in the 16th century together with the whole library of the Schedel family. The gradual construction of the collection is traced through the stations of Schedels life. Exhibition from November 19, 2014 to March 1, 2015.

10/15/2014

Close Enough to Touch: The 'Golden Evangeliary of Mainz' at the Library of the Aschaffenburg Castle

From October 24 to November 21, 2014, the Library of the Aschaffenburg Castle is presenting the Golden Evangeliary of Mainz. The 'BSB Explorer' provided to the exhibition by the MDZ, allows full access in high resolution to the digitized version of this precious manuscript of the 13th century.

10/09/2014

Manuscripts from the BSB in the World Digital Library

The collection of digitized works from the BSB in the World Digital Library has been extended to a number of outstanding religious and liturgical manuscripts. Among them are treasures such as the Evangeliary of Uta, the poems of Hrotsvit of Gandersheim, who is regarded as the first German poetess, as well as the Prayerbook of Otto III. The World Digital Library now comprises 119 works from the BSB. 30 more will follow within the next months.

10/01/2014

Now Online: The Bellifortis by Konrad Kyeser

The 'Bellifortis' by Konrad Kyeser illustrates on more than 300 pages military technology from the perspective of the Middle Ages. It also contains the first known picture of a chastity belt. The manuscript was created between 1402 and 1405 in Bohemia.

09/30/2014

Now Online: Pictures from the Estate of Therese, Princess of Bavaria

The estate of Therese, princess of Bavaria contains an extensive collection of photographs from travels who led the princess between 1871 and 1911 to Spain, Portugal and Greece, Tunis and Algeria, northern Europe, Russia, Brazil and the west of South America. This collection is available online now.

09/01/2014

Now Available Online: Hartmann Schedels Personal Book Collection

The Nuremberg chronicle of the physician and humanist Hartmann Schedel (1440 to 1514) was published from 1493 in different editions. Schedel's library is considered the most comprehensive private collection of books in Germany, which has survived from the 15th century. Schedel was interested in almost all areas of knowledge in the late Middle Ages. The Bavarian State Library preserves over 370 manuscripts and 460 prints from the possession of Hartmann Schedel today.

08/28/2014

Sigi Sommer im "Literaturportal Bayern"

Sigi Sommer arbeitet als Lokalreporter und Sportberichterstatter für die Süddeutsche Zeitung. Für die Tageszeitung schreibt er seit 1948 Reportagen und Plaudereien und ist vom ersten Tag an Mitarbeiter der neu gegründeten Abendzeitung. Von 1948 bis 1987 erscheint dort wöchentlich seine Kolumne "Blasius der Spaziergänger", die Sigi Sommer zum scharf beobachtenden Chronisten seiner Zeit und zum beliebtesten Journalisten Münchens macht. Anlässlich seines 100. Geburtstags am am 23. August widmet ihm das "Literaturportal Bayern" einen ausführlichen Beitrag.

08/23/2014

'Music Treasures Consortium' with 125 Music Manuscripts of the BSB

The 'Music Treasures Consortium' of the Library of Congress prvides online access to the most important music manuscripts and print materials from the collections of the most prestigious music libraries. Now the metadata of 125 music manuscripts of the BSB are available on this platform.

07/30/2014

Now Online: The Earliest Preserved Hungarian Gospel Translation of 1466

As the earliest preserved gospel in Hungarian language (1466), the so-called 'Munich codex' is the core specimen of the Hungarian manuscript collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Cod.hung. 1) and forms part of the so-called 'Hussite bible'. It can be regarded as the philological-historical monument of the research of Hungary. The work is now available to the academic world not only in the form of the edition by Szabó T. Ádám, but also as digital copy.

07/04/2014

New: A Viewer for Polyphonic Music Works of the 16th Century

The viewer for polyphonic music works allows simultaneous display of belonging together voices from a set of parts to different segments of the screen. More than half of the 2,200 surviving in the BSB older printed music was published in the form of part-books (votes).

07/04/2014

Now Available Online: The Acta Pacis Westphalicae Digital Edition

By 2008, forty volumes of the The Acta Pacis Westphalicae (APW) edition had already been published. By the end of 2012, around 28,000 pages of these volumes were digitized and made interactive. The APW digital edition is now available online. The project is being carried out by the Early Modern History Department of the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn and by the Bavarian State Library in Munich. It was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

06/10/2014

Now Available Online: 'Dekorative Kunst' (Decorative Art), the Illustrated Journal of Applied Arts (1897-1929)

This richly illustrated magazine presents buildings, interiors, furniture, ceramics and other artistically designed things of everyday life from 1897 until 1929. Other major topics are landscape architecture and garden or park design. A project supported by the University Library of the Technical University of Munich, the missing volumes presented are available.

06/03/2014

Heute auf dem Bibliothekartag: Es war einmal eine Website... - Kooperative Webarchivierung in der Praxis

Seit 2011 archiviert die Bayerische Staatsbibliothek auch Websites und stellt sie – nach Einholung der Genehmigungen – öffentlich zur Verfügung. Vergängliche Internet-Quellen bleiben auf diese Weise dauerhaft zugänglich und referenzierbar. Ein Vortrag auf dem 103. Bibliothekartag 2014 in Bremen stellt unsere Aktivitäten auf diesem Gebiet vor.

06/02/2014

Now Available Online: The Phonographische Zeitschrift (1900-1938)

The 'Phonographische Zeitschrift' was published from 1900 to 1938, running to over 34,000 pages in that period. As 'the journal serving the entire music and voice-equipment industry' (its subheading until 1933), the publication is a unique source of information, in text and images, on phonography in the first third of the 20th century. Digitization was realized in cooperation with Staatliches Institut für Musikforschung Berlin, Berlin State Library and Deutsches Museum, Munich.

03/25/2014

Carmina Burana Digitized

The world-famous Carmina Burana (Clm 4660), a unique collection of manuscripts with poems and dramatic texts from the 11th to 12th century, have recently been digitized. The volume containing the 'Songs from Beuern', found in the year of 1803 at the monastery of Benediktbeuern and brought to Munich, is being preserved at the Bavarian State Library. Also available online: The Fragmenta Burana (Clm 4660 a).

03/24/2014

'Paul Heyse - a Favorite of the Muses (1830-1914)' Exhibition at the Bavarian State Library

On the 100th Anniversary of the death of writer and Nobel Prize winner Paul Heyse, the Bavarian State Library shows the exhibition 'Paul Heyse - A Favorite of the Muses (1830-1914)'. The focus is on sources from Heyse's extensive estate preserved by our library. Exhibition runs from April 4 to June 22, 2014 and is free of charge. More than 170 titles by Paul Heyse are available online.

03/14/2014

The World War I Collection of the Bavarian State Library

World War I, which broke out a hundred years ago, is nowadays subject to intense scientific research. The Bavarian State Library has a large collections of sources, research literature and digital media on this episode of history. Numerous works of the World War I Collection have already been digitized. A comprehensive overview of the holdings of BSB's holdings about the World War I can be found on the platform Clio online.