Finding Aids from the Bavarian State Library (Selection)
The 'Repetorien' of the Bavarian State Library
The location catalogues at the Bavarian State Library are called 'Repetorien'. This index lists all subjects according to which the holdings of the Bavarian State Library have been arranged since 1814.
Donor and Exchange Books of the Bavarian State Library 1910 to 1942
The donor books of the Bavarian State Library list consignors of works that came to the house as gifts between 1910 and 1942. Each person or institution is assigned a number which was used for all donations. This number can also be found in the book and on the title records in the 'Quartkatalog'. The inventory books are an important source especially for provenance research. They can also be used to identify unlawful acquisitions and to determine previously unknown provenances. Since the access books of the State Library were burned in the Second World War between 1933 and 1945, the donor books are often the only proof of access.
Micro film guides
The records of the British Foreign Office and Colonial Office represent one of the most important foreign sources on the history of many countries. The Bavarian State Library holds large numbers of microfilms of these documents on Russia (1883-1948) and Japan (1856-1951), but also on the United States (1930-1948) and Palestine (1927-1934). Without detailed guides these roughly two million pages of material can hardly be used. So the digitized and searchable guides, in conjunction with the 'Directory of microforms on history in the Bavarian State Library' which also gives call numbers and the like, enable users to gain an understanding of the contents and identify those reels they wish to inspect.
Subject index of the binding collection of the Bavarican State Library
The Bavarian State Library has the largest German collection of medieval manuscripts and incunabula and, thanks to its extensive inventory of prints from the 16th century, a rich collection of early modern book covers. Since a high proportion of the old holdings came to the library as a result of the secularization of old Bavarian and Swabian monasteries, the late medieval and early modern covers were mainly made in bookbinding workshops in this region. Under the book historian and binding expert Ferdinand Geldner (1902-1989), the head of the incunabulum collection of the Bavarian State Library, an extensive collection of materials on early modern book covers was built up. It includes numerous cover copies that are used for the scientific assignment of blind covers to workshops. This source material is digitized and indexed in the joint German cover database in order to make it available for book and art historical research and to enable new insights into the origin, distribution and reception of manuscripts and old prints. In addition, Geldner created a non-fiction index for the cover collection, which contains bookbinders and previous owners of entries as well as styles and technical features. The card index was digitized as part of the DFG-funded project 'Cover Database'.
