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UNESCO - World Document Heritage

The documentary heritage in archives, libraries and museums is an important part of the world's memory and reflects the diversity of peoples, languages and cultures. But this memory is fragile. Books and manuscripts run the risk of crumbling to dust or fading and disappearing forever. Securing these documents of exceptional value, making them accessible and raising awareness of their importance has been the objective of UNESCO's Memory of the World program since 1992.

In the Digital Collections, the Bavarian State Library presents several of its objects that have been included in the documentary heritage of the world:

Reichenau manuscripts

  • Pericopes book of Henry II (BSB Clm 4452)

  • Gospels of Otto III (BSB Clm 4453)

  • Gospel of Henry II (BSB Clm 4454)

  • Bamberg Apocalypse (Bamberg Msc.Bibl.140)

  • Commentary manuscript on the Song of Songs, the Book of Proverbs and the Book of Daniel (Bamberg Msc.Bibl.22)

The Reichenau manuscripts of the Bamberg State Library

The Reichenau Manuscripts in the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage

Bibliotheca Corviniana

  • De natura rerum liber. Naturales quaestiones libri VII (BSB Clm 175)

  • Porphyrius / Plotinus: De vita Plotini. Enneades I-VI (BSB Cod.graec. 449)

  • Aristeas Epistolographus: Epistula ad Philocratem (BSB Clm 627)

  • Demosthenes: Orationes [u.a.] (BSB Clm 310)

  • Agathias Scholasticus: Historiarum libri I-V (BSB Clm 294)

  • Celsus, Aulus Cornelius: De medicina libri VIII (BSB Clm 69)

  • Thomas Seneca / Tribbrachus Mutinensis: Historiae Bononiensis libri IV. Carmina ad Galeatium Marescottum (BSB Clm 341)

  • Polybius/ Herodianus Historicus/ Heliodorus Emesenus: Historiae libri I-V. Ab excessu divi Marci libri VIII. Aethiopica (BSB Cod.graec. 157)

The Bibliotheca Corviniana in the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage

The Song of the Nibelungs

  • The Song of the Nibelungs and the Lament (Leithandschrift A) (BSB Cgm 34)

The Song of the Nibelungs in the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage

The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia

  • Anthimus Medicus: Lorsch Pharmacopoeia (Bamberg Msc.Med.1)

The Lorsch Pharmacopoeia in the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage

Manuscript of the Persian poet Jalal ad-Din Rumi (1207 - 1273)

  • Hāḏāh Kitāb Maṯnawī bi-l-fārsī [2nd book] (BSB Cod.pers. 45)

The BSB press release on the inclusion of the manuscript in the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage