In contrast to the incunabula, which were printed using moveable metal types, blockbooks are prints of the 15th century which were printed from carved wooden blocks. Blockbooks are illustrated books with a relatively small number of pages, marking a transition from illuminated manuscripts to illustrated printed books. Until today blockbooks pose many questions to researchers in the fields of historical bibliography, art history and philology, e.g. regarding the age of the individual prints, their regional origin and their position in the transmission of texts and images in manuscripts and typographically produced books. However, the scholarly research into blockbooks is further complicated by their highly problematic conservation state. Since the paper sheets are frequently damaged by colour corrosion, the books can be made available physically to scholars for consultation only in exceptional cases.

 

Blockbooks count among the rarest and thus most valuable items collected by libraries. Around 600 copies of c. 100 editions of 33 different works survive worldwide. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek preserves a collection of 49 block books (including fragments), thus representing one of the largest collections internationally. The Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris also owns 49 copies, the British Library in London 40 copies. In Bavarian institutions (including the BSB), a total of around 90 copies of blockbooks are held.

 

Since for most blockbooks in Bavaria no exact descriptions have been published so far, the holdings of 14 Bavarian collections (libraries, museums and collections in state, church and private ownership) are being described and made accessible in digital form in a  project funded by the  German Research Foundation since 2009.