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Newly available at the cultural portal bavarikon: 400 of the most important manuscripts and printed works of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek online

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (BSB) preserves an extensive collection of most valuable manuscripts and printed works. A selection of 400 important works, which form part of the unique written cultural heritage of Bavaria, has now been made available online at the cultural portal bavarikon. The access to the cultural treasures has been designed to be particularly user-friendly for laypersons, giving an insight into the collection without requiring any prior knowledge. A large part of the manuscripts and printed books in addition has extensive descriptions in German and in English.

bavarikon, logo | © BSB/bavarikon
Prayer book of Maximilian I with drawings by Albrecht Dürer. 1513 | © BSB/2 L.impr.membr. 64

Prayer book of Maximilian I with drawings by Albrecht Dürer. 1513 | © BSB/2 L.impr.membr. 64

Psalter of Queen Isabella of England. 1303 – 1308 | © BSB/Cod.gall. 16

Psalter of Queen Isabella of England. 1303 – 1308 | © BSB/Cod.gall. 16

The prayer book of Emperor Maximilian (2 L.impr.membr. 64), the Alsatian "Legenda aurea" (Cgm 6), but also works from other linguistic and cultural areas, such as the Koran of Seville (Cod.arab. 1) – all manuscripts and printed works from the holdings of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek available at bavarikon have been structured with respect to content in cooperation with the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books. They can now be accessed at bavarikon via three different routes: there is an alphabetic list of the collections, there are classification-mark groups and there are topics.

The access option with regard to topic in particular constitutes a major improvement for users: It is now possible to be guided entirely by one's own interests when delving into the works, and to explore works on topics such as "science and technology", "botany" or "courtly life". Prior knowledge, such as required for other types of search, for example inputting title, author or classification mark, is not necessary. Rather, it is intended to make the discovery of relevant holdings as comfortable and individual as possible. The visitors of bavarikon can get familiar with the classification marks that are important for the works, use these to make an even more targeted selection and can have, for example, only illuminated manuscripts (Cod.icon.) or lithographies (Lithogr.) displayed.

In addition, the information accompanying the individual works has been optimized: In the future, not only all collections of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, but also the majority of individual manuscripts and printed books will be equipped with explanatory description texts in German and English.

Dr. Klaus Ceynowa, Director General of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek: "For cultural institutions such as the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, the digital presentation of collections has been of growing importance not only since the time of the Corona crisis. The extensive compilation at the cultural portal bavarikon offers a broad public an easily comprehensible access point to our valuable and unique holdings."

Including the 400 new entries, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek now presents in bavarikon a total of more than 2,700 of its manuscripts and printed works in over 60 collections. The access point is the institutional portrait of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek:
https://www.bavarikon.de/bayerische-staatsbibliothek

Press release for download  (PDF, 681 KB)  (in German)

Contact

Peter Schnitzlein
Press and Public Relations
Phone  +49 89 28638-2429
presse@bsb-muenchen.de

Martin Jäger
bavarikon Office
Phone  +49 89 28638-2139
geschaeftsstelle@bavarikon.de

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