News archive

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek has recently acquired an album and armorial containing twelve rare gouache works of the Munich Renaissance painter Bartholomäus Reiter (1570 – 1622). Created between 1568 and 1621, the manuscript is the first testament to the master painter forming part of the collections of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. Apparently, it is also the first manuscript evidently created by his hand to be found worldwide.

RISM and the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek announce the launch of a new version of the RISM online catalogue. This version represents the first phase of a development project which will be expanded by further, new functions in course of the coming months. Today's publication is a first step leading towards a complete renewal of the RISM online catalogue. Many – albeit not yet all – ideas and suggestions of our users have been taken into account.

Users can search ten new data sources in the research portal "European History" as of now. The latest addition is a subject-specific data collection on northern European history contributed by the University Library of Kiel. A total of 26 data sources are now accessible via the research portal, which can be searched comprehensively for research literature.

A new database is available as of now for searching specialist literature on east, eastern-central and south-eastern Europe. ARTOS includes articles and reviews from currently around 400 specialist journals and selected omnibus works from the broad spectrum of humanities and social-scientific research about east and south-eastern Europe.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek expands its services: As of now, it is possible to use the OPACplus to directly order the library's rich holdings of manuscripts, incunabula and early printed books for consultation in the Reading Room for Manuscripts and Rare Books.

Cabinet presentation in the series "Musical treasures"
2 July – 21 September 2018
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the death of the pianist Sofie Menter (1846 – 1918) almost fallen into oblivion today, the Music Department of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek presents a cabinet presentation which focuses on the relationship between Sofie Menter and Franz Liszt.

bavarikon highly appreciates welcoming a new partner, the Müllner Peter Museum in Sachrang! The collection of Peter Huber from Sachrang (1766 – 1843), also called "Müllner Peter" in accordance with the name of his family's farm, encompasses over 300 manuscripts and printed works. Largely, these are works of Church and sacred music, which are preserved at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and the Müllner Peter Museum.

The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek takes part in the current discussion among historians about setting up a national research data infrastructure. The BSB welcomes the impulses coming from the Council for Information Infrastructures (Rat für Informationsinfrastrukturen, RfII), calling for the establishment of a distributed, networked research data infrastructure (NFDI) in its second paper of March 2018 among other things, and, in the sense formulated by the RfII, understands "cooperation as an opportunity".

A new research portal on east, eastern-central and south-eastern Europe has been launched on 20 June 2018! osmikon pools the services for interdisciplinary research on eastern and south-eastern Europe.

A first glimpse of this year's big exhibition of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek "Gott, die Welt und Bayern" (God, the world and Bavaria), a unique collection of German Jugendstil book bindings or a portrait of the Munich pianist Sofie Menter: Find out more about these and further interesting topics in the new issue 2/18 of the journal Bibliotheksmagazin.

The current issue of the professional journal "Bibliotheksforum Bayern" again presents the large diversity of the services offered by public and academic libraries: from safeguarding the written cultural heritage to providing materials in digital form, offering services to scholars, researchers, educators and students, as well as promoting children's and adolescents' reading skills and enthusiasm for reading.

Authors on the Fraueninsel, female writers in Munich's Maxvorstadt quarter, the struggle for modernity in the civil women's movement – the Literaturportal Bayern presents new excursions and topics on interesting historical and regional aspects of Bavarian literature.

Users of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek can now use e-payment (PayPal, MasterCard, Visa) for settling outstanding fees (for reservations or reminders, for example). The new twenty-four-seven service offers our users the option to balance their user accounts in the OPACplus speedily and easily at any desired time and to thus unlock the BSB's associated services again.

In May 1818 Max I Joseph decreed a new constitution for the Kingdom of Bavaria. He thus made Bavaria not only one of the most modern constitutional states, but laid the foundation for a stable legal system which remained in place for a hundred years. The great importance of this step is also illustrated by a symbolic act: The Bavarian kings henceforth swore an oath of allegiance to the constitution when they acceded to the throne. On the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the constitution, bavarikon presents a virtual exhibition on this milestone.

In the database of the "Bayerische Bibliographie" over 800,000 monographs, journals and articles have been registered now, all of which are related to Bavaria. The database contains electronic publications in parallel to long-term archived websites (so-called web archives) on topics about Bavaria. The Bavarian Bibliography thus constitutes the largest German regional bibliography.

The music collections of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek cover a broad spectrum of handwritten sources which go back as far as to the late Middle Ages. In a project supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the watermarks of the oldest stratum of music manuscripts are digitized using thermographic technology and made available free of charge via the digital collections of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.

The virtual exhibition shows a cross section of the holdings, offering an overview of the history, function and use of the tablatures. At the end of the tour, we present an additional video recording showing extracts of the workshop concert "To sing many a tune or to play the organ and the lute" – music from Renaissance manuscripts of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, and a film which was shot in the course of the preparations for the workshop concert.

Since 1996, libraries in Germany and Austria have been jointly compiling a catalogue of the German book production of the 17th century. And they still keep discovering "nova" – works which have not yet been entered in the "catalogue of printed works of the 17th century published in the German language area" and which continue increasing the number of different editions and titles.

The project "NatHosting II" supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) provides a Germany-wide, coordinated solution for ensuring permanent and undisturbed access to licensed digital publications – independently of publishers' platforms.

Constituting the single existing specialist bibliography for all disciplines of Byzantine studies, the Byzantine bibliography is an indispensable and unrivalled tool for all Byzantinists, historians, medievalists, theologians and Greek scholars. The data stock has now been made accessible online as well for the first time.

The cultural portal bavarikon was launched on 16 April 2013. A lot has happened in the meantime: While ten institutions contributed to the portal at the outset, bavarikon now features exhibits from around 60 archives, libraries and museums throughout Bavaria – all of them in the highest possible digital quality.

9 April – 29 June 2018
Cabinet presentation of the map collection
The Swiss Cäcilie von Rodt (1855 – 1929), who descended from a patrician family from Bern, sold her parents' estate after their death. Inspired by the adventure stories of her youth – written by authors such as James F. Cooper and Jules Verne – she started travelling henceforth. After a number of first tours in the Mediterranean, she went on her first journey around the world on her own in May 1901, circling the globe once completely from east to west.

The new central portal for the services of the Specialised Information Service for Historical Studies has been launched: beta.historicum.net. The portal offers access to digital services for historians. Among these are research tools, licenses usable on a supra-regional level, the Deutsche Historische Bibliografie and various subject-related portals, such as one on the history of technology.

This week, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek restituted a book to Professor Rudolf Cohen, thus continuing its endeavours started in 2003 to return books which had been acquired illegally during the time of the Nazi regime to their owners.

The journal Bibliotheksforum Bayern (BFB) contains specialised articles and news informing about all areas of public and academic librarianship in Bavaria. One article in the current issue is dedicated to the Monacensia library in the Hildebrand House: "After a fundamental restoration in line with the regulations for historical monuments, the former artist's villa now presents itself as a modern and appealing place of literature."

A further 37 outstanding works of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek have been made available in the World Digital Library (WDL) a short time ago. Thus, currently a total of 226 prime items held by the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek are shown in the World Digital Library.

The "Bibliotheksmagazin" is published three times per year to report about the collections, activities and services of the state libraries in Berlin and Munich. The journal Bibliotheksmagazin is now also featured in the current issue 03.18 of the graphic-design trade journal novum – world of graphic design. Titled "Tradition trifft Moderne" (tradition meets modernity), the journal introduces the Bibliotheksmagazin as part of its series "Lieblinge" (favourites).

The newspaper portal digiPress continues growing: Today, more than 100 further historical newspapers have been incorporated in digiPress. The content range is very broad: from "De Platt-Dütsche" ("The Low-German", 1772) over the "Erlanger Real-Zeitung" (1813 – 1821) up to the humorous-satirical newspaper "Der Kasperle im Frack" ("Punch in a tailcoat", 1847).

Passion plays in the Upper Palatinate, poetry in the Bavarian dialect, the flight and exile of Bavarian authors between 1933 and 1945 – the Literature Portal Bavaria presents a range of new topics about interesting historical and regional aspects of Bavarian literature.

The collection spanning a total of four databases has been licensed for Germany-wide use within the framework of the Specialised Information Service for Russian, East and Southeast European Studies with the support of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Access to "Social Movements, Elections and Ephemera Databases: Ukraine" and the digital copies of materials on nation-wide elections and protests in Ukraine in the period between 2012 and 2014 now enables political scientists, contemporary historians, sociologists and anthropologists in particular to research the recent events in Ukraine on the basis of materials which are scarcely available otherwise.