AB - Bibliographies and Catalogs 2004

2004

AB -- Bibliographies and Catalogs

Katalog der frühmittelalterlichen Fragmente der Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf: vom beginnenden achten bis zum ausgehenden neunten Jahrhundert [Catalog of Early Medieval Fragments in the University and State Library of Düsseldorf: From the Beginning of the 8th to the End of the 9th Century]. Ed. Klaus Zechiel-Eckes. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2003. 107 p. ill. 30 cm. (Schriften der Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf, 34). ISBN 3-89500-351-4: EUR 32 [04-1-001]

Fragments held in the University and State Library of Düsseldorf number around 1,500 leaves of 740 discrete manuscripts of which only 60, or fewer than nine percent, have been discussed in the scholarly literature. While some of the reasons for this can be traced to the large number of late medieval liturgical manuscripts that hold little research interest, another cause lies in the fact that, up until now, the fragments have not been systematically processed to make their existence known and their contents accessible. This catalog significantly reduces the access barrier for 45 fragments from the 8th and 9th centuries, including such treasures as the lone source for a saint’s legend from the Merovingian era; works of church fathers; and biblical, hagiographical, and ancient classical texts (Pliny the Elder, Cicero). With fully documented data on call number, author if known, title, provenance, numerous descriptions of and comparisons to other extant manuscripts, and references to secondary literature, this catalog could also serve as a pilot project for digital facsimiles, since the pages—richly illustrated in color—are to be complemented by digital images of each of the fragments. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is underwriting the project, which, as the fragments will be freely available via the internet, offers the added benefit to scholars of immediate access to unique and valuable manuscripts without travel costs or limited special collections hours and access rules. The plan is for the Düsseldorf collection to be bibliographically described, made accessible, and digitally imaged in a further chronological succession of manuscripts, a consummation devoutly to be accelerated. [ch/rdh]

Katalog der festländischen Handschriften des neunten Jahrhunderts: (mit Ausnahme der wisigotischen) [Catalog of Continental Manuscripts of the 9th Century (with the Exception of Visigothic)]. Bernhard Bischoff. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. 25 cm. (Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für die Herausgabe der Mittelalterlichen Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz. Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften). [04-2-400]

Pt. 2. Laon-Paderborn. 2004. xxiii, 451 p. ISBN 3-447-04750-X: EUR 149

The significance of this repertory was detailed in a review of part 1, Aachen-Lambach (see RREA 5:7). The data in part 2 correspond in structure and content to those in the earlier volume, i.e., they concentrate on paleographic observations that enable the dating and location of production of the codices. Notes on the texts and decorative binding are minimal. The volume begins with a supplement to part 1; the main text contains entries for 1,846 manuscripts in repositories from Laon to Paderborn, including Leningrad (not “St. Petersburg,” as the city is again called). The appendix includes a bibliography and an index of the origin of each manuscript. A list of the particular texts included in the manuscripts is lacking, as a comprehensive index of all three volumes will appear in part 3. This work will long remain the foundation for studies on manuscripts of the 9th century, although the author’s criteria for dating and determining origins are not articulated. For this reason, it is desirable that well-documented research be conducted on the individual manuscripts on the basis of this catalog. [ch/mjc]

Die Codices Palatini germanici in der Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg (Cod. Pal. germ. 1-181) [The Codices Palatini Germanici in the Heidelberg University Library (Cod. Pal. germ. 1-181)]. Ed. Karin Zimmermann for Heidelberg University. Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2003. xlviii, 572 p. ill. 29 cm. (Kataloge der Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg, 6). ISBN 3-89500-152-X: EUR 138 [04-2-401]

Now that a significant portion of the Latin manuscripts from the former Palatine Library has been cataloged, work is beginning in earnest on creating a modern descriptive catalog of the 848 German manuscripts from that library. The present volume exhaustively describes 181 of these. The majority of the texts are theological and literary in nature, but other fields of knowledge are also represented, including many texts relating to the Palatine ducal family, such as a description of an archery tournament in Stuttgart in 1560, military texts, and a Fürstenspiegel, a handbook of correct behavior for rulers. The manuscripts are predominantly from the 15th and 16th centuries, although the oldest, containing Konrad’s Rolandslied, is thought to date from the end of the 12th century. The uniform structure of the descriptions greatly facilitates using the catalog, and the index of names, places, and subjects is both detailed and accurate. The illustrations include nine color reproductions from especially richly illuminated texts. Several of the manuscripts described are available in full-text digital editions from the home page of Heidelberg University, as well as via the online manuscript database Manuscripta mediaevalia. [ch/jc]

Die Handschriften der Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen [The Manuscripts of the Saint Gall Abbey Library]. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2003. ill. 25 cm. [04-2-402]

Vol. 1. Sect. IV: Codices 547-669: Hagiographica, Historica, Geographica 8-18. Jahrhundert; beschreibendes Verzeichnis [Codices 547-669: Hagiography, History, Geography, 8-18th Centuries; Descriptive Index]. Ed. Beat Matthias von Scarpatetti. 2003. xlvi, 428 p. ISBN 3-447-04716-X: EUR 86

The Benedictine Abbey Library of Saint Gall has existed without interruption for 1,200 years, and large parts of its medieval manuscript collections have survived, unscathed and in situ, for centuries. Because Gustav Scherrer’s 1875 inventory of the collections could no longer satisfy scholars’ demands, the Historian Beat von Scarpatetti began a re-cataloging project in the 1970s. The first fruit of his labor was the 1983 publication of Die Handschriften der Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen: Codices 1725-1984. For this next volume Scarpatetti chose Codices 547-669, which come from the 8th through the 17th centuries. A large number of these manuscripts had been acquired in 1768 from the estate of the Swiss historiographer Aegidius Tschudi (1505-1572).

The holdings are described in the introduction. Of special interest are the 45 Latinlanguage manuscripts from the 8th to the 12th centuries that contain hagiographies and historiographies of Saint Gall, including the famous Casus Sancti Galli by the monk Ratpert (d. ca. 980), translated into German by Ekkehart IV (d. ca. 1060). This critical edition also includes early biographies of approximately 20 figures from the Roman, Frankish, and Alemannic cultural area; late-medieval German-language manuscripts from the beguines (laysisterhoods) of the region (for example, St. Katarinental/Diessenhofen); and hagiographies and historical writings in the vernacular.

The principles of description are based on Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft guidelines, but they also follow the graphic layout used in the Munich catalogs of the 1970s. For example, bold type is used instead of small capital letters for authors’ names and titles of works. Small type is used to set off statements about editions and secondary literature, as well as codicological descriptions. Names, titles, and transcribed text have been orthographically standardized. Citations to printings, editions, and secondary literature are comprehensive and often accompanied by illuminating commentaries. The use of numerous abbreviations for German and Latin concepts may pose some difficulty for initiated users. The index includes editors, names, places, subjects, and Latin and German constituent elements. The 13 full-page illustrations are not indexed.

This latest catalog makes an important part of the Saint Gall manuscripts newly accessible to researchers. One hopes that this re-cataloging project will continue in the same high quality and that the next volume will appear in the not too distant future. [ch/jmw]

Die lateinischen Handschriften bis 1600 [Latin Manuscripts up to 1600]. Ed. Stiftung Weimarer Klassik und Kunstsammlungen, Herzogin-Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. 25 cm. (Bibliographien und Kataloge der Herzogin-Anna-Amalia-Bibliothek zu Weimar) [04-2-403]

Vol. 1. Fol max, Fol und Oct. [Large Folio, Folio, and Octavo]. Betty C. Bushey. 2004. lxvii, 615 p. ISBN 3-447-04709-7: EUR 86

This catalog of the Latin manuscripts of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar was produced with the help of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, whose financial support and cataloging guidelines have facilitated the production of a number of stateof-the-art catalogs of primary research material. The manuscript designations at the Anna Amalia Library are based on size; the present volume describes 95 complete codices and 110 fragments with designations large folio, folio, and octavo. The introduction gives a brief characterization of the collection and a historical overview from its 18th-century beginnings in the collecting activities of Duke Wilhelm Ernst (1662-1728) to important acquisitions in the 20th century. A large number of the manuscripts described in this volume (44) are from the Salvatorberg and St. Peter and Paul monasteries in Erfurt, whose libraries were sold off after secularization in 1803. Manuscripts from other sources include a significant number of Italian and French provenance. The descriptions of each manuscript are thorough and clearly arranged and refer the user to print versions, scholarly editions, and related secondary material. The second volume, promised for 2008, is to cover the quarto manuscripts. [ch/jc]

Deutsches Exilarchiv 1933-1945 und Sammlung Exil-Literatur 1933-1945 : Katalog der Bücher und Brochüren [Archive of German Exiles, 1933-1945, and Collection of Exile Literature, 1933-1945: Catalog of Books and Pamphlets]. Ed. Mechthild Hahner and Brita Eckert. Stuttgart; Weimar: Metzler, 2003. xviii, 614 p. 31 cm. (Deutsches Exilarchiv 1933-1945: Katalog der Bücher and Broschüren, 2). ISBN 3-476-01939-X: EUR 199.90 [04-1-006]

After 1945 and the division of Germany, comprehensive collections on the Germanlanguage exile experience were developed in both the Federal Republic of Germany (Deutsches Exilarchiv 1933-1945, held by Die Deutsche Bibliothek in Frankfurt am Main) and the German Democratic Republic (Sammlung Exil-Literature 1933-1945, in the Deutsche Bücherei in Leipzig). After the political reunification of Germany, these two collections were combined to make up the world’s most comprehensive collection of publications from and about German-speaking exiles in the period from 1933 to 1945. In 1989, Die Deutsche Bibliothek published a catalog of its monograph acquisitions up to 1985 (Sammlung Exil-Literatur 1933-1945: Katalog der Bücher und Broschüren, Stuttgart, 1989); the volume under review here lists the monographic acquisitions up to 1995 and also contains a list of items unique to the Leipzig collection, for a total of about 5,500 titles. Titles held in Leipzig and duplicated in the1989 volume from Die Deutsche Bibliothek are omitted. A catalog of serials based on both libraries’ collections is being compiled.

Strongest subject coverage in the two libraries’ collections is of authors of belles lettres and political writings. Some areas of the humanities—e.g., art history—are wellrepresented, but the social sciences, and even more the sciences, are not. There are four indexes: author, subject, publisher, and persons named in dedications and ownership data. Information on illustrators and book designers, such as the prolific Georg Salter, while probably not complete, is given at least a measure of attention. (For a detailed treatment of Salter’s work, see Jürgen Holstein’s Georg Salter: Bucheinbände und Schutzumschläge aus Berliner Zeit 1922-1934, reviewed in RREA 9:46). The collection itself continues to grow; some heretofore little-known writings of Willy Brandt, for instance, have been acquired since the publication of this volume, and further volumes of this catalog are likely forthcoming. [ab/rb]

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