The University Library Erlangen-Nürnberg curates the Graphic Collection that belonged to the margraves of Ansbach on behalf of Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU). It includes 1,700 drawings, 4,000 engravings and etchings, and 1,000 woodcuts dating from the Middle Ages to the Baroque. The Collection is considered the only undamaged testimony to the great Nuremberg art collectors’ tradition. The objects – samples, sketches, draft compositions, copies and independent coloured works – which, in the 14th and 15th century, were initially stored in the Nuremberg artists’ workshops for practical reasons soon attracted art-loving merchants.
The Graphic Collection also contains the Luthardt Collection with over 1,000 drawings and 6,000 prints from the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century.