Incunabula
With over 2,000 incunabula, the University Library holds one of the largest collections of incunabula in Bavaria. Apart from all the more common works there are numerous exceptionally beautiful or rare books, for instance the first printed bible in German (printed by Mentelin in Strassburg in 1466), several German and Latin copies of the Liber Chronicarum (produced by Anton Koberger in Nuremberg), some coloured, or the first volume of the 36-line Bible. Only 15 copies of this bible are known to exist. It is thus rarer than the famous 42-line Gutenberg Bible.
The Library also possesses an original coloured edition of the ninth German language bible, which is considered one of the most beautiful picture bibles of the incunabula period. Remarkable incunabula include a number of medical prints, notably a Herbarius (1484, printed by Peter Schöffer, a workman at Gutenberg′s workshop in Mainz), “Gart der Gesundheit” (Schöffer, 1485), the most significant illustrated science book of the late middle ages, and one of the rare Greek language prints of Galen′s works.