As part of the German Research Foundation’s (DFG) “Digitization and Cataloging” funding program, the University Library will continue to digitize medieval manuscripts for two and a half years, beginning October 1, 2023. During this final phase, 222 manuscripts from the monastery libraries of Heilsbronn and St. Jobst will be digitized, including 219 paper manuscripts and three parchment manuscripts. The planned works include biblical commentaries, liturgical texts, theological and philosophical manuscripts, commentaries on Aristotle, writings on Scholasticism and post-Scholasticism, sermons, writings on homiletics, works on canon and secular law, ancient classics and humanism, works on grammar and rhetoric, mysticism, scholasticism, legends of the saints, and scientific manuscripts.
Founded in 1132, the Heilsbronn monastery library developed into one of the most significant monasteries in Franconia. It was one of the most important centers of Cistercian mysticism in the first half of the 14th century. Heilsbronn is a rare example of a monastery library that has been preserved almost entirely intact. For centuries, the library shaped intellectual life in the Franconian region. After secularization, it continued to serve as a school for future civil servants of the Hohenzollern margraviates of Bayreuth and Ansbach. The collection comprises 418 medieval parchment manuscripts and 176 paper manuscripts.
The Franciscan monastery of St. Jobst had a library that existed from 1514 to 1529. It contains 57 medieval manuscripts that reveal the monastery’s connection to the Saxon Franciscan province.
By the end of the project, the digitized titles will be cataloged in the central manuscript portal, the Bavarian Union Catalog via the Gateway Bayern portal, and the University Library of Erlangen-Nürnberg’s local catalog. They will also be made available via the OAI interface in the DFG Viewer and presented in the German Digital Library (DDB) and Europeana. Descriptions from older catalogs will be reviewed and revised for each manuscript based on available research documentation. This updated information, in accordance with DFG guidelines for manuscript cataloging and the inventory list process, will form the basis for title records in library catalogs. It will also be available via OAI interfaces in the standardized formats MARCxml, METS/TEI, and IIIF for reuse in academic research.
The digitized materials are available in the digital collections “Heilsbronn Monastery Library” and “St. Jobst Monastery Library,” and on the national manuscript portal.