A cooperative project with the Universität Köln (University of Cologne) and the Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek Köln (University and City Library of Cologne), which processed incunabula dating from the period between 1450 and 1484.

A digitised version of the incunabula held by the HAB can be accessed via the Wolfenbüttler Digitale Bibliothek (Wolfenbüttel Digital Library, WDB). The incunabula digitised as part of this project can also be found on a joint project page hosted in Cologne. The in-depth cataloguing of their contents was created using structural metadata. This included the transcription of significant texts in regular intervals as well as the in-depth cataloguing of print features and print-specific characteristics, such as information relating to provenance, colophons, decorated initials and other features. In addition, a concordance to modern text editions was also created for a number of incunabula.

Of the incunabula in the collection at Wolfenbüttel, 667 printed works were digitised – 627 of 1,046 works in the Bibliotheca Augusta (60%), 36 of 521 held in Helmstedt (7%) and 4 of 378 works in the ‘Mittlere Aufstellung’ (the so-called Middle List – i.e. not included in the holdings of Duke August – 1%). Most of the publications are in Latin, but some were printed in German and a few in French, Italian and Dutch. The primary criteria for selecting the works to be digitised was the desire to obtain as representative a cross section as possible of the holdings of the two libraries – both in terms of content and the time of their production – and, thus, the works that were published during the era of the incunabula. It is for this reason that the main focus was on the thematically varied selection of works held by the Bibliotheca Augusta.

Funding: DFG
Project participant: Timo Styer (team member)