A systematic reconstruction of the collections in such libraries will for the first time allow quantifying and comparative conclusions to be drawn about the book ownership and book practices of these women.

Information about 18th-century private libraries is provided by a variety of sources, including inventories, catalogues and lists of acquisitions. In many cases the books themselves have been preserved. The project brings together these various sources. Bibliographical information about the books, catalogues and inventories under investigation is supplemented by information found in specific copies, such as provenance characteristics or reading marks, as well as biographical data about the women who collected them. This will allow researchers to study for the first time the knowledge and communication networks that existed among female rulers over and above what is known about individual women collectors.

This long-term project will thus bring together the HAB’s creation of an in-depth digital catalogue and its hermeneutic research. In an initial pilot phase a digital research platform will be created on which information about the books in the female rulers’ libraries can be recorded and called up in the form of structured data.

Funded by: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, DFG)

Duration of the pilot phase: October 2024 – October 2027

Project participants: Dr Caren Reimann, Maximilian Görmar, Holger Bühring

The project is a cooperation with the Trier Centre for Digital Humanities.

Title image: Herzogin Elisabeth Sophie Marie portrays herself as a Bible collector. In Ludolph Otto Knoch, Bibliotheca biblica, (Braunschweig, 1752), frontispiece, copper engraving. Herzog August Bibliothek, BA I, 633.

PURL: http://diglib.hab.de/?link=190