The collection is accessible by means of our manuscript database. In includes nine main groups: Augusteer, Blankenburger, Extravagant, Gudiani, Helmstedter, Novi, Novissimi, Weissenburger and music manuscripts. The Helmstedt manuscripts comprise the oldest sub-collection, which can be traced back to Duke Julius (1528–1589) and includes numerous monastery holdings. Duke Augustus’s collection contains especially precious works, such as the Corpus Agrimensorum Romanorum, a book on land surveying dating to late antiquity, the Sachsenspiegel and the Corvinae. The Gudiani manuscripts are of great importance to the transmission of classical Latin and Greek literature. More recent acquisitions, such as the Gospel Book of Henry the Lion and Matilda of England, can be found in the Novissimi.

 

Catalogue series: Die Handschriften der Herzoglichen Bibliothek zu Wolfenbüttel, vol. 1, 1884ff. – continued from 1964 onwards with successive numbering as Kataloge der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: Die neue Reihe (= the new series of HAB catalogues). You can find a list of the digitised catalogues here.

 

The following groups of manuscripts held by the Herzog August Bibliothek do not represent groups of collections. Instead, they are to be found among the groups described above:

Older manuscripts in German

Friedrich Adolf Ebert, ‘Blicke in die Manuscripten-Cabinette der Herzoglichen Bibliothek zu Wolfenbüttel: 2. Besuch; Die altdeutschen poetischen Handschriften’, in Überlieferungen zur Geschichte, Literatur und Kunst der Vor- und Mitwelt, ed. F. A. Ebert, vol. 1, pt. 2 (Dresden, 1826), 33–48.

Old French manuscripts

Friedrich Adolf Ebert, ‘Blicke in die Manuscripten-Cabinette der Herzoglichen Bibliothek zu Wolfenbüttel: 1. Besuch; Die altfranzösischen Handschriften’, in Überlieferungen zur Geschichte, Literatur und Kunst der Vor- und Mitwelt, ed. F. A. Ebert, vol. 1, pt. 1 (Dresden, 1826), 140–195.

Medieval manuscripts in German are listed in the online finding aid Handschriftencensus (currently just under 700 entries).

Greek manuscripts

With over 100 Greek manuscripts, the Herzog August Bibliothek holds the third-largest collection of such works after Berlin and Munich, placing it ahead of Dresden, Leipzig and Tübingen. While most of the Greek manuscripts are listed under Gudiani graeci, the oldest manuscript belongs to the Helmstedter group (Cod. Guelf. 75a Helmst., from the 6th/7th century).

Literature: Friedrich Adolf Ebert, Bibliothecae Guelferbytanae codices graeci et latini classici (Leipzig, 1827); Dieter Harlfinger, Griechische Handschriften und Aldinen (Wolfenbüttel, 1978 ) – 24th exhibition catalogue produced by the Herzog August Bibliothek; Graecogermania: Griechischstudien deutscher Humanisten (Weinheim, 1989) – 59th exhibition catalogue produced by the Herzog August Bibliothek.

Hebrew manuscripts

A total of 10 scrolls, 13 codices and four collected volumes of bound fragments in Hebrew. There are also numerous fragments of bindings to be found in situ on their carrier straps.

Literature: Ernst Róth, Hebräische Handschriften, vol. 6, pt. 2 of Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland (Wiesbaden, 1965), 400–411; Andreas Lehnhardt, Die hebräischen und aramäischen Einbandfragmente in deutschen Archiven, Bibliotheken und Sammlungen, vol. 6, pt. 5 of Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland (Stuttgart, 2021), 867–73; Annett Martini, Zwischen Offenbarung und Kontemplation: Die Wolfenbütteler hebräischen Schriftrollen, Wolfenbütteler Forschungen 163 (Wolfenbüttel, 2021).

The Herzog August Bibliothek’s printed works in Hebrew and Yiddish are listed in their own indexing and cataloguing project.

Historical manuscripts

Friedrich Adolf Ebert, ‘Handschriften der Herzoglichen Bibliothek zu Wolfenbüttel zur älteren deutschen Geschichte’, Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde 6 (1838), 1–34, and addendum, ibid. 7 (1839), 221–226.

Latin manuscripts prior to 800

Elias A. Lowe, Codices Latini Antiquiores: A Palaeographical Guide to Latin Manuscripts Prior to the Ninth Century, vol. 9, Germany: Maria Laach–Würzburg (Oxford 1959), nos. 1374–1396.

9th-century Latin manuscripts

Bernhard Bischoff, Katalog der festländischen Handschriften des 9. Jahrhunderts, vol. 3, Padua – Zwickau, from the estate, ed. Birgit Ebersperger (Wiesbaden, 2014), 499–512.

Mathematical manuscripts

Menso Folkerts, ‘Mittelalterliche mathematische Handschriften in westlichen Sprachen in der Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel: Ein vorläufiges Verzeichnis’, Centaurus 25 (1981), 1–49.

Middle Low German manuscripts

Conrad Borchling, Mittelniederdeutsche Handschriften in Wolfenbüttel und einigen benachbarten Bibliotheken (Dritter Reisebericht), suppl. to Nachrichten von der Königl. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen: Philologisch-historische Klasse aus dem Jahr 1902 (Göttingen, 1902).

Oriental manuscripts

The listing of oriental manuscripts in the HAB Wolfenbüttel compiled in 1831 describes 142 objects. In addition to the Hebrew manuscripts (see above), it also includes 78 Arabic, 28 Turkish, 13 Chinese, 10 Persian and 3 Syrian manuscripts.

Listing: Friedrich Adolf Ebert, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium Bibliothecae Ducalis Guelferbytanae (Leipzig, 1831). On the Chinese manuscripts, see Hartmut Walravens, ‘Zur Wolfenbütteler Sinica-Sammlung’, Wolfenbütteler Beiträge 11 (1998), 145–172.

Palimpsests (Codices rescripti)

Friedrich Adolf Ebert, ‘Verzeichnis der bisher untersuchten Wolfenbütteler codicum rescriptorum’, in Zur Handschriftenkunde, vol. 1 (Leipzig, 1825), 79–85.

Slavic manuscripts

In the Katalog der slavischen Handschriften in Bibliotheken der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, ed. Elke Matthes (Wiesbaden, 1990), 16 manuscripts held by the Herzog August Bibliothek and numbered 214–229 can be found on pages 171–185. See also Aleksandr S. Mylnikov and Wolfgang Milde, ‘Handschriftliche Slavica der Herzog August Bibliothek’, Wolfenbütteler Beiträge 7 (1987), 79–114.

Spanish manuscripts

A summary based on Otto von Heinemann’s catalogues appears in José Vives, ‘Manuscritos hispánicos en bibliotecas extranjeras: Biblioteca di Wolfenbüttel’, Hispania sacra: Revista de historia eclesiástica 3 (1950), 421–430.