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Databases

• Many of our manuscripts, particularly those acquired from 1954 onwards, are listed in Kalliope.
• The Handschriftenportal currently documents only a selection of Göttingen codices. It contains all manuscripts described in Irmgard Fischer’s catalogue: Handschriftenkatalog von Irmgard Fischer.
• The Handschriftendatenbank der HAB Wolfenbüttel features approximately 200 medieval manuscripts from the SUB Göttingen

Printed Catalogues

Some manuscripts that are not yet included in modern discovery tools can only be found in Wilhelm Meyer's three-volume manuscript catalogue. It encompasses manuscripts from the Middle Ages to the modern period, both Western and Oriental, as well as various personal papers. Irmgard Fischer’s follow-up volume provides descriptions of selected acquisitions from the late 19th century to 1966.

• Meyer, Wilhelm: Die Handschriften in Göttingen, 3 vols. (Verzeichniss der Hss. im Preussischen Staate 1,1–3), Berlin 1893–1894. Online: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3
• Fischer, Irmgard: Die Handschriften der Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen. Neuzugänge 1894–1966, Wiesbaden 1968. Online: Handschriftenportal

Göttingen holdings are also included in the following specialist catalogues:

• Matthes, Elke: Katalog der slavischen Handschriften in Bibliotheken der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Wiesbaden 1990. Online: UB Leipzig
• Oppitz, Ulrich-Dieter: Deutsche Rechtsbücher des Mittelalters, vol. 2: Beschreibung der Handschriften, Cologne/Vienna 1990. GUK
• Frühmorgen-Voss, Hella & Ott, Norbert H.: Katalog der deutschsprachigen illustrierten Handschriften des Mittelalters, hg. von der Kommission für Deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften), Munich 1991 ff. GUK

The majority of Oriental manuscripts held at SUB Göttingen are listed in Qalamos, the German national portal for manuscripts in Asian and African writing traditions. Some codices, however, such as certain Ethiopian manuscripts and those written in Syriac, Coptic, Burmese, and Sinhalese, are not included.

Items with the shelf mark “Orientalia varia” (Cod. Ms. or. var.), covering various Afro-Asiatic and Sino-Tibetan languages, are mostly found in Wilhelm Meyer’s catalogue only.

• Meyer, Wilhelm: Die Handschriften in Göttingen, vol. 3: Nachlässe von Gelehrten, orientalische Handschriften. Handschriften im Besitz von Institutionen und Behörden. Register zu Band 1–3 (Verzeichniss der Hss. im Preussischen Staate 1,3), Berlin 1894. Online: Vol. 3
• Assfalg, Julius: Syrische Handschriften. Syrische, karsunische, christlich-palästinische, neusyrische und mandäische Handschriften (VOHD V,1), Wiesbaden 1963. Online: VOHD Digital
• Assfalg, Julius: Georgische Handschriften (VOHD 3), Wiesbaden 1963. Online: VOHD Digital
• Weber, Dieter: Ostraca, Papyri und Pergamente. Textband (Corpus inscriptionum Iranicarum. Part III: Pahlavi Inscriptions, vol. 4: Ostraca und Bd. 5: Papyri), London 1992. GUK
• Bechert, Heinz: Singhalesische Handschriften. Teil 1 (VOHD XXII,1), Wiesbaden 1969. Online: VOHD Digital
• Bechert, Heinz, Su, Daw Khin Khin & Myin, Da Tin Tin: Burmese Manuscripts. Part 1 (VOHD XXIII,1), Wiesbaden 1979. GUK
• Bechert, Heinz & Myint, Daw Tin Tin: Burmese Manuscripts. Part 2 (VOHD XXIII,2), Stuttgart 1985. Online: VOHD Digital
• Bechert, Heinz: Singhalesische Handschriften. Teil 2: Die Katalognummern 199–376 (VOHD XXII,2), Stuttgart 1997. Online: VOHD Digital
• Peters, Anne: Birmanische Handschriften. Part 9: Die Katalognummern 1598–1894 nebst Gesamtindices (VOHD XXIII,9), Stuttgart 2023. GUK
• Fick, Richard: Kurze Liste der Kielhorn’schen Inschriften-Abklatsche, in: Zeitschrift für Indologie und Iranistik 5 (1927), p. 311–320. Online: Fiindolo

Most of the personal papers held by SUB Göttingen are listed in Kalliope though not all all of them have been catalogued according to modern academic standards. In some cases, researchers may need to consult Wilhelm Meyer’s catalogue or unpublished finding aids.

• Meyer, Wilhelm: Die Handschriften in Göttingen, 3 vols. (Verzeichniss der Hss. im Preussischen Staate 1,1–3), Berlin 1893–1894. Online-Ausgabe: Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3

You can consult the finding aids in the reading room of the Historical Building. For any questions, our team will be happy to assist you.

• Digital copies of a selection of finding aids are available here.

Administrative records of the University are held at the Göttingen University Archive. These records including matriculation registers, charters, and plans from 1733 onwards, are indexed in Arcinsys, the archival information system of the Niedersachsen Federal State Archives and the State Archive Bremen and other archives in Niedersachsen and Bremen.

Find important information here on how to search the archives effectively and make use of the materials.

The incunabula held by SUB Göttingen are catalogued in the Göttinger Universitätskatalog (GUK) and in GöDiscovery. More detailed descriptions are available in the printed Göttingen Incunabula Catalogue.

• Kind, Helmut: Incunabula Gottingensia. Inkunabelkatalog der Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, vol. 1–3, Wiesbaden 1995–2011. GUK
• Rohlfing, Helmut: Incunabula Gottingensia. Inkunabelkatalog der Niedersächsischen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, vol. 4: Abteilungen Pharmacia bis Einblattdrucke. Register und Konkordanzen für Band 1 bis 4, Wiesbaden 2024. GUK

In addition, Göttingen’s incunabula are fully or partially documented in the following databases:

• Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC)
• Inkunabelkatalog INKA
• Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke. Datenbank
• Material Evidence in Incunabula (MEI)

Records of early printed books can be found in the Göttinger Universitätskatalog (GUK) and in GöDiscovery. Historical prints in German or published in the German-speaking area are also documented in the following national bibliographies:

• VD 16 – Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts
• VD 17 – Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts
• VD 18 – Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienen Drucke des 18. Jahrhunderts , VD18-Datenbank)

For thematic searches or searches by subject categories, you can consult our digital historic catalogue. It contains all holdings up to 1945, organised according to Göttingen’s 18th-century classification system.

Modern maps held by SUB Göttingen are catalogued in the Göttinger Universitätskatalog (GUK) and in GöDiscovery. Historical maps published up to 1850 are listed in IKAR, a database of historical maps.

Hand-drawn maps can be found under the shelf mark Cod. Ms. Mapp., as well as within various personal papers and collections – notably in the Cod. Ms. Asch collection. Architectural and site plans of the University facilities are held in the collection Plan. of the University Archive.