The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is currently funding a project for the digitization of the incunabula of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München, which comprises c. 9700 editions in more than 20.000 copies and constitutes the largest collection world-wide in terms of copies. It is intended to digitized one copy per edition.
Since the beginning of the project, digital images of more than 1100 incunabula have been made freely available online. The can be accessed in several ways:
1. OPAC: http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/
Short records of all digitized incunabula have been integrated into the Bavarian Union Catalogue (Gateway Bayern) and the local OPAC of the BSB. However, these records do not contain the same level of detail as the BSB’s printed and electronic incunable catalogue (BSB-Ink, see below 3). You can search for catalogue numbers in BSB-Ink and GW via the “freie Suche”; it is recommended to place them in inverted commas (e.g.. “BSB-Ink M-149” or “GW M19909”).
The digital images can be accessed under “Weblinks” or the URL/URN.
From Gateway Bayern, the button “SFX” (in the bottem right-hand corner) offers a connection to the full record in the online database of BSB-Ink.
2. Digital collections: http://www.digital-collections.de/index.html?c=kurzsammlungen&l=en
Here you find, by order of projects, lists of incunabula which have been digitized, which can be sorted in alphabetical or chronological order or by shelfmarks.
The current project is listed under:
Incunabula http://mdz10.bib-bvb.de/~db/ausgaben/uni_ausgabe.html?projekt=1157526886
All incunabula digitized in other projects which have already been completed, like “Book illustrations (woodcuts) of the 15th century”, “Early modern broadsides” (if before 1501) and the “Gutenberg-Bible”, are already accessible via BSB-Ink online.
3. BSB-Ink online: http://www.bsb-muenchen.de/Inkunabeln.181.0.html
The electronic catalogue of incunabula was converted from the printed version, published in the Reichert-Verlag Wiesbaden in so far 6 volumes since 1988. All digitized images of incunabula are successively integrated into this database, which contains the most detailed descriptions (both bibliographic and copy-specific data). In the course of the current project, iconographic data (IconClass and keywords) are created for illustrated incunabula; these can be searched via the function “Bildsuche”.
The creators constantly strive to consider suggestions for improvements in the online presentation as well as wishes for incunabula to be digitized, inasmuch as it is feasible in the project workflow. In the current phase of the project, primarily illustrated and German incunabula as well as unique copies will be digitized. It is intended to continue the project for the entire collection (in one copy per edition).
Of particular interest is the unique copy of the “Türkenkalender” from the workshop of Johannes Gutenberg himself, the earliest incunable in German printed in December 1454, which was recently digizited from the original – a “Liber Eximiae Raritatis et inter Cimelia Bibliothecae asservandus” in the words of the Bavarian historian Andreas Felix von Oefele (1706-1780):
http://mdzx.bib-bvb.de/bsbink/Ausgabe_M-149.html
Digitized incunabula from Munich
