Katalog der Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Innsbruck

A catalogue of the 1,067 (700 medieval) manuscripts held by the University Library of Innsbruck that meets today's needs has long been required. After extensive preparatory work, a series of catalogues is being published according to the guidelines of the Commission for Paleography and Codicology of Medieval Manuscripts in Austria of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. As were the first five volumes (1987, 1991, 1999, 2005, 2008), the sixth volume (Cod. 401–500) has been sponsored by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and prepared under the direction of Dr. Walter Neuhauser. Since the catalogues are arranged by signature, they display a great variety with regard to the type of texts they contain. In contrast to the earlier volumes, more than a third of the manuscripts in this catalogue are modern; about twenty percent of the codices are written in German. Most of the manuscripts are theological and were intended for daily use. Nevertheless, about twenty percent of the texts have historical contents. Two manuscripts should be specifically mentioned: the so-called Bozner Chronik (Cod. 502) and Jörg Rugenn´s voluminous book of heraldry (Cod. 545). Many of the texts could be ascribed to a particular author for the first time. As in the previous volumes, this sixth volume attaches great importance to the history of each manuscript, since many had a number of previous owners. This will help reconstruct the history of Tyrolean libraries. Two indices (an index of text beginnings, and an index of authors, titles and subjects) as well as a number of illustrations and appendices make the catalogue easier to use. Work on the seventh volume is in progress; the entire series will comprise ten volumes.