Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the University Library of Innsbruck

A comprehensive description of Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts is of particular interest to the humanities but also for those studying theology, law and the history of natural sciences. To facilitate the exploitation of these sources comprehensive catalogues are of eminent importance. However, only a small part of the vast holdings are well documented and made available to researchers. The University Library of Innsbruck holds 1067 manuscripts of which about two thirds date back to the Middle Ages. So far there have only been two 19th century hand-written catalogues, which do not meet modern standards since they do not contain any details about physical description, provenance or even exact contents. To remedy this situation a new cataloguing project was started in the 1970s using the detailed cataloguing rules of the FWF. Two volumes were published in 1987 and 1991 respectively, volume I containing descriptive entries for manuscripts 1-100 and volume II containing entries for manuscripts 101-200. A third volume which contains entries for manuscripts 201-300 is in print. This new project is to deal with the description of manuscripts 301-400. As is the case with the former volumes of the catalogue special emphasis will be laid on the history and provenance of each individual manuscript. Two indices, one index of text beginnings and another of authors, place names, titles and subjects will also be included. The work will be complemented by a separate cumulative table of all dated manuscripts.

Holding more than 1000 manuscripts, the University Library of Innsbruck owns a precious cultural treasure, which until now has only been partially registered and investigated. It is thus the aim of the project `Catalogue of manuscripts of the University Library of Innsbruck` to establish a scientific record of the entire manuscripts collection of the library. This is why in 1973 the manuscripts department of the University Library started to register the collection by scientifically creating a printed catalogue in compliance with the `Guidelines for Cataloguing Manuscripts` provided by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (`Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften`, ÖAW). The volumes were (and are still) published in the course of the `Denkschriften` of the Academy of Sciences, as are all other Austrian catalogues of manuscripts. In this way, two volumes of the catalogue were published in 1987 and 1991 covering the manuscripts 1-200. The FWF financed the print, human resources costs did not arise. However, since from 1991 on it was no longer in the scope of the staff of the manuscripts department to continue the specific research, the FWF started to pay human resources costs, too. This was then the case with the third volume (manuscripts 201-300), created in course of the project P10591-HIS `Catalogue of manuscripts of the University Library of Innsbruck` by Dr. Gabriele Kompatscher. Hofrat Dr. Walter Neuhauser, former head of the manuscripts department and at the time director of the library, managed the project. Project P13282-ARS comprises the creation of the fourth volume of the manuscripts catalogue. It was published recently and covers manuscripts 301-400. Hofrat Dr. Walter Neuhauser was again responsible for the project management. The FWF paid Dr. Lav Subaric to do the majority of the research. The project manager himself contributed in an honorary way. In the course of the project, the two researchers established a detailed record of 93 manuscripts (six manuscripts no longer are in the possession of the library and one oriental manuscript will be included in the follow-up project, which started in May 2003). The project comprises a detailed account of the content of the manuscripts, including also fragments and short texts, as well as an ascription to the authors in case that the texts were traded anonymously. In addition, the record includes a detailed portrayal of the look of the manuscript, i.e. its structure, information on script types and writers, decoration as well as a description and classification of the cover. The cataloguing effort also lays strong emphasis on the history of the manuscript. This project now resulted in a ready-to-print document, which will be presented the ÖAW within the next weeks for inauguration. It is the striking variety within the collection of manuscripts recorded during this project, which will make this further volume of the catalogue invaluable to mediavists, philologists (especially those specialized in Medieval Latin), germanists, theologians, philosophers, codicologists, art historians, but also those investigating in the history of the natural sciences.