Illuminated manuscripts in the University Library of Graz

The University Library of Graz holds the largest public collection of medieval manuscripts in Austria after the State Library. More than 450 of these books are decorated with miniatures and ornaments, many of them lavish. Though some of the book paintings have been studied by art histrorians, the majority are unexamined. The purpose of the present project is to provide access to this important corpus of visual media to students and scholars by publishing a catalogue, which places emphasis on the illumination. The principles of description and arrangement will be mainly the same as in the catalogues of the series "Die illuminierten Handschriften und Inkunabeln der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek". To give as complete a picture of the medium `book` as possible, the catalogue entries shall not only contain a description of the illumination and its relation to the text, but also codicological, paleographical, and binding information. Basic research for this aim was undertaken by Anton Kern and Maria Mairold, who investigated the texts of the books and published a catalogue [A. Kern, Die Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Graz, Bd. 1: Leipzig 1942, (Ms. 1-712), Bd. 2: Wien 1956 (Ms. 713-2066); M. Mairold: Die Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Graz. Bd. 3: Wien 1967. Nachträge und Register; a compilation of these catalogues with new literature can be found at the internet adress: http://www.kfunigraz.ac.at/ub/sosa/katalog/index.html]. The motivation for starting with the late medieval manuscripts from 1300 onwards is the possible cooperation with the current cataloguing of illuminated manuscripts from central Eurean schools in the Austrian State Library, which partly concerns the same illuminators.

The University Library of Graz holds the largest public collection of medieval manuscripts in Austria after the State Library. More than 450 of these books are decorated with miniatures and ornaments, many of them lavish. Though some of the book paintings have been studied by art histrorians, the majority are unexamined. The purpose of the present project is to provide access to this important corpus of visual media to students and scholars by publishing a catalogue, which places emphasis on the illumination. The principles of description and arrangement will be mainly the same as in the catalogues of the series "Die illuminierten Handschriften und Inkunabeln der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek". To give as complete a picture of the medium `book` as possible, the catalogue entries shall not only contain a description of the illumination and its relation to the text, but also codicological, paleographical, and binding information. Basic research for this aim was undertaken by Anton Kern and Maria Mairold, who investigated the texts of the books and published a catalogue [A. Kern, Die Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Graz, Bd. 1: Leipzig 1942, (Ms. 1-712), Bd. 2: Wien 1956 (Ms. 713-2066); M. Mairold: Die Handschriften der Universitätsbibliothek Graz. Bd. 3: Wien 1967. Nachträge und Register; a compilation of these catalogues with new literature can be found at the internet adress: http://www.kfunigraz.ac.at/ub/sosa/katalog/index.html]. The motivation for starting with the late medieval manuscripts from 1300 onwards is the possible cooperation with the current cataloguing of illuminated manuscripts from central Eurean schools in the Austrian State Library, which partly concerns the same illuminators.