Catalugue of the Manuscripts of the Univ. Library Innsbruck

A comprehesive 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 handwritten catalogues, which do not meet modern standards since they do not contain any detail 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 Austrian Academy of Sciences. Two volumes were published in 1987 and 1991 respectively, volume 1 containing descriptive entries for manuscripts 1 - 100 and volume 2 for manuscripts 101 - 200. Since 1994 the continuation of the catalogue takes place under the auspices of the FWF. A third volume containing the entries for manuscripts 201 - 300 (FWF-Project P10591-HIS) appeared 1999, the fourth volume for manuscripts 301 - 400 (FWF-Project P13282-ARS) will be finished in 2003. A continuation of these generally high accepted catalogues (cf. the evaluation of the Academy resp. of the Commission of Paleography and Codicology of Medieval Mauscripts 2002) seems to be of great importance. This new project is to deal with the description of manuscripts 401 - 500. 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 the 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.

The primary object of the project "Handschriftenkatalog der Unversitätsbibliothek Innsbruck" (Catalogue of Manuscripts of the Innsbruck University Library) is the systematic study and scientific indexing of the entire manuscripts collection of the University Library of Innsbruck and the publication in printed catalogues. The library holds a precious cultural heritage of more than 1000 important and highly valuable manuscripts, two third of which are medieval. Howewer, the scientific investigation of the collection has only been fragmentary until in 1973 the named project set off to publish a catalogue which complies to today`s scientific standards based on the guidelines of the "Kommission für Schrift- und Buchwesen des Mittelalters" of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Like other Austrian catalogues, the publication is part of the "Denkschriften" of the Academy. The print has been financed by the FWF from the very beginning. The first two volumes of the Catalogue (Codices Number 1 200) were edited in course of the author`s activities in the Department of manuscripts of the Innsbruck University Library. From 1991 on it proved impossible to maintain this work as part of the regular workflow of the department, hence the third as well as the following volumes were accomplished in course of consequent FWF projects (Vol. 3 = FWF P10591; Vol. 4 = FWF P13282). The 2006 completed project FWF P16287 presents the fifth volume of the catalogue and comprises the codices 401 500. As with previous volumes, the project was managed by Walter Neuhauser (former director of the University Library of Innsbruck until 1998). The members of the project team were for the whole period Daniela Mairhofer (50% until 31-10-2005, then full-time) and Claudia Schretter (50 %), and until 31-10- 2005 Michaela Rossini (16 weekly hours). The indexing took account of only 91 manuscripts, as two manuscripts got lost many years ago and seven manuscripts had to be handed over to Italy after World War I as a consequence of the peace treaty of St. Germain. The main focus in content of these manuscripts is theological; howewer, there are some of medical content and others, which prove valuable as historical sources. Some of the codices are important examples of the medieval book illumination, e. g. a Carolingian gospel (Cod. 484, "Innicher Evangeliar"), a gothic bible of French origin (Cod. 469, "Annenberger Bibel") and a Vergilius (Cod. 471) with Italian illumination of the 15th century.In the course of the project the contents of all manuscripts were listed in detail. For the huge amount of anonymously traded texts a major task was the ascription to authors and the relevation of parallel traditions. The design of the manuscripts was analysed in detail according to the Academy- Guidelines (structure of the manuscripts, script and writer, decoration, binding). As most of the manuscripts formerly belonged to monasteries and other collections (the University Library was founded 1745), special importance was given to the individual history of each book, resulting in a vital contribution to library history in the Tyrol. The results of the research are now obtainable in form of a ready-to-print document, which will be presented to the Austrian Academy of Sciences in order to be edited in the "Denkschriften". Due to the rich variety of the manuscripts this volume of the catalogue will be of high interest for medievists in general, for theologians, historians, art historians, codicologists as well as natural scientists.