Indexing of manuscripts of the ULB Tirol, Vol. 10

The University and State Library of the Tyrol (ULBT) owns an inventory of medieval and modern manuscripts as comprehensive as precious, but barely made accessible up to now. There were only two handwritten catalogues, rather cursory in character, which do not at all comply with the modern standards of description, such as information as to the appearance of the manuscripts (script, artistic elements, binding) and to their origin and history, as well as an exact breakdown of their contents. At the suggestion of the Commission for Paleography and Codicology of Medieval Manuscripts, a subdivision of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW), a catalogue series was started following the guidelines of the Commission and comprising seven volumes up to now (published in 1987, 1991, 1999, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2011). The catalogue manuscript for volume 8 is going to be submitted in 2012, the work on volume 9 is under progress. In the beginning stages (Cod. 1100, 101200) the cataloguing took place alongside other agendas during working hours as well as in the spare time of the applicant, at that time head of the Department of Manuscripts. After the applicant had been named director of the ULBT, it was not possible any longer to continue the cataloguing like this. So the following volumes were prepared within the framework of several projects funded by the FWF: Cod. 201300 (project no. P10591-HIS), Cod. 301400 (project no. P13282-ARS), Cod. 401500 (project no. P16287- G06), Cod. 501600 and Cod. 601700 (project no. P18856-G08), Cod.701800 and Cod. 801950 (project no. P22176-G18), all of them supervised by Dr. Walter Neuhauser, who retired as a director on October 31st, 1998. As the reviews of the volumes published up to now as well as earlier expertises have expressed ever and anon, the cataloguing is worthwhile to be continued and finalized in the hitherto existing form. In order to continue with as few interruptions as possible, the application for the 10th volume, being the final volume of the catalogue series, is submitted even before the completion of the 9th one. As compared to the previous volumes, modern manuscripts are going to be prevailing in the 10th volume. Valuable and interesting documents of cultural history are among them, but for the sake of completeness all the manuscripts, including the ones of minor importance, should be included, as it has also been practiced so far. Like in the previous volumes, the guidelines developed by the Commission for Paleography and Codicology of Medieval Manuscripts will be applied in the last volume, too. Stress is laid on the history of each manuscript and the relations in the history of libraries. The use of the catalogue will be facilitated by indexes, annexes and a CD with illustrations of book illumination, script samples and watermarks. The data resulting from the cataloguing is continuously going to be made available on the database www.manuscripta.at as it has been the case with the 8th and 9th volume and was also laid down in a contract between the ÖAW and the ULBT in 2011, thereby granting open access.

The manuscript catalogue of the University and Regional Library Tirol (ULBT) in Innsbruck provides unprecedented scientific cataloguing and indexing of the librarys manuscript collection in both a printed catalogue, and as an open access online publication accessible via manuscripta.at. In 1973, the original project was initiated, following the Richtlinien für die Katalogisierung der Handschriftenthe guidelines of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, ÖAW). All catalogues are published in the ÖAW-series Denkschriften. Up to volume 5, the print publication was supported by the FWF (Fonds zur Förderung wissenschaftlicher Forschung), afterwards by the ULBT, and volume 10 by the FWF and the ULBT. The first two parts of the series were executed at the librarys Special Collections Department for manuscripts and rare books, and later edited and finalized in several FWF-subsidized projects. The recently finished project with the number P 25151-G18 contains volume 10 of the series, and includes signatures Cod. 9511198. It was executed under the honorary direction of the former head of library, HR Dr. Walter Neuhauser. After his demise (October 2016) HR Mag. Eva Ramminger took over the management from December 2016 until the project end in February 2017. The greater part of the positions in the project was financed by the FWF, the project members with different kind of employments and different durations being: retired Assistant Professor Dr. Helmut Gritsch, Mag. Rita Maria Neyer, MMag. Dr. Alexandra Ohlenschläger, MMag. Anna Pinter. The project was further supported by Mag. Petra Ausserlechner, Professor Dr. Kurt Girstmair, Mag. Patrik Kennel, retired Assistant Professor Dr. Josef M. Oesch, Dr. Gabriel Rabo, PD Dr. Ursula Schattner-Rieser, MMag. Dr. Claudia Schretter-Picker, Mag. Dr. Claudia Sojer, and Mag. Dr. Maria Stieglecker MAS. Starting on March 1st 2013, and after repeated self- financing extensions made possible through personnel rotations, the project was submitted to the ÖAW for printing by December 2015, and finalized on February 28th 2017. As in the ninth volume, modern manuscripts from after 1600 prevail in the tenth part. Compared to earlier volumes, the number of medieval cimelia is low. Nevertheless, and despite theinconspicuous appearance, two of them are among the most important manuscripts of thULBT: Cod. 960, a collection of three spiritual plays, and Cod. 961 (around 1415), the oldest manuscript of "Pluemen der Tugend" by Tyrolean poet Hans von Vintler. A third manuscript, Cod. 979 (15th century), contains a collection of transcription of edification literature translated into the German, and includes Niklas von Wyle as well as Heinrich Haller, a monk of Schnals. Contributing to the goal of cataloguing all manuscripts in the larger Tirol region, the manuscript project at the ULBT has inspired several similar projects in the area.