Library Services Palatina
Collection of more than 11,300 volumes that made up the Library Services Palatina, in microfiche format.
The Library Services Palatine comprises the core of scientific and literary production in central and northern Europe in the 16th century and the first decades of the 17th century.
Among the areas of knowledge are law, medicine and theology, of which the works of Protestant authors published in Germany and France are the most important. Among the most valuable examples are a parchment copy of the 48-line Bible printed in the workshops of Fust-Schöffer in Mainz in 1462, Copernicus's masterpiece De revolutionibus, and some very rare printed works in Slavic languages.
How to consult the collection
The microfiches will be requested through Unika. Once we receive the notice of your availability via email, you will go to Library Services Central for your enquiry.
The Library Services has a microfiche reader that can be used to consult the collection.
How to search in Unika
All microfiches have the call number MF.m.Z 000.030. In each record, after the symbol, a letter is included and issue which allows the microfiche to be located in the collection as a whole.
The Library Services Palatina
The Library Services Palatinate (Heidelberg) was until the 17th century the most important Library Services north of the Alps, which is why it was called the "mother of German libraries". It was founded in 1438, when the University of Heidelberg received 155 manuscripts bequeathed by the Elector Prince Ludwig III of the Palatinate (1378-1436).
Subsequently, the manuscript and bibliographic collection was increased thanks to the work of Count Ottheinrich (1502-1559), a great lover of books, who established the criteria to ensure the future growth of the Library Services and opened it to the public. Among the most significant acquisitions was the private Library Services of the famous banker Ulrich Fugger, who sold it to the university when he had to seek refuge in Heidelberg in 1567.
In 1622, during the Thirty Years' War, the Library Services, considered to be the most valuable bibliographical treasure in Europe, was seized by the troops of Maximilian I of Bavaria, who offered it as a war plunder to Pope Gregory XV and sent it to Rome, where it has been ever since, constituting the collection of the "Stampati Palatini" of the Vatican's Library Services .
From 1989 to 1995 the printed collection, excluding manuscripts, was microfilmed by the publishing house Saur in Munich and published on more than 21,000 microfiches.