Historical holdings of the HLB
For 200 years, our library has been collecting everything about Wiesbaden, its region and (since 1945) Hesse.
The basics are the so-called "Nassovica", a comprehensive collection on the former Duchy and House of Nassau and thus the cultural heritage of the region. New titles are added to our collection on a daily basis, which is also aided by the regional deposit copy regulations.
Today, you can find everything from and about the region - from documentaries to cookbooks, from geological maps to Taunus thrillers, from travel guides to historical illustrated books.
From our "treasure trove":
Please note: separate conditions of use apply to these collections.
| What are they? | How can you find them? |
| More than 425 manuscripts | (catalog by Zedler, 1931 and on the research platform of the HLB), including the giant Hildegard von Bingen codex |
| 444 incunabula | Listed in INKA; or in the incunabula catalog by Zedler (1900) |
| 6,065 autographs | (listed in Kalliope), including the estates of Otto Stückrath and Ludwig Jacobowsky |
| Approx. 6000 pictures | Index of the collection, as well as entries in the online catalog) |
| 170,000 prints published before 1900 | On the library's research platform (tip: the desired publication period of a medium can be defined in the advanced search ) |
| 6,800 maps | On the library's research platform (Tip: In the advanced search, the media type "Map" can be selected in the "Media type" section). |
| Special collections (selection) | ... such as the Höhn Collection on the history of casinos (Wiesbaden, Bad Homburg, etc.), Wiesbaden newspaper clippings (1870-1900) and other individual volumes on various topics. ... or the Nassau prints, a collection of early modern prints (ca. 1550 to ca. 1820) that were published in Nassau towns - above all in Herborn, a center of book culture at the time. |
Detailed information can be found in the Handbuch der historischen Buchbestände (with an extensive bibliography on the holdings, updated in 2011).