Locations
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Today, the major part of the former Cathedral Library manuscripts are kept by two libraries in Europe: the University Library of Würzburg (214 manuscripts) and the Bodleian Library in Oxford (ca. 53 manuscripts). 10 other, for the most part German repositories account for another 16 manuscripts.
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Tracing the manuscripts’ histories and their way into all the different libraries is still subject to research: The history of the Würzburg collection is not continuously documented; growth and stagnation seem to have alternated over the centuries, until the library fell into desuetude from the end of the 16th century onwards. The Oxford holdings came to England by Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, an English diplomat and ambassador to the German diet at Ratisbon and the Court of Vienna in 1636. He acquired the books along with other examples of German fine art on his stopover in Würzburg and passed on the manuscripts to William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, who finally bequeathed his collection of books to the Bodleian Library. However, major parts of the library’s history are vague and obscured by many myths. The project tries to clear things up, as far as the source material procurable will permit.
