The Dombibliothek’s collection of books and manuscripts contains about 140,000 titles, around 70% (~100,000 titles) of which were published before 1850.
Modern titles focus on theology, history, law, geography, library sciences, art and art history. There is constant development in this area to do justice to the three central tasks of the Dombibliothek: To make its historic collection accessible, to support and provide other institutions of the diocese (e.g.: the Dommuseum) with the literature they need, to involve the public and offer an attractive assembly of specialist literature to everyone.
The historic collection consists of medieval and early modern manuscripts, incunabula and printed books. The printed books are made up of
- the Beverina; which contains books from the chapter’s collection since the foundation of the diocese, Martin Bever’s trust in early modern times, and the 20th century
- the Josephinum’s library
- the seminary’s collection
- parish libraries, which have been conserved in their entirety and are made available as a special collection
Some objects transcend these categories because of their cultural and historic importance. Among them are the Reichenauer Epistolar (or Hildesheimer Orationale; 11th century), the St Albans Psalter (12th century) and the Codex Rotundus ( 15th century).
