In October 2025, a valuable seal was digitized at the ScanningCenter. The ruby seal was created between the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD and bears a Brahmi inscription.
In August 2025, the digitization of the card catalog of series A/I ('Music prints before 1800') of the 'Répertoire International des Sources Musicales' (RISM) was completed. The catalog lists music prints owned by West German institutions in the recording period from 1953 to 2005. The alphabetical sorting by composer is followed by that of anonymous authors and collections.
The digitization of the approximately 54,000 punched catalog cards was carried out by an external service provider, and the data was processed in accordance with the Munich Digitization Center’s standard business procedures.
The important Ethiopian theological manuscript collection 'BSB Cod.aethiop. 1' has been digitized at the MDZ scanning center. It was probably created in the 14th/15th century. The manuscript originally came from the collection of Johann Jakob Fugger (1516–1575) and was acquired in 1571 by Duke Albrecht V (1528–1579) for the Munich Court Library.
The valuable 'Breviarium Alarici vel Lex Romana Wisigothorum' (BSB Clm 22501) has been digitized. The Bavarian State Library owns one of the oldest manuscripts of this breviary. It is an important collection of laws enacted in the 6th century by the Visigoth king Alaric II.
In the second quarter of 2025, the first complete digitization of the 'Gospel of Otto III' was completed at the MDZ scanning center. Previously, digitization had only been carried out using a microform template or, in the case of the original, had been limited to the cover. The Gospel Book, with its magnificent binding and numerous elaborately designed illuminations, was created around the year 1000 on behalf of Emperor Otto III at Reichenau Abbey. It has been part of the UNESCO World Documentary Heritage since 2003.
In January 2025, the MDZ scanning center digitized the large-format map of Bavaria 'Die Uebersichtskarte der Verbreitungsverhältnisse der merkwürdigsten wildlebenden Thiere in Bayern' ('The overview map of the distribution of the most remarkable wild animals in Bavaria') from around 1850 (BSB Cod.icon. 180 rc). The map shows the geographical distribution of the most important wild animals of the Bavarian fauna, for example the distribution of bears, beavers, otters or wildcats, with numerous colored miniature pictures. The German zoologist Johann Andreas Wagner (1797-1861) was responsible for the creation of the map.
In July 2024, the digitization of the famous insect book “Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium” was completed. The printed work was written by the naturalist and artist Maria Sibylla Merian (1647-1717) and was published in 1705. It contains 60 true-to-life color plates of tropical insects from Suriname in their various stages of development.
Additional workspaces can now be added to the Mirador viewer, in which further objects can be opened. This allows objects to be compared with each other in detail for research purposes.
In June 2024, the digitization of over 300 Japanese woodblock prints was completed. Works from three centuries were scanned: from the beginnings of multicolor printing in the mid-18th century to shin-hanga, the so-called 'new prints' of the 20th century. The digital copies thus cover the entire spectrum of woodblock prints printed in color: illustrated books, rare triptychs and iconic broadsheets.
In April 2024, a gunsmith's book from the first quarter of the 15th century was digitized. From the middle of the 14th century, ‘Büchsenmeister’ was the professional title for craftsmen who manufactured and operated firearms. This work from Bavaria contains 40 colored pen and ink drawings.
The digitization of the court dress book of Dukes William IV and Albrecht V was completed in February 2024. The 16th century work contains 102 painted costumes and the corresponding descriptions of the court liveries.
In January 2024, the digitization of BSB Cod.icon. 397 a and b with valuable individual paintings by the French painter Simon Vouet (1590-1649) was completed. The individual images are chalk and red pencil drawings, most of which depict people.
To the digital copies of Vouet's drawings in the Digital Collections
In July 2023 the work ' Tabula Palatinorum. Wittelsbach-Pfälzischer Stammbaum von Chlodwig bis zu Kurfürst Friedrich II. von der Pfalz ' by Johannes Basilius Herold from 1556 has been digitized by the Munich DigitiZation Center (MDZ) with the support of the Institute for Conservation and Restoration. Due to format and size of the original (rolled hanging plate; 415x126 cm), several large partial images had to be made. To ensure that the entire family tree, which is rich in detail, is visible in a single image, the partial images were combined into a complete image by means of image montage.
In the Digital Collections, the Bavarian State Library presents several objects from its holdings that have been included in UNESCO's World Documentary Heritage . For faster and clearer access to these unique documents, they have now been combined into a seperate collection .
A new feature now permits searches while retaining the previous facets. To do this, simply check 'keep active filters' below the search slot after faceting.
The Mirador viewer now allows you to share links to digitized pages via email, on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter or WhatsApp.
The digital collection comprises music manuscripts of the Staats- und Stadtbibliothek Augsburg up to the middle of the 17th century . In addition to the fully digitized sources, the thermographed watermarks are also provided.
Das Bayerische Staatsministerium für Digitales stellt mit der BayernApp ein umfangreiches Informations- und Serviceangebot rund um die öffentliche Verwaltung in Bayern zur Verfügung. Hier finden Sie nun auch die neuesten Digitalisate der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek.
Einfach in der App bei "Neuigkeiten" in der Themenverwaltung "Neue Digitalisate aus der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek" auswählen. Wenn Sie künftig die App öffnen, werden Ihnen die jeweils neuesten Digitalisate aus den Digitalen Sammlungen unter dem Button "Neuigkeiten" angezeigt.
Die BayernApp im AppStore und bei GooglePlay .
Full text search, infinite zoom, open access: The Bavarian State Library presents its new Digital Collections with around 2.7 million digitized titles. Initiated in 1997 by the Munich DigitiZation Center (MDZ) of the Bavarian State Library, the Digital Collections are now the largest offering of their kind in Germany, with over 355 million digitized pages. The current relaunch goes far beyond a visual redesign. The aim of the technological revision is to improve the use of the written cultural heritage for science and research as well as for the general public.
The Bavarian State Library has just put its 2.5 millionth digital copy online. So around 70 percent of its copyright-free holdings are now freely accessible on the Internet. This gives science, research and the general public quick and easy access to significant digital treasures of culture and knowledge. Further information on the BSB's 2.5 millionth digitized item .
The manuscript Cod.angl. 2 is one of the most important English manuscripts of the Bavarian State Library. Among writings and letters on English seafaring from the 16th and 17th century, it contains a journal of Sir Francis Drake's last voyage, covering the period from August 28, 1595 to May 20, 1596, describing the course of one of the ships of this expedition to the West Indies. On page 13v from January 28 is a note about the death of Sir Francis Drake. The manuscript is available in an annotated version via our IIIF-viewer .
In this five-minute film the MDZ provides an overview of digital production at the Bavarian State Library.
Ab sofort stehen in digiPress , dem Zeitungsportal der Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek, 16 neue und 183 ergänzte Zeitungsunternehmen mit 1,2 Millionen Seiten zur Verfügung. Mittlerweile umfasst das Portal für historische Zeitungen mehr als 7,8 Millionen digitalisierte Seiten. DigiPress zeichnet sich dabei durch eine hohe Nutzungsfreundlichkeit aus. So bietet das Portal einerseits eine Sortiermöglichkeit aller Titel nach dem Verbreitungsort. Andererseits ermöglicht die Kalenderübersicht einen datumsorientierten und damit titelübergreifenden Einstieg. Alle digitalisierten Titel können über die Titelliste einzeln aufgerufen werden und sind im Volltext komplett durchsuchbar. In digiPress finden Sie eine Auflistung der neuen Zeitungsunternehmen und Ergänzungen .
Unsere runderneuerten " Digitalen Sammlungen Ostasien " enthalten einen beträchtlichen Teil des urheberrechtsfreien Ostasiatica-Bestandes der BSB, aktuell über 2 Millionen Einzelimages aus chinesischen, japanischen und koreanischen Handschriften und Drucken. Die Digitalisate sind im Rahmen eines von der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) geförderten Digitalisierungsprojekts und in Zusammenarbeit mit Google entstanden, wurden durch verschiedene Suchfunktionen erschlossen und können durch Einsatz des Viewers "Mirador" auf Basis des IIIF-Standards jetzt noch komfortabler durchblättert und betrachtet werden. Damit ist eine der großen ostasiatischen Sammlungen des europäischen Raums weltweit online frei zugänglich. Weitere Informationen zum Relaunch der "Digitalen Sammlungen Ostasien" .
William Blake, Andy Warhol, Joan Miró, Joseph Beuys, Pablo Picasso, Keith Haring and many more - the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek presents 70 selected pieces from its varied and high-ranking collection of artist's books. The exhibition runs until January 7, 2018. On its homepage the BSB presents a virtual review of the exhibition "SHOWCASE - Artists' books from the collection of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek" .