Catalogue of books printed on the continent of Europe from the beginning of printing to 1600 in the library of the Max-Planck-Institut für Europäische Rechtsgeschichte
Compiled by Douglas J. Osler
Ius Commune Sonderheft 130
Bibliographica Iuridica 1
Frankfurt am Main: Klostermann 2000. XL, 652 S.
ISSN 0175-6532
ISBN 3-465-02746-9
In 2000 the Max Planck Institute is inaugurating a new series of volumes devoted to the bibliography of European legal history in the modern period. The first two volumes to be published will provide a bibliographical record of selected parts of the rich and varied collection of books gathered from all over Europe by the Institute since its inception in 1964. The holdings of works published in continental Europe from the beginning of printing up to 1600, of which the Institute possesses over 2,300 editions, including a small collection of incunables, will constitute the first volume. A parallel volume, primarily devoted to the 17th and 18th centuries, records the holdings of works of selected printing centres. The areas covered include the Southern and Northern Netherlands, of which the Institute has one of the largest collections outside the Netherlands, in addition to smaller collections of works printed in Spain and Portugal, many of which are only infrequently to be found outside the Iberian peninsula.
The two catalogues have been compiled as part of the preparation of a number of more substantial projects on the bibliography of European legal history. These projects seek to offer a bibliographical survey of the entire legal production from the beginning of printing to 1800 in a number of major European countries. They are conceived on the principle of a bibliographical census, in which all the relevant holdings of the participating libraries in Europe and the United States are systematically registered in a data bank. By thus shifting the emphasis from the edition to the individual copy, they seek to offer a global range while maintaining a high standard of bibliographical detail and accuracy.