Library

′Classic′ – a book which people praise and don’t read.
(Ernest Hemingway)

In total, there are around 130,000 legal history volumes in the Freiburg libraries. With around 50,000 volumes, the institute library itself is one of the largest libraries of its kind in Germany. This includes selected holdings from the former library of the Offenburg Regional Court. In addition to the items listed in the University Library catalogue, the Department on German Legal History also holds other media, including the offprints by Karl Kroeschell and Hans Thieme as well as copies, facsimiles, microfilms and digital copies from the following areas:

Medieval manuscripts on Lübeck law:

• Gdansk State Archives, APG 1/2-1/5
• Göttingen City and University Library, 8° Cod. Ms. jurid. 806
• Hamburg State Archives, Manuscript collection 506, 507
• Hamburg City and University Library, Cod. 97 in scrin
• Kiel City Archives, sigl. 79413
• Royal Library of Copenhagen, Thott. 591 8°, Thott 1003 4°, Thott. 2061 4°
• Lübeck City Archives, Manuscript 753 (maritime law etc.)
• Moscow State Library, Fonds 218 No. 953-1, 953-2, 954
• Tallinn City Archives, Collection 230 CM 5, 6, 9, 10, 19, 20
• Duke August Library Wolfenbüttel, Cod. Guelf. 684 Helmst.

Manuscripts on the modern history of private law:

• the manuscript and two postscripts to G.A. Heise’s pandects lectures
• a postscript to Savigny’s Landshut pandects lecture
• the materials on the Saxon Civil Code of 1863/65
• the materials on the Swiss Code of Obligations of 1881/83 and its revision in 1911/12.