Partner Project

Financed By: Katholische Diözese Rottenburg-Stuttgart

Institution: Wilhelmsstift Tübingen

Researcher and Project Manager: Michael Braunger

The library of the Wilhelmsstift in Tübingen was founded in 1818. Its historical holdings of incunabula and early printed books derive from the collections of Catholic monastic libraries that were dissolved during secularisation and transferred to the Kingdom of Württemberg. The most important component is the theological collection of the former Königliche Handbibliothek in Stuttgart, which was granted to the Wilhelmsstift in 1822 by King Wilhelm I as an initial endowment.

The volumes contain numerous binding fragments from medieval parchment manuscripts. Some of these fragments have already been detached and described in scholarly publications, including a collection of fragments with musical notation edited by Stefan Klöckner (Psallite sapienter. Fragmente liturgischer Handschriften aus der Bibliothek des Wilhelmsstiftes Tübingen, ed. by Stefan Klöckner, vol. 1, Wilsingen 1990; vol. 2, Grammow-Neuhof 1995). However, a large number of fragments remain preserved in situ.

In January 2026, the historical holdings were systematically surveyed for fragments, resulting in the identification of 267 shelfmarks containing fragmentary material. On Fragmentarium, a representative selection from several areas of medieval book culture (law, medicine, literature, liturgy, and music) is being published; the material dates from the late eighth to the late sixteenth century. In addition to several noteworthy finds of early manuscripts, further fragments originating from the same original mauscripts as in the Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg have been identified. Links to the project “Medieval Music Fragments from Württemberg Monasteries” are provided on the overview pages.

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