INCUNABULA

The current Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz was founded in 1946 along with the new University Library. As the library couldn’t refer to its predecessor’s holdings the collection had to be rebuilt. More important than the procurement of incunabula and old prints was, of course, the provision of current literature for students and professors. Nevertheless, it was possible to purchase no fewer than six incunabula from the antiquarian book trade – two of them in the period before the currency reform of 1948. Three additional incunabula were acquired in 1949. The last and most valuable incunabula “Chronika van der hilliger Stat von Coellen” was bought in 1950 from the Bonn secondhand bookshop Castenholz for 2800,- DM. All six incunabula are indexed in the Union Catalogue of Incunabula of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin.

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