Library

The Library

One of the largest of its kind in Germany, the institute’s library holds 39.000 volumes, offering a rare concentration of sources and literature.  Most of the holdings are directly accessible. The institute has an important collection of old prints from the 16th and 17th centuries, which may be consulted for research purposes.

The romanistic department is continuously adding to its holdings in the core area of Roman law, including works on economic and social history. Our exhaustive collection of the Roman legal sources is complemented by a considerable amount of literary sources.
The library has one of Germany's largest holdings of literature on ancient Greek law.

The romanistic library posesses an outstanding systematised collection of editions of papyrus-contracts. Built up from the Institute's beginnings, it is one of the largest collections of its kind in Germany and has been expanded to include non-juridical documents.

All important international journals on Roman law, as well as numerous journals on ancient history and papyrology, can be consulted at the Institute.

The tradition of Roman law through manuscripts from late antiquity into the high middle ages is a focal point of the department's research activities. Accordingly, it hosts a comprehensive collection of juristic manuscripts of secular and canon law on microfilm as well as the relevant palaeographic literature.

 Mikrofilmlesegeräte

Microfilm reader	Microfilm scanner/ReaderPrinter