''Der Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke'' (English: The Union Catalogue of Incunabula) ( abbreviated as ''GW or GKW'') is an ongoing project of the

Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin This is a list of the state libraries (german: Landesbibliothek) for each of the Länder of the Federal Republic of Germany. These libraries hold the right for legal deposit for the publications in their respective state. Landesbibliothek ...

and appears in conjunction with the print edition of the

union catalog A union catalog is a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of libraries. Union catalogs have been created in a range of media, including book format, microform, cards and more recently, networked electronic databases. P ...

ue of

incunabula In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pro ...

. The ''Gesamtkatalog'' serves as a bibliography or collection of cradle prints or incunabula. The word ''incunabula'' stems from the Latin word ''incunabulum'' (place of birth or beginning). In the world of books, incunabula refer to books that were printed using metal type up to the year 1500. The work is based on the description of the individual prints, each complete description consists of the bibliographic note, the collation, the description in the narrower sense, the source, and the copy. The database contains all together 36,000 descriptions of incunabula, distributed over at least 3,900 articles. The ''Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke'' is available in part in print and in its entirety—in draft form—via an

online database An online database is a database accessible from a local network or the Internet, as opposed to one that is stored locally on an individual computer or its attached storage (such as a CD). Online databases are hosted on websites, made available as ...

Publications

Volumes 1-7 of the catalogue were published in Leipzig between 1925 and 1940 by Karl W. Hiersemann; they are now out of print. Volumes 1-7 also have a second edition, which was printed in 1968; these volumes are reprinted without any changes to the content, however, they do include some improvements due to the additions in printing present at the time of reproduction. The further publication of the GW from volume 8 onwards has been resumed by the German State Library in Berlin since 1972; after a break of more than 30 years and there are now 11 volumes.Anton Hiersemann Verlag. (2018) ''Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke (GW)''. Heirsemann Verlag. https://www.hiersemann.de/reihen/gesamtkatalog-der-wiegendrucke-gw/

References

External links

''Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke'' (in English)''Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke'' (in German)
* ''Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke'' on German Wikipedia {{DEFAULTSORT:Gesamtkatalog Der Wiegendrucke 1925 non-fiction books Library catalogues German books Incunabula Online databases

Publications

See also

References

External links