Introduction

A precious legacy

Traube's library and Traube's palaeographic photo plates

For his teaching and studies, Ludwig Traube built up a comprehensive collection of books and palaeographical photographical plates, all of which were bequeathed to the MGH on his death. This estate comprised some 20 000 volumes of palaeographical and codicological works with a large collection of antique material from secularised church libraries, including a number of medieval manuscripts, and his photographical plates.

Traube’s precious collection of books and plates, valued then at around 64 000 Reichsmarks, was packed together in Schwabing and transported to the MGH in Berlin. There, it was first housed in the rooms of the central board of directors in Luisenstraße and thereafter in the building of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek Unter den Linden. In the Second World War, Traube’s library was moved from Berlin to Pommersfelden in Upper Franconia along with the other books. From thence, it came to Munich after the reorganisation of the MGH and was shelved separately under the shelf mark Zz until being integrated in the MGH library in the 1960s. It is unknown what happened to Ludwig Traube’s handwritten literary estate; it may well have suffered the same fate as the library of the Mittellateinisches Seminar at the LMU Munich which was destroyed by fire in World War II.

For the MGH, the acquisition of Traube’s estate revolutionised the institute’s hitherto quite unimportant book collection. Supplemented in 1911 by the library of Oswald Holder-Egger, it laid the groundwork for the modern MGH library. Today, 7413 titles, some of which comprising several volumes, are identified as originating from Ludwig Traube’s library.