Bavarian State Library

The Bavarian State Library (German: Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, abbreviated BSB, called Bibliotheca Regia Monacensis before 1919) in Munich is the central "Landesbibliothek", i. e. the state library of the Free State of Bavaria, the biggest universal and research library in Germany and one of Europe's most important universal libraries. With its collections currently comprising around 39.4 million media units (as of 2025), it ranks among the leading research libraries worldwide. The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek furthermore is Europe's second-largest journals library (after the British Library). Furthermore, its historical holdings encompass one of the most important manuscript collections of the world, the largest collection of incunabula worldwide, as well as numerous further important special collections. Its collection of historical prints before 1850 totals almost one million units. The legal deposit law, still applicable today, has been in force since 1663 and requires that two copies of every printed work published in Bavaria have to be submitted to the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek. The BSB publishes the specialist journal Bibliotheksforum Bayern and has been publishing the Bibliotheksmagazin together with the Berlin State Library between 2007 and 2023. Its building is situated in the Ludwigstrasse.

General and research library Central state and repository library of the Free State of Bavaria Collection of regional legal deposits and publications related to Bavaria Part of Germany's virtual national library in cooperation with the German National Library and the Berlin State Library Runs the Munich Digitization Center Responsibility for special subject collections of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) Collaboration on the Corporate Body Authority File (Gemeinsame Körperschaftsdatei, GKD) and the Name Authority File (Personennamendatei, PND)

In 2019, the library counted 78,600 active users and 1,173,000 loans. Its reading rooms are used by around 4,000 readers every day. In the general reading room, open daily from 8 AM to 12 AM, approximately 111,000 volumes, primarily reference works, are freely accessible. Additionally, every day approximately 1,500 volumes are retrieved from the repositories and made available for use there. In the periodicals reading room around 18,000 topical issues of current periodicals are available. The departments of manuscripts and early printed books, maps and images, music, as well as Eastern Europe, Orient and East Asia have their own reading rooms with open-access collections. In 2010, a new research reading room was opened, focusing on Historical Sciences and Bavarian History and Culture (Aventinus Reading Room).

c. 38.5 million media units (including e-media) c. 11.4 million books Old Books (1501-1800) 920.000 volumes (as of 2023). 16th century books: 116.951 volumes. 17th century books: 309.392 volumes. 18th century books: 493.736 volumes. c. 148,000 manuscripts: the catalogue is the work of librarian Johann Andreas Schmeller (1785–1852). Latin (Codices latini monacenses – Clm), c. 17,000 items. Mulomedicina Chironis (Clm 243), 4th century Breviarium Alarici (Clm 22501), 6th century Purple Evangeliary (Clm 23631), 9th century Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram (Clm 14000), c.870 Computistic ms. of St. Emmeram (Clm 14456), early 9th century Prayerbook of Otto III, c.1000 (Clm 30111) Evangeliary of Otto III (Clm 4453), c.1000 Pericopes of Henry II (Clm 4452) Sacramentary of Henry II (Clm 4456) Uta Codex (Clm 13601), c.1025 Ruodlieb romance fragments (Clm 19486), c.1050 Scheyerer Matutinalbuch (Clm 17401) Carmina Burana (Clm 4660) prayer book of Maximilian I of Bavaria (Clm 23640) the "Munich Manual of Demonic Magic" (Clm 849) German (Codices germanici monacenses

Library data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).