Cataloging is complete for the collection of Nordrhein-Westfälisches Staatsarchiv Münster, a state archive in northwestern Germany, where HMML photographed 482 manuscripts and folders of documents onto 426 microfilm reels in 1985.

Münster was originally founded by a missionary assigned by Charlemagne in 793, and this early relationship between imperial and religious authority continued to shape the city and its diocese over the next thousand years. The archival collection bears witness to this history. From cartularies of monasteries and collegiate churches representing more than 15 different religious orders in the region, to a plethora of chronicles centered on Münster’s bishops, to the extensive documentation of the Anabaptist takeover of the city in 1534-1535—the collection represents the shifts in power that rocked the region and that sent religious communities and cities scrambling to document their legal standings. 

The collection includes notable objects tied to monastic presence in the region, including the illuminated Liber aureus, a gospel lectionary for Kloster Freckenhorst (HMML 41187, Msc. VII Nr. 1315), and the decorated register of goods and income for Kloster Sankt Mauritz und Simeon in Minden (HMML 41115, Msc. VII Nr. 2714). View now