Cataloging is complete for the collection of Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek in Weimar, which was first founded as a ducal library in 1691. Three hundred years later, it was renamed after Duchess Anna Amalia (1739-1807), who had been an avid supporter of the arts and one of the most prolific book collectors among her peers, with a passion for promoting literature in the German language. This legacy is reflected in the manuscript collection: out of 524 manuscripts, just over half were copied at least in part in German or another Germanic language.

HMML microfilmed the collection in 1994; just 10 years later, these manuscripts narrowly escaped a fire that tragically destroyed the library’s early book collection. Nonetheless, access to these manuscripts remains limited: the library has published two print volumes in German that cover only two-thirds of the collection, while 78 manuscripts can be viewed digitally online. HMML’s catalog is currently the only complete representation of the collection available online to researchers, particularly providing access to data concerning many regional chronicles and Meistersinger songbooks. Also of interest are German translations of the Bible that predate Martin Luther (HMML 47092 through 47099) and the earliest proto-naturalist observations of fauna and flora north of the Alps (HMML 47174).

Sixteen manuscripts written in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish were cataloged by Dr. Joshua Mugler.