%0 Journal Article
%A Aaron Vanides
%D 2026
%C Berlin, Germany
%I Peter Lang Verlag
%J Mediaevistik
%@ 2199-806X
%N 1
%V 39
%T Katalog der mittelalterlichen Helmstedter Handschriften, Teil II: Cod. Guelf. 277 bis 370 Helmst. Mit einem Anhang: Die mittelalterlichen Handschriften und Fragmente der ehemaligen Universitätsbibliothek Helmstedt, beschrieben von Bertram Lesser. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2022, XCVI u. 741 S.
%R 10.3726/med.2026.01.49
%U https://www.peterlang.com/document/1748946
%X The publication of a new manuscript catalog by a major library is always an occasion for celebration. After all, such catalogs enjoy one of the longest shelf lives of any scholarly accomplishment. If there is something like a scholarly firmament, these might be the fixed stars that steer us through archives and special collections, even as intellectual constellations move and evolve. The catalog under review does precisely this for a small subset of an important manuscript collection at the Herzog-August-Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony. For early modernists, this is a known center for the History of the Book. For medievalists, it is equally renowned for its wide-ranging holdings of premodern manuscripts, some of which are striking as visual objects, others as historical texts or literary monuments. But even the most well-known of collections can have a substantial backlog in cataloging their holdings. Indeed, the more extensive the holdings, the more likely it is that we are still engaged in what the natural sciences might call basic research. Bertram Lesser’s catalog – the second of a projected eight volumes dedicated to one of the HAB’s central manuscript collections – chips away significantly at one such standing desideratum.