Index of institutions and organisations which own incunabula, grouped by place names; as well as the GW’s location mark authority file.

The index contains links from alternative place names to authority forms. It records the movement of holdings and locates elements of former collections.

The ‘Abkürzungen für Wiegendrucksammlungen’ (‘abbreviations for incunabula collections’) can be found in

• Vol. 1, p. XXXII–LXIII
• Vol. 8, p. ✼40–✼100
• Vol. 9, p. ✼6–✼8

Please note that use of the location marks in the database differs from that of the printed volumes 1–7. The database uses the abbreviations published in Vol. 8 onwards.

The index has a complete record of the location marks of all organsations and institutions which, to the knowledge of the editors, either own or have owned incunabula.

The index is sorted alphabetically; texts are transcribed according to the ‘Prussian Instructions’ for this purpose.

The information is grouped according to place names, under which the location marks are filed.

Sorting of Place Names:

• Sort criterion: wording of the name

Sorting of GW Location Marks:

• Sort criterion: wording of the location mark

All links lead to the location mark index itself.

The GW has been a work in progress for around 100 years. Naturally, the historical events of this period influenced the development of the manuscript and printed volumes. It was not possible for editors to systematically analyse the 50,000 pages of the manuscript and the volumes published before the Second World War and see which names were used for the places such as Zadar, Užgorod, Głubczyce, and many others besides. For this reason, the names in the index are (almost) all those that could have been written on the letterheads of incunabula owners since 1904.

The contemporary names and geographical location of places such as Chemnitz, St. Petersburg and Zlín pose no problem to the editors. They are less certain about whether the names of the organisations that own incunabula and their addresses — not visible here — are all correctly listed. And this is where we need your help. We would also be very grateful for information concerning organisations that own incunabula which are not included in the GW. And last but not least, we are always grateful to receive any details on the fate of the many collections which we have been forced to mark with the comment ‘Verbleib unbekannt’ (whereabouts unknown).