The University Library at Gottingen as Germany's National Library for the Eighteenth Century: Christian Gottlob Heyne's Contemporary Acquisitions Strategy and the Sammlung Deutscher Drucke 1701–1800 on the Threshold of the Millennium

Abstract

C. G. Heyne (1729–1812) was University Librarian of Göttingen from 1763 to 1812. His universal acquisition strategy, pursued over nearly half a century, proved to be efficient to such an extent that in 1990 the Lower Saxony State and University Library at Göttingen was entrusted with the task to act as the German national library for the eighteenth century. Based on a brief assessment of the pilot phase of the project ‘Collection of German Printed Materials 1701–1800’ Heyne's acquisition policy will be critically examined on the basis of selected examples. This paper was delivered at the library history seminar held in London in 1996 on the theme of the ‘Universal Library’.