Rare book collections
Books printed in the early days of printing in the 15th century, rare first editions, lavish plate works, unique bookbindings, and books which once belonged to Danish kings and queens.
Photo: Atle Clausen
Royal Danish Library has a number of collections that contain rare books. These include the rare book collections, which contain the largest concentration of rare books.
The rare book collections are based on the older foreign collections in the library. This means that the Danish special collections from Danish collections do not belong to the rare book collections.
There are also rare books in the various university library collections, and there is also a rare book collection in Aarhus.
Rare book collections
The rare book collections are divided into sub-collections, and the books in the sub-collections can generally be found by searching the library system. Follow our instructions.
However, broadsheets and print fragments, as well as miniature books, are not catalogued, so you cannot find them in the library system.
It can be difficult to find books printed on parchment in the library system, and in some cases you can therefore find help in the printed overview of the collection of books printed on parchment.
The rare book collections consist of the following sub-collections:
- Incunabula collection. The library owns approximately 4,500 foreign incunabula, that is, books printed before 1501. Incunabula are registered in the Incunabula Short title catalogue.
- The Postincunabula collection (or S-30 collection). Foreign prints from 1501-1530. It comprises approximately 6,500 volumes.
- The Parchment collection. The library's foreign books printed on the luxurious material parchment, a total of approximately 125 volumes.
- The S-77 collection. Books published after 1531, selected from the Older collection's Foreign Books of the Danish Collection because they are particularly rare and/or valuable or otherwise of historic interest.
- Historic Book Study Collection. A sample collection of foreign books, selected because of their binding, printing, illustrations or the like.
- The Luther collection. Books from the 16th century by Luther and about Luther.
- Gemmet. Books with erotic content, mainly taken from the Older collection's foreign books.
- Salomonsen's Collection. Books about dysmorphism, that is, the artistic cultivation of what was perceived as "deformed", collected by the doctor Carl Julius Salomonsen.
- Deonna's collection. Books collected by the French-speaking Swiss Henry Déonna, who was Danish vice-consul in Cannes, concerning lifestyle, costume, fashion, folklore, wine festivals, ethnography, wigs, hair fashion, habits, body decorations.
- Danish book bindings. The collection is divided into private bindings and publisher bindings (including composed bindings and publisher paper boards). In addition, there are other materials to illustrate book history, such as covers and a small selection of Danish Bibles and hymnals.
- The collection of broadsheets. Broadsheets in the broad sense; including pamphlets.
- The Collection of Printed Fragments: A small collection of fragments, mostly taken from book bindings.
- Miniature books. There are few miniature books.
Books which once belonged to authors
Books which once belonged to authors can, in most cases (Kierkegaard, Brandes, Hjelmslev), be found in their archive in the manuscript collection.
The Jespersen and Pio publishing house's book archive is also part of the Jespersen and Pio archive in the manuscript collection.
Archival material from, for example, bookbinders is also included in the manuscript collection.
Catalogues
Printed catalogues of selected parts of Royal Danish Library's rare books have been published. You can find the catalogues by searching for them as you would for other books in the library system.
Danish books printed before 1601 have references to Lauritz Nielsen's bibliography (see below). In advanced search, you can search for LN numbers under "other classification".
When you search for a number of foreign books, numbers from corresponding foreign bibliographies of 16th-century books (VD16, Edit16) are written in the catalogue entry that you get. All the catalogue entries on incunabula have a reference to the ISTC number.
Many books are also registered in the online resource Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC).
Catalogues of rare books
- Bruun, Chr. V., H Ehrencron-Müller, Lauritz Nielsen and others. Bibliotheca Danica: systematic index of Danish literature from 1482 to 1830. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde and Bagger, 1961-1963 (Reprint with additions and references).
- Grønbæk, Jakob H., Bibliotheken in Dänemark in: Handbuch deutscher europäischer Buchbestände. Vol. 2: Finland. Hildesheim 1998. Digital edition: https://fabian.sub.uni-goettingen.de/fabian?Bibliotheken_In_Daenemark
- Ilsøe, Harald. On paper, parchment and palm leaves ...: Treasures in Royal Danish Library: a presentation in pictures and text on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the library's opening to the public. Copenhagen, 1993.
- Ilsøe, Harald: Royal Danish Library in the making, studies and collections on the history of the collection until approximately 1780, Copenhagen, 1999.
- Jørgensen, Christian Stub. The State Library of Aarhus: Catalogue of Foreign Fiction III: English and North American. Aarhus, 1957.
- Madsen, Viktor: Catalogue of Royal Danish Library's incunabula, Copenhagen, 1935-1963.
- Molbech, Christian: List of books printed on parchment in the great Royal Danish Library, together with some contributions to the Library's most recent history, 1830.
- Nielsen, Lauritz: Danish Bibliography 1482-1600 with Special Consideration to the History of Danish Printing, Copenhagen and Kristiania: Gyldendalske Boghandel / Nordisk Forlag, 1919.
- Peg. Michael A., German and Dutch Books (1516-1550) in Royal Danish Library, Copenhagen, a Short-title Catalogue. Bibliotheca Bibliographica Aureliana 122. Baden-