Berlin State Library restitutes three manuscripts to Halberstadt
Press release from 08/31/2015
On 4 September 2015, the odyssey of three manuscripts - two medieval and one modern - that once belonged to the library of Halberstadt Cathedral Grammar School ended with their return to the city of Halberstadt.
The two medieval manuscripts were among the extensive holdings of books, newspapers, journals and other materials that were returned to the German government by the Georgian government in 1996. At that time, Georgia restituted such holdings, which had been taken away by the Red Army fifty years earlier, at the end of or shortly after the end of the Second World War, and handed over to libraries of the Soviet Union.
In 1997, the Federal Government handed over the Georgian holdings to the Berlin State Library and instructed it to identify the respective owners and return their collections to them. Among other things, the two manuscripts remained unsolved. By a lucky coincidence and with the help of a scholar, a common feature of the manuscripts (a signature beginning with the capital letter "M") was finally identified as an indication of the Halberstadt provenance.
Another manuscript was handed over to the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin by the Lübeck City Library in 2012. This modern manuscript was part of a bundle that Russia had given to the Lübeck City Library. This manuscript also bears the Halberstadt "M" signature.
The city of Halberstadt, as the legal successor to the former cathedral grammar school, was informed of the clear identification of the three manuscripts and the formal request for their return was happily confirmed by the Director General of the Berlin State Library, Barbara Schneider-Kempf.
From 4 September, the manuscript with the shelfmark M 37 containing the Glossa ordinaria to the Song of Songs, written and illuminated in England in the middle of the 12th century, will be on display in Halberstadt Cathedral in the exhibition CULTURE AND KNOWLEDGE. On the same day, the two other manuscripts with the signatures M 68 and M 219 will be handed over to the Lord Mayor of the city.