Manuscripts, estates and archive materials
The manuscript collection collects and preserves unique specimens from medieval monastic culture to the Reformation and the Age of Enlightenment, and makes them available to the public.
Cultural heritage from the Middle Ages to the present
The Manuscript Department of the Zentralbibliothek Zürich looks after manuscripts from the 5th to the 21st century, including around 650 medieval manuscripts, (early) modern manuscripts with a focus on the history of Zurich, the Reformation and the Enlightenment, around 300 individual bequests, collections of letters and autographs, as well as numerous family, society, association and company archives.
To search for documents, start with the archive portals ZBcollections and swisscollections. If you wish to use material in the Special Collections temporary reading room (P20), we kindly ask you to order your desired works in advance.
Latest news
At regular events, we invite attendees to discover our collection of manuscripts, with its diverse focuses and rare works, as well as learn how to handle unique items and archival materials – online and in person.
Manuscripts
Holdings
The Manuscript Department was established in 1964. Its oldest holdings originate from Zurich city library and the cantonal library with the libraries of the reformed canon monastery at the Grossmünster (Collegium Carolinum) and the abolished Benedictine monastery Rheinau. In 1917, the manuscripts from these and other libraries (Naturforschende Gesellschaft, Medizinische Bibliothek, Juristische Bibliothek, etc.) found their place in the ZB. The collection is constantly being expanded.
You can learn more about our collection’s history in the manuscript catalogues by Leo Cunibert Mohlberg and Ernst Gagliardi/Ludwig Forrer.
Medieval treasures
Our older gems include:
- Greek Purpurpsalter (6th century)
- Bible from Tours (around 830)
- Reichenauer Verbrüderungsbuch (early 9th/10th century)
- Rheinau Psalter (around 1260)
- Portolan Atlas of Perinus Vesconte of Genoa (1321)
- Weltchronik des Rudolf von Ems (around 1340/50)
- Alchemical treatise ‘Aurora consurgens’ (15th century)
Zurich and Swiss historiography
In our collection you will find important Zurich and Swiss chronicles (some featuring lavish illustrations) by Gerold Edlibach, Bendicht Tschachtlan, Conrad Justinger, Diebold Schilling and Heinrich Bullinger. The 24-volume 16th-century news collection by Johann Jakob Wick is unique. Another historiographical focus is on the Enlightenment through to the Helvetic period.
Our most important historical works can be accessed via digital platforms.
Letters, autograph manuscripts and deeds
Among the hundreds of thousands of letters, the older collections of Johann Heinrich Hottinger and Johann Jakob Simler, as well as the correspondence of Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, Johann Jakob Bodmer, Johann Caspar Lavater, Johann Jakob Hess and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, are particularly noteworthy. Numerous other individual letters and letter bundles dating into the 21st century can be found in the individual bequests as well as in the archives.
The ZB’s autograph collections (under the shelf mark Ms. Briefe and Autogr. ZB) and the acquired Bebler, Benker, Cherbuliez, Girsberger, Ott and Ris-Neumann collections contain letters and papers of important individuals from the 18th to the 21st century.
Mention should also be made of the diplomas and certificates as well as our collection of family books (Libri amicorum) from the 16th to the 20th century.
Personal estates
The Manuscript Department manages around 300 individual bequests from individuals in the fields of literature, art, music, politics, philosophy and science. Among the most extensive are the bequests of Gottfried Keller, Conrad Ferdinand Meyer, Oskar and Olda Kokoschka, Jeanne Hersch, Elias Canetti and Theo and Amalie Pinkus.
We also collect Zurich-related testimonies of mothers, schoolchildren, workers, farmers, etc. Hundreds of partial bequests and personal dossiers can be found in our family and corporate archives.
All accessible bequests are listed on the swisscollections and ZBcollections archive portals.
Family and corporate archives
Our collection of manuscripts documents the public and private history of Zurich via more than 200 archives from families, societies, publishers, companies, guilds and other bodies. They include the archives of the silk company Robt. Schwarzenbach & Co., the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the publishing houses Oprecht and Europa, and established Zurich families such as Escher vom Glas and Hirzel.
All accessible archive holdings are listed on the swisscollections and ZBcollections archive portals.
Image Gallery
Medieval treasures: ornamental letters in a medieval gradual. (Shelf mark: Ms. Rh. 55)
Minnesang: the miniature ‘Zurich love letters’ discovered in a crevice in a wall, late 13th century (shelf mark: RP 3)
Swiss Chronicle: a history of war in words and images. Bendicht Tschachtlan’s illustrated chronicle from 1470. (Shelf mark: Ms. A 120)
The art of writing: calligraphy in red, 17/18th century. (Shelf mark: Ms. T 448.1)
Oriental manuscript: Ottoman almanac for 1685–86 with schematic astrological representations. (Shelf mark: Ms. Or. 6)
Stammbuch Freundschaftskult [Cult of friendship family book]: title page of the family book of bookbinder Fritz Amberger from 1903–1937. (Shelf mark: Ms. Z II 663)
Letter, cross-written to save space: letters from Hermann Siber to his brother from London and Yokohama, 1862–1866. (Shelf mark: Ms. Z II 349)
Autograph: Gesang der lieblichen Geister in der Wüste. [Song of the lovely spirits in the desert.] Goethe’s Zurich manuscript from 1779. (Shelf mark: RP 11)
Personal estate: from the bequest of Gottfried Keller. Pen drawings in his letter to Johann Salomon Hegi dated 19 January 1841. (Shelf mark: Ms. GK 78b)
Guild archive: congratulatory certificate for the honorary president Franz Glättli from the Tailors’ Guild Archive, 1923. (Shelf mark: ZA Schneidern)
Company archive: sample book for silk fabrics from the archive of the textile company Robt. Schwarzenbach & Co., around 1900. (Shelf mark: Ms. Schwarzenbach)
Cataloguing
The diversity of our manuscripts and archival documents makes searching using various research aids indispensable.
Personal papers, family archives, deposits and letters are subject to usage restrictions for reasons of archival law or privacy rights.
Can’t find what you’re looking for about a person, period or topic? We are happy to advise you on your research.
Online research
Our individual manuscripts, collections, bequests and archives are listed online on the following portals. We are constantly adding to these lists and improving access to our holdings.
Sie finden hier Archivmaterial (inkl. Nachlässe), Bildmaterial, Alte Drucke und Rara, Dokumentensammlungen, Filmmaterial, Handschriften, Karten, Musikaufnahmen, Musiknoten, Textaufnahmen sowie Einträge in Kantonsbibliographien. Es handelt sich um einen Metakatalog, der auf verschiedene Datenpools zugreift.
Beteiligte Institutionen:
- Aargau, Kantonsbibliothek Aargau
- Basel, Schweizerisches Wirtschaftsarchiv
- Basel, Universitätsbibliothek
- Bern, Universität, Institut für Medizingeschichte: Archiv und Sammlung Hermann Rorschach
- Bern, Universitätsbibliothek
- Beromünster, Chorherrenstift
- Frauenfeld, Kantonsbibliothek Thurgau
- Luzern, Zentral- und Hochschulbibliothek
- Solothurn, Zentralbibliothek
- St. Gallen, Kantonsbibliothek inkl. Vadianische Sammlung
- St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek
- Trogen, Kantonsbibliothek Appenzell Ausserrhoden
- Zürich, Zentralbibliothek
- Zofingen, Stadtbibliothek
Catalogue research via full text and in the archive structure of the ZB (and 13 other Swiss institutions). When searching for letters, please primarily use swisscollections.ch.
In ZBcollections, einem Katalog der ZB-Spezialsammlungen (vor allem der Handschriften- und Musikabteilung und der Graphischen Sammlung), sind die in der Zentralbibliothek Zürich aufbewahrten Nachlässe, Familien- Firmen- und Gesellschaftsarchive sowie grosse Teile der Handschriften verzeichnet und erschlossen.
Catalogue research via full text and in the archive structure of the ZB’s special collections (Manuscript Department, Department of Prints and Drawings and Photo Archive, Music Department).
swisscovery bietet Zugang zu den Beständen von rund 500 wissenschaftlichen Bibliotheken in der Schweiz. Enthalten sind physische und elektronische Bücher, Zeitungen und Zeitschriften, aber auch Non-Book-Materialien und Millionen von elektronischen Artikeln.
swisscovery UB und ZB Zürich erlaubt die Recherche im gesamtschweizerischen Bestand und eine gezielte Recherche in den Beständen der Universitätsbibliothek (UB) und der Zentralbibliothek (ZB) Zürich.
Here you can search specialist literature in the ZB and in roughly 500 other academic libraries in Switzerland. The reference library of the Manuscript Department (shelf mark LHS 04 …) is listed here.
Das Portal Archives Online erlaubt die Recherche nach Archivgut in zahlreichen öffentlichen Schweizer Archiven und Bibliotheken – darunter auch die Spezialsammlungen der Zentralbibliothek Zürich. Die Suche lässt sich auf bestimmte Archive und Zeiträume eingrenzen.
Printed catalogues
Since the printed catalogues only include our collection up to their publication date, it is always advisable to search our online portals, which are updated continuously.
- Leo Cunibert Mohlberg: ‘Mittelalterliche Handschriften’, Zurich 1952 (PDF)
- Ernst Gagliardi and Ludwig Forrer: ‘Neuere Handschriften seit 1500’ (older Swiss history included), introduction and register by Jean-Pierre Bodmer, Zurich 1982 (PDF)
- Jean-Pierre Bodmer: ‘Familienarchive’, Zurich 1996 (PDF)
- Tobias Nünlist: ‘Arabischen, türkische und persische Handschriften’, in collaboration with Andreas Kaplony and Tobias Heinzelmann, Wiesbaden 2008.
- Joseph Prijs: ‘Die hebräischen Handschriften in der Schweiz, Katalog der hebräischen Handschriften in den Schweizer öffentlichen Bibliotheken’, Basel 2018.
- Urs B. Leu: ’Handbuch der historischen Buchbestände’, Hildesheim 2013. Volume 3. (PDF)
Advice & mediation
Whether for education, academic research, cultural endeavours or private interests – as a cantonal, city and university library, we are open to a broad audience.
Manuscript reading room
The Special Collections temporary reading room (P20) is located on the second floor of the general reading room. It has ten workstations, a modern microform reader and Wi-Fi access. Please order your desired documents from us in advance (1–3 working days) and read our Terms of Use before visiting.
The academic staff will be happy to advise you on using the research aids and on any digitalisation requests.
Reference library
Our reference library includes literature on books and libraries, paper and watermark studies, binding studies, manuscript studies, catalogues of Swiss and foreign libraries as well as reference works on genealogy and heraldry. The available works are listed on swisscovery.
Tours, courses and workshops
Sharing information about our collection and culture is very important to us. We regularly showcase our unique cultural assets in public presentations and group tours. In our training sessions, you can learn how to decipher old manuscripts and handle archival documents.
- ‘Manuskript am Samstag’: monthly thematic presentations of originals. Click here to go to the overview page.
- ‘Keine Angst vor alten Schriften’, introductory course and advanced course. Click here to go to the course page.
- Collection-specific group tours for 8 people or more on request.
All upcoming events can be found in our events calendar.
Don’t want to miss any events in the future? Subscribe to the ZB newsletter to stay in the loop!
Zurich articles on the website
Visit our richly illustrated online presentations on the following main areas of the collection:
- Conrad Ferdinand Meyer on his 200th birthday in 2025
- Oskar Kokoschka’s bequest in the ZB
- Zurich by Wick – the Wickiana news collection
- Family archives in the ZB
- The guilds of Zurich
Do you have questions about research in the Manuscript Department or about an event? Would you like to register for a visit to the reading room? Or would you like a guided tour? Contact us directly:
Contact
Manuscripts
Digitised Material
We are continuously digitising manuscripts from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century and making them available to researchers and the general public on the following platforms.
Auf der Plattform e-manuscripta.ch werden digitalisierte handschriftliche Quellen aus Schweizer Bibliotheken und Archiven, unter anderem auch aus der Zentralbibliothek Zürich, öffentlich und kostenlos angeboten. Die Handschriften und Archivalien stammen aus mehreren Jahrhunderten, das Spektrum reicht von Texten, Briefen und Archivgut über Musikhandschriften bis hin zu Karten, Plänen und anderen graphischen Materialien.
In addition to the overarching search, it is possible to search according to specific document types (texts, letters, pictures, maps, etc.), source categories (chronicles, genealogies, catalogues, self-certificates, diaries, recipes) and other selected content.
Auf der Plattform e-rara.ch, einem Projekt der Elektronischen Bibliothek Schweiz e-lib.ch, werden digitalisierte alte Drucke aus Schweizer Bibliotheken, unter anderem auch aus der Zentralbibliothek Zürich, öffentlich und kostenlos angeboten. Als erster inhaltlicher Schwerpunkt werden die Schweizer Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts digitalisiert und aufbereitet. Diverse thematische Kollektionen von gedruckten Büchern sowie gedruckte Karten aus dem 16. bis 19. Jahrhundert erweitern das Angebot.
In the ‘Ephemera’ collection you will find more than 1,200 pre-1900 prints from our manuscript collection: event reports, petitions, calendars, advertising sheets, etc.
Auf der der Handschriftenplattform e-codices.ch werden digitalisierte Handschriften des Mittelalters und teilweise auch der Neuzeit in Form einer virtuellen Bibliothek kostenfrei zugänglich gemacht. Die gezeigten Handschriften stammen aus über 80 Bibliotheken, Archiven und Sammlungen aus allen Schweizer Landesteilen, unter anderem auch aus der Zentralbibliothek Zürich. Alle Handschriften werden zudem durch eine Beschreibung erschlossen.
Here you will find a selection of our medieval parchment manuscripts (with academic descriptions), including all permanent loans from the Abbey Library of St. Gallen.
Order digital copies
Can’t find the digital copy you’re looking for on a platform? Need a high-quality print template? Please contact us. On request, we can produce digital copies for a fee for research purposes and publications.