Digital Library

Digital resources are important tools for research in the Humanities, nowadays. Starting with bibliographical reference systems and digital reviews they go all the way to databases with searchable text and image bases.

The Max Planck Institute for European Legal History recognised this development already at an early stage and became an active player by offering sources relevant for legal history, which resulted from a series of digitisation projects. Printed material is converted into digital form and enriched with extensive metadata to improve its accessibility. The goal of these efforts is to provide researchers – both, within the institute and outside of it – with stable long term access to these materials, which can be examined at any time and any place of the globe on the internet. The digital library of the institute connects the results of several digitisation projects. It is conceived as an offering closely oriented on the needs of the research community and strictly following Open Access principles.

The "Digital collection Dissertations" (completed)
Nearly 73,000 juridical theses and occasional writings from the 16th to the 18th century. Title pages and dedications leafs as digital facsimiles. [more]

DRQEDit – Deutschsprachige Rechtsquellen in Digitale Edition (on-going)
German legal literature from the 15th to the 16th century, app. 450 titles with 90,000 pages. Digital facsimiles, partly full text. [more]

The "Virtueller Raum Reichsrecht" (on-going)
Legal sources of the Holy Roman Empire, app. 20,000 pages. Digital facsimiles, table of contents as searchable full text. [more]

The "Digital collection Civil law" (completed)
Literary sources on the civil law and the regulations governing civil law suits in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. More than 4,300 volumes and 1,350,000 pages. Digital facsimiles, table of contents as searchable full text. [more]

The "Digital collection Law reviews 1800-1918" (completed)
Selection of 75 German law reviews of the 19th century, 1,320 volumes, ca. 636,000 pages. Digital facsimiles, bibliographic description of every single article. [more]

The "Digital collection Law reviews 1703-1830" (on-going)
Digitisation of all German law reviews published between 1703 and 1830. Digtal facsimiles, bibliographic description of every single article. [more]

Digitization Lifecycle [more]

You can find more digital texts in our Virtual Readingroom.