Provenance

In 1807/08, the Bamberg Library received a substantial part of the book collection of the Wittelsbach Duke Charles II Augustus of Pfalz-Zweibrücken (1746–1795), a brother of the first Bavarian King Max I Joseph. This included the book collection of the physician Johann Theophil Hoeffel (1704–1781) which had been acquired by purchase for the ducal library. After the Latinized form of the place name Zweibrücken, the Bamberg holdings are referred to as Bipontina (shelfmarks beginning "Bip.").

Originally, the Zweibrücken Hofbibliothek was located in the Schloss Karlsberg near Homburg (Saarpfalz district, Saarland). In the late 18th century, in order to protect the collection from the advancing French Revolutionary troops, the books were transferred to Mannheim; later they came to Würzburg and finally to Bamberg.

Today, the collection comprises 11,400 volumes, which are preserved in the State Library Bamberg. In a historical showroom of the New Residence, a selection of books with decorative gold embossed bindings are presented. The thematic focus is on French literature of the 18th century.

Joseph Heller, the son of a Bamberg merchant who was orphaned at an early age and received a generous inheritance (1798–1849), donated the collection that he had built up in his lifetime and that spanned diverse genres to the library. It includef pre-historic and early-historical finds, coins, paintings, stained glass, incunabula, manuscripts, printed books and – in much higher numbers – around 50,000 graphic prints and drawings from the 15th to the 19th century. In order to expand his collection and intellectual exchange, Heller travelled to culturally significant towns in Germany, Styria, Illyria, Tyrol and Italy. He was also in regular written exchange with renowned scholars, art collectors and dealers, meticulously handwritten notes and published reference works, art historical monographs and essays about his discoveries. Heller collected information for his publications and published about his collection.

Since the 1820s, Heller had a friendship with Heinrich Joachim Jaeck (1777–1847), who became the sole director of the Royal Library in 1815, and he appointed the institution in his will as the sole heir to his estate. After he died in 1849, his collection was handed over to the library. Earlier and today, the Heller collection forms the main part of the holdings of prints and drawings of the State Library, which are remarkable both in respect of quality and quantity. The Heller collection comprises a comprehensive range of portraits and topographical views of the region (especially of the Franconian Switzerland), as well as his reference library of 6000 volumes and several hundred manuscripts. The library shelfmarks (shelfmarks beginning "JH.") reflect the former unity of these results of a personal passion for collecting.

Numerous digital copies of the so-called Helleriana and the complete correspondence are already freely accessible via the digital collection Bamberg Treasures, which is constantly being expanded. The special arrangement and activities Heller gave to his collection were the starting point for a DFG project, during which a selected segment is explored in depth, systematically hyperlinked with library and art historical resources and made accessible online to the interested public.

The professor of medicine Johann Lukas Schönlein (1793–1864), who was born in Bamberg, eventually became personal physician to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV in Berlin after working in Würzburg and Zurich. Already during his lifetime he donated books to the Bamberg Royal Library, and after his death, he bequeathed numerous books. In total, more than 10,000 volumes have been transferred to the general stock, including geographical and historical works from all over the world. On the basis of a handwritten list, the collection can be reconstructed, although it was not preserved as a separate entity in Bamberg. The University of Würzburg received Schönlein's medical library as a legacy.

A digital selection from the holdings of the Bamberg State Library in the Bamberg Treasures portrays the life, work and importance of Johann Lukas Schönlein.

The collection of Emil Marschalk von Ostheim (1841–1903), a baron interested in genealogical, heraldic and local historical research, is identifiable from the beginning of the shelfmark with "MvO". The collection contains among others a collection of rare pamphlets concerning the revolution of 1848. A catalog drawn up by Hans Fischer published in 1911/12 made the collection well-known.