Selected Special Collections

Otto Vollbehr Collection

Incunabula.

[Dr. Otto Vollbehr, half-length portrait, facing front, standing next to a rare volume of printers' bookmarks which he donated to the Library of Congress]. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

The Vollbehr Collection, stated George Parker Winship of the Harvard Library shortly before its purchase by act of Congress in 1930, "is representative, to an amazing degree, of every sort of publication which came from the fifteenth century presses." The collection contains incunabula produced at 635 different printing establishments and an rich selection of books in vernacular languages. This acquisition quadrupled the number of fifteenth century books held by the Library of Congress and established the Library as the leading center for the study of early printing.

Otto Vollbehr was a German industrialist whose family had made a fortune in the dyestuff industry; he took up book collecting when his physician recommended that he adopt a hobby following a railway accident which left him with a serious nervous condition. In addition to collecting books he acquired “ready-made” collections of 15-18th century book illustrations and of printers’ marks.

The treasure of the Vollbehr Collection is the copy of the Bible produced by Johann Gutenberg at Mainz about 1456-the first book printed with movable type in the western world. The Library's Gutenberg Bible is one of the three surviving perfect copies on vellum. The work had been in the possession of the Benedictine Order for nearly five centuries before it was acquired by Dr. Otto Vollbehr from the Abbey of Saint Paul in eastern Carinthia, Austria. Bound as three volumes, the Bible retains the bookplate of the monastery of Saint Blasius (the owner of the work until the late eighteenth century) as well as its late sixteenth century white pigskin binding. There are 3,114 volumes in the Vollbehr Collection.

Supporting Resources

• Finding Aid: Otto H.F. Vollbehr collection of printers' and publishers' marks
• Essay: The Acquisition of the Vollbehr Collection of Incunabula for the Library of Congress
• Digitized Material: Rare Book Selections, Available Online, Otto Vollbehr Collection (Library of Congress) | Library of Congress (loc.gov)

Select Digitized Material from the Otto Vollbehr Collection

	Gutenberg Bible, late 1455. The first great book printed in Western Europe from movable metal type. The Bible was completed in Mainz, Germany, probably in late 1455. Johann Gutenberg, who lived from about 1397 to 1468, is generally credited with inventing the process of making uniform and interchangeable metal type and developing the materials and methods to make printing possible.
	Carcano, Michele de, d. ca. 1490. Confessionale. Venice, Peregrinus de Pasqualibus, Bononiensis, 22 Mar. 1493. Bound with Formulario di epistole. Page Turner - PDF (17.70 MB) Bibliographic Information

	Ciminelli, Serafino, 1466-1500. Capitulo de Laurora/Co[m]posta per Seraphino. [Milan, Italy: Ulrich Scinzenzeler, ca. 1495] Page Turner - PDF (5.07 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Fargha¯ni¯, active 861. Breuis ac perutilis co[m]pilatio Alfragani ... totu[m] id continens quod ad rudimenta astronomica est opportunum. Ferrara, Andreas Belfortis, Gallus, 3 Sept. 1493. Page Turner - PDF (28 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Flos Sanctorum. [Castille, Eponymous Press, ca. 1472-1475]. Page Turner - PDF (296.84 MB) - Bibliographic Information

Giustiniani, Leonardo, ca. 1388-1446. Questi Soneti Scrisse con Sua Mano in Preposito de Ciaschun Amatore il Nobil Miser Leonardo Lustiniano. [Venice, Italy: Piero de Piasi, ca. 1491] Page Turner - PDF (5.79 MB) - Bibliographic Information

Incomencia il Libro Chiamato’il Monte di Oratione. [Venice, Italy: s.n., between 1501 and 1599]. Page Turner - PDF (20.49 MB) - Bibliographic Information

[Landino, Cristoforo] 1424-1504. Formulario di epistole. Venice, Manfredus de Bonellis, 28 Sept. 1493. Bound with Confessionale. Page Turner - PDF (36.20 MB) - Bibliographic Information

Le Malitie Delle Donne. [Florence, Italy: Lorenzo Morgiani and Johanned Petri, ca. 1492] Page Turner - PDF (6.48 MB) - Bibliographic Information

	Narnese Romano. Sonetti del Narnese Romano: Resusitato el dio Damore. [Milan, Italy: Filippo Mantegazzi, ca. 1498] Page Turner - PDF (6.79 MD) - Bibliographic Information
	Pseudo-Augustinus. Incomenza el Libro del Glorioso Doctore Misier Sa[n]cto Agustino Chiamato Manuale. Impresso in Venesia: [Hannibal Foxius], del Mcccclxxxvii adi xv de Decembrio [15 Dec. 1487] Page Turner - PDF (23.75 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Ptolemy, active 2nd century. Epytoma Ioa[n]nis de Mo[n]te Regio in Almagestu[m] Ptolomei. Venice, Johannes Hamman, 31 Aug. (pridie Kal. Sept.) 1496. Page Turner - PDF (103 MB) - Bibliographic Information

Pucci, Antonio, d. 1388. El contasto de Glhuomini et Delle Donne. [Florence, Italy: Lorenzo Morgiani and Johannes Petri, ca. 1492] Page Turner - PDF (10.06 MB) - Bibliographic Information

Pulci, Luigi, 1432-1484. Stra[m]botti de Luigi Pulci Fiorentino. [Rome, Italy?: s.n., after 1500?] Page Turner - PDF (7.95 MB) - Bibliographic Information

	Pseudo-Augustinus. Incomenza el Libro del Glorioso Doctore Misier Sa[n]cto Agustino Chiamato Manuale. Impresso in Venesia: [Hannibal Foxius], del Mcccclxxxvii adi xv de Decembrio [15 Dec. 1487] Page Turner - PDF (23.75 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Soprascripti & Introscripti di Lettere a Uarie Persone Secondo la Degnita Loro. [Florence, Italy]: Per Francesco Didino di Iacopo Fiorentino, finite a di xi di dice[m]bre Mcccclxxxxiiix [11 Dec. 1497] Page Turner - PDF (16.16 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Verardi, Carlo, 1440-1500. In laudem Serenissimi Ferdinandi, Hispania[rum] Regis ... [Basel] : I[ohann] B[ergmann, de Olpe], 1494. Page Turner - PDF (29 MB) - Bibliographic Information
	Libri de celo [et] mundo Aristotelis,Venice, Bonetus Locatellus for Octavianus Scotus, 18 Aug. (XV Kal. Sept.) 1495.