About the Diplomatic Apparatus

The Diplomatic Apparatus (Apparatus diplomaticus) is a research institution that forms part of the Faculty of Humanities. It houses a unique collection of more than a thousand written documents in various – predominantly old and non-European – languages (such as Latin, Middle German, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Tamil, Sinhalese). The pieces in the collection date from Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period. The collection’s origins date back to the very foundation period of Göttingen University and the so-called "Diplomatisches Cabinet" (Diplomatic Cabinet), a collection that since 1759 was used for instruction in Diplomatics - the science of studying charters. Apart from charters, the collection also comprised manuscripts, seals, and copperplate engravings. The Diplomatic Apparatus in its current form was established in 1802 and its core is still formed by the collection of papal, imperial, royal as well as ecclesiastic, dynastic, municipal and private charters.

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The Collection

Urkunden, Handschriften und Handschriftenfragmente

The collection of charters comprises nearly 900 items; the oldest charters date back to the 11th century. The medieval charters are generally recorded in the relevant editions and regesta volumes. Finding aids for the main corpus of charters have been available in typed form since 1972. Copies of these finding aids are also held by the Lower Saxony Main State Archive in Hanover and the Lower Saxony State Archive in Wolfenbüttel. In addition, the Diplomatic Apparatus preserves 67 loose original seals and 144 seal casts.

Zum Bestand:

🌐 Monasterium (since 2013) : Digitized copies of charters, manuscripts, and manuscript as well as charter fragments

🌐 Collection Portal of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (since 2017) : Seal collection

📚 Wilhelm Meyer, Verzeichniss der Handschriften im Preussischen Staate. 1 Hannover. Die Handschriften in Göttingen Bd. 3, Berlin 1894 S. 501–507 : Manuscripts, Papyri, and approximately 570 manuscript fragments dating from the 6th to the 15th century.

Library

The Library of the Diplomatic Apparatus is a teaching and research library with a reference-only collection. It currently comprises approximately 5,700 volumes and 6 current journal subscriptions, primarily in the field of auxiliary historical sciences. The library is physically connected with the libraries of the Department of Medieval and Modern History and the Institute for Historical Regional Studies and is accessible within the Centre for Cultural Studies (KWZ). The Library of the Diplomatic Apparatus is fully included in the Göttingen University Catalogue (GUK).