Major Collections of Incunabula

The British Library's Incunabula Short Title Catalogue now records over 29,000
titles, of which around 27,400 are incunabula editions (not all unique works).
Studies of incunabula began in the 17th century. Michel Maittaire (16671747) and
Georg Wolfgang Panzer (17291805) arranged printed material chronologically in
annals format, and in the first half of the 19th century, Ludwig Hain published,
Repertorium bibliographicum a checklist of incunabula arranged alphabetically by
author: "Hain numbers" are still a reference point. Hain was expanded in
subsequent editions, by Walter A. Copinger and Dietrich Reichling, but it is being
superseded by the authoritative modern listing, a German catalogue, the
Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke, which has been under way since 1925 and is still
being compiled at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. North American holdings were
listed by Frederick R. Goff and a worldwide union catalogue is provided by the
Incunabula Short Title Catalogue.[10]

Notable collections, with the approximate numbers of incunabula held, include:

Library Location Number of copies Number of editions Ref.
Bavarian State Library Munich 20,000 9,756 [11]
British Library London 12,500 10,390 [12]
Bibliothque nationale de France Paris 12,000 8,000 [13]
Vatican Library Vatican City 8,600 5,400 (more than) [14]
Austrian National Library Vienna 8,000 [15]
Wrttembergische Landesbibliothek Stuttgart 7,076 [citation needed]
National Library of Russia Saint Petersburg 7,000 [citation needed]
Bodleian Library Oxford 6,755 5,623 [16]
Library of Congress Washington, DC 5,600 [citation needed]
Huntington Library San Marino, CA 5,537 5,228
Russian State Library Moscow 5,300 [citation needed]
Cambridge University Library Cambridge 4,650 [17]
Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III Naples 4,563 [18]
John Rylands Library Manchester 4,500 [citation needed]
Danish Royal Library Copenhagen 4,425 [19]
Berlin State Library Berlin 4,442 [20]
Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts 4,389 3,627 [21]
National Library of the Czech Republic Prague 4,200 [22]
National Central Library (Florence) Florence 4,000 [23]
Jagiellonian Library Krakow 3,671 [24]
Yale University (Beinecke) New Haven, Connecticut 3,525 (all collections)
[citation needed]
Herzog August Library Wolfenbttel 3,477 2,835 [25]
Biblioteca Nacional de Espaa Madrid 3,159 2,298 [26]
Biblioteca Marciana Venice 2,883 [citation needed]
Uppsala University Library Uppsala 2,500 [27]
Biblioteca comunale dell'Archiginnasio Bologna 2,500 [28]
Bibliothque Mazarine Paris 2,370 [29]
Bibliothque municipale Colmar 2,300 [30]
University and State Library Tirol Innsbruck 2122 1889 [31]
Bibliothque nationale et universitaire Strasbourg 2,098 (circa) [32]
Morgan Library New York 2,000 (more than) [citation needed]
Newberry Library Chicago 2,000 (more than) [33]
National Central Library (Rome) Rome 2,000 [34]
National Library of the Netherlands The Hague 2,000 [citation needed]
National Szchnyi Library Budapest 1,814 [citation needed]
University Library Heidelberg Heidelberg 1,800 [citation needed]
Abbey library of Saint Gall St. Gallen 1,650 [citation needed]
Turin National University Library Turin 1,600 [35]
Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal Lisbon 1,597 [36]
Biblioteca Universitaria di Padova Padua 1,583 [37]
Strahov Monastery Library Prague 1,500 (more than) [38]
Bibliothque Sainte-Genevive Paris 1,450 [39]
Walters Art Museum Baltimore, Maryland 1,250 [40]
Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania 1,214 [citation needed]
Bibliothque municipale Lyon 1,200 [41]
Biblioteca Colombina Seville 1,194 [42]
University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign Urbana, Illinois 1,100 (more than)
[43]
Bridwell Library Dallas, Texas 1,000 (more than) [44]
University of Glasgow Glasgow, UK 1,000 (more than) [45]
Bibliothque municipale de Besanon Besanon 1,000 (circa)
[citation needed]
Huntington Library San Marino, California 827 [46]
Free Library of Philadelphia Philadelphia 800 (more than) [citation
needed]
Princeton University Library Princeton, New Jersey 750 (including the
Scheide Library) [citation needed]
Leiden University Library Leiden 700 [citation needed]
Bibliothque municipale Grenoble 654 [citation needed]
Bibliothque municipale Avignon 624 [47]
Bibliothque cantonale et universitaire Fribourg (Switzerland) 617 537
[48]
Bibliothque de la Sorbonne Paris 614 (including the Victor Cousin collection)
[49]
Bibliothque municipale Cambrai 600 [citation needed]
National Library of Medicine Bethesda, Maryland 580 [50]
Humanist Library of Slestat Slestat, France 550 [51]
Mdiathque de la Vieille le Haguenau, France 541 [52]
Bibliothque municipale Rouen 535 [citation needed]
Boston Public Library Boston 525 [citation needed]
Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine Kyiv 524 [citation needed]
Biblioteca del Seminario Vescovile Padua 483 [53]
Univerzitn kninica v Bratislave Bratislava 465 [citation needed]
Bibliothque de Genve Geneva 464 [citation needed]
Bibliothque municipale Metz 463 [citation needed]
Folger Shakespeare Library Washington, D.C. 450 (circa) [54]
University of Michigan Library Ann Arbor, Michigan 450 (circa) [55]
Fondazione Ugo Da Como Lonato del Garda, Italy 450 [citation
needed]
Brown University Library Providence, Rhode Island 450 [56]
Bancroft Library Berkeley, California 430 [citation needed]
University of Zaragoza Zaragoza 406 [citation needed]
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Philadelphia 400 (more than)
[citation needed]
Mdiathque de la ville et de la communaut urbaine Strasbourg 394 (5,000
destroyed by fire in the 1870 Siege of Strasbourg) [57][58]
Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas 380
[59]
National Library of Finland Helsinki 375 [60]
State Library of Victoria Melbourne 355 [61]
University of Chicago Library Chicago 350 (more than) [62]
Bibliothque municipale Bordeaux 333 [63]
Smithsonian Institution Libraries Washington, DC 320 [citation
needed]
Vilnius University Library Vilnius 327 [64]
Bibliothque universitaire de Mdecine Montpellier 300 [65]
Bibliothque municipale Douai 300 [citation needed]
Bibliothque municipale Amiens 300 [citation needed]
University of Seville Seville 298 [66]
Bibliothque municipale Poitiers 289 [citation needed]
National Library of Wales Aberystwyth 250 [67]
Bibliothque du Grand Sminaire Strasbourg 238 [68]
State Library of New South Wales Sydney 236 [69]
Library of the Kynvart Castle Lzn Kynvart, Czech Republic 230 [70]
Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America New York 216
[71]
Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto Toronto 200
(more than) [72]
Latimer Family Library at Saint Vincent College Latrobe, Pennsylvania 200
(circa) [73]
Stanford University Libraries Palo Alto, California 178 [74]
Cardiff University Library Cardiff, UK 173 [75]
Dartmouth College (Rauner Special Collections Library) Hanover, New
Hampshire, USA 170 [76]
National Library of Greece Athens, Greece 149
Mdiathque protestante de Strasbourg Strasbourg 94 [77]
Marsh's Library Dublin, Ireland 80 [78]
National Library of Malta Valletta 60 [79]
Odesa National Research Library Odessa 52 [citation needed]
Lviv National Scientific Library Lviv 49 [citation needed]
Bibliothque centrale / Grand'rue Mulhouse 18 (7 [library] + 10 [fonds
Armand Weiss] + 1 [fonds Grard]) [80][81][