Digitisation of Prints from the Gotha Research Library that have been Verified in VD17 as Unique.

The Gotha Research Library preserves over 12,000 unique print titles from the period 1601 to 1700. All of these titles are catalogued in the Register of Printed Works of the 17th century Published in German-speaking Countries (VD17) as well as in the library's online catalogue. As part of the national master plan to digitize prints in VD17, the library digitized 3,033 unique titles amounting to 424,546 scans between 2014 and 2018. All digitized material can be viewed in the Digital Historical Library of Erfurt/Gotha and is documented in the online catalogue.

The prints originate from the so-called Ducal Collection of the library, which has arisen from the collections of the ducal house of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg. After completing the German Research Foundation (DFG) project, the library has integrated the digitisation of unique VD17 titles into its internal digitisation programme and has continued it systematically. Thus, the Research Library is making an important contribution to the overall digitisation of the VD17, the most important national bibliographical tracking tool for the 17th century.