Martin luther collection / sammlung

The Stickelberger collection comprises Reformation books collected between and by Dr. He felt that the great historian of the Reformation should immerse him- or herself in the time period through the study of its printed materials.

Martin Luther Collection / Sammlung The complete hymns and a short biography of Martin Luther.

The original Stickelberger collection consisted of copies, which can be found in the sales catalogue of the Erasmushaus in Basel. Generally, the books have been rebound—with few original bindings—and show signs of use through annotation of early readers. Stickelberger rebound the majority of copies he owned in the same type of binding—typically with a handwritten title on the spine.

He not only rebound his copies, he also took sammelbands apart. As a result, almost every single pamphlet in this collection has its own binding, but one can still find leather tabs—used for quick reference of specific portions of text—on pamphlets and other printings. One of the highlights of the collection is the large number of tracts by Martin Luther.

Stickelberger collected about Luther copies. Most of these copies are small pamphlets of only a few quires printed in the German vernacular. Of many of the titles in this collection, there are two or sometimes more copies of different editions by Luther.

The Weimar edition of Luther's works, also known as the Weimarer Ausgabe (WA), is a critical complete edition of all writings of Martin Luther.

Most of the printings are published in Latin and French, but there are also pamphlets in German and one book in Italian. Compared with the rest of the Stickelberger collection, the Calvin copies seem to have fewer annotations and appear to have more often their original or a contemporary binding. Most of the copies are in quarto, rebound and annotated in the vernacular language.

Although the Folger Shakespeare Library bought the collection en bloc at the auction in Basel, the library did sell the duplicates of materials they already had.