Europe

Their sheer number, variety and quality is sufficient reason to place digital libraries in Europe on a separate page. Hopefully this will help you to see digital library collections in other continents on the main page clearer. Some subjects will probably remain on that page. The alphabetical order of countries has been maintained.

Europe: General projects

  • Europeana – not only a portal to digital libraries all over Europe, but also to archives, museums and audiovisual collections, and also for example newspapers
  • Early European Books – Chadwyck – in The Netherlands one has free access to digitized books from the Royal Library within this collection
  • Virtuelle Fachbibliothek Ost-Europa – sister organisations and their portals are listed by the Webis (Universität Hamburg)
  • Project Runeberg – an online library for Scandinavian literature; interface English and Swedish
  • Post-Reformation Digital Library, Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary – a portal to digitized works by protestant authors in the Early Modern period
  • Universal Short Title Catalogue (USTC), University of St. Andrews – a portal describing books from the fifteenth century onwards until 1700, originally created for French books, with increasingly links to digital versions
  • Digitale Bibliothek, Digitales Forum Mittel- und Ost-Europa (DIFMOE) – with books about and from Riga, Pilzen, Brno, Bratislava and Košice; interface German, English, Czech and Slovakian
  • European History Primary Sources, European University Institute, Florence – this was a valuable attempt to create an online database for searching digital collections of libraries, museums and archives; each project is briefly introduced and described
  • Gazettes européennes du 18e siècle – digitized newspapers, many of them in French, a number of them published in the Dutch Republic
  • Iurisprudentia, Universität Zürich – a digital library with works by nineteenth-century lawyers from Austria, Germany and Switzerland, with not only books, but also digitized letters and manuscripts; legislation and legal courts will get a place here, too
  • Fenno-Ugrica, Kansalliskirjasto, Helsinki – 1500 monographs, 110 newspapers and many hundred journals in Finno-Ugrian languages, and also six special collections, for example for Estonian and Yiddish; interface Finnish, Russian and English
  • Central and Eastern European Library (CEEOL), Frankfurt am Main – a licensed portal with free search functionality and also books in open access; individual accounts can be opened
  • Impresso, EPFL, Lausanne, Universität Zurich and Université de Luxembourg – a platform for searching some eighty newspapers from Switzerland and Luxembourg
  • European Forum of Official Gazettes, European Union – useful to track current European gazettes and their digital versions
  • Digitales Forum Mittel- und Ost-Europa (DIFMOE) – an international project with digital book collections from and about Brno, Riga, Pilzen, Bratislava, Timisoara and Kosice; multilingual interface
  • Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin pour l’histoire comparative des institutions, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven – a digitized version of these important essay volumes around single themes publsihed between 1936 and 2000

Albania

  • e-Albanica, Biblioteka Kombëtare e Shqipërisë [National Library of Albania], Tirana

Austria

For Austria the portal RepÖstRG, Repertorium digitaler Quellen zur österreichischen Rechtsgeschichte in der Frühen Neuzeit, created by Heino Speer (Klagenfurt), offers you quick access to digitized legal sources and also scholarly literature.

Belarus

  • Books of Belarus, 14-18th centuries, National Library of Belarus, Minsk – interface Belarussian, Russian and English
  • Monuments of Belarussian legal history, Pravo – a section of this portal for current law presents a selection of historical resources; interface Belarussian
  • Digital Library, Yakub Kolas Central Science Library, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk – a project with several collections for Early Modern printed books, and also manuscripts; interface Belarussian, Russian, Polish and English

Belgium

  • Belgica, Royal Library, Brussels – a digital collection with books and images, maps and medals; interface in Dutch and French
  • BelgicaPress, Royal Library – Belgian newspapers; interface Dutch, French and English
  • BelgicaPeriodicals, KBR – Belgian periodicals; interface Dutch, French and English
  • Flandrica: Erfgoedbibliotheken online – six Flemish public libraries have partnered in this digital library with both books and manuscripts from Flanders’ cultural heritage
  • Gedigitaliseerde oude drukken, Erfgoedbibliotheek, Universiteit Antwerpen – nearly 1,900 works
  • Digitale bronnen, Amsad-ISG, Ghent – digitized reports, journals and newspapers concerning mainly Flemish social history and social movements
  • DONum BICfB – a portal to digitized books of Francophone universities in Belgium
  • Digital Heritage Online, Bibliotheken KU Leuven – with subcollections, for example for historic land registry and census reports
  • Lovaniensia, Special Collections, KU Leuven and Réserve patrimoine, UC Louvain – digitized Early Modern editions of works by famous professors and alumni of Leuven
  • Rechtsreeks / LigneDroit, Bibliotheken KU Leuven – a collection with digitized legal books, in particular some classic works, and journals on law from the twentieth century, partially in open access
  • Theses from the old university of Leuven, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven / JSTOR Collections – some 3,100 printed Early Modern and later dissertations
  • ePatrimoine, DIAL.num, Université Catholique de Louvain – a portal to three collections, among them Imprim@Lex for Early Modern legal works, 470 from Belgium and 265 from the Dutch Republic
  • Galeries, Université de Liége – a modest name for a digital library with the Fonds précieux juridiques (XVIe-XIXe s.), including also law books for Liège and the Southern Netherlands, and digitized placards publiés dans la Principauté de Liège (ordinances)

Bosnia

Bulgaria

Croatia

Cyprus

Czech Republic

You can benefit from the Registr digitalizace (RD), a portal for tracing digitized works in Czech libraries, interface Czech and English.

Denmark

Estonia

  • Digital Library, National Library of Estland – interface Estonian, English and Russian
  • DIGAR Eesti artiklid, National Library of Estland – digitized newspapers, journals and serials; interface Estonian, English and Russian
  • EEVA, Tartu University and Estonian Literature Museum – a digital library with texts up to the mid-nineteenth century; interface in Estonian, English, German and Russian
  • DSpace at Tartu University Library – in this repository you can find also older books, especially in German and Russian
  • University of Tartu Library, JSTOR – seven digitized collections, in particular books, graphic art, periodicals and photographs

Finland

  • Doria, National Library of Finland – digitized books, maps, manuscripts and ephemera from numerous Finnish institutions; interface Finnish, Swedish and English
  • Digitaaliset aineistot, Kansalliskirjasto, Helsinki – the platform for digital collections of the Finnish National Library; interface Finnish, Swedish and English

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

  • Reglugerðasafn [Ordinances Archive] – ordinances since 1912
  • Handrit – digitized medieval manuscripts and old books of the Arnamagnaeanske Samling, Kopenhagen, the National and University Library and the Stofnun Árna Magnússonar, Reykjavik
  • Tímarit, National and University Library, Reykjavik – digitized journals from Iceland, Greenland and the Faroer, with for example the official gazette Tíðindi um stjórnarmálefni Íslands (1864-1874) and some years of its successor Stjórnartíðindi fyrir Ísland
  • Baekur, National and University Library, Reykjavik – digitized old books from Iceland, with for example the Lovsamling for Island, Jón Sigurðsson et alii (eds.) (21 vol., Kopenhagen 1853-1889), containing legislation and all kinds of legal documents between 1096 and 1874; interface Icelandic and English
  • Digital books, National and University Library, Reykjavik – Internet Archive – some 1,400 books
  • Islandica: A Series in Icelandic Studies, Cornell University – some modern and some older volumes in this book series have been digitized, in particular Halldór Hermannsson, The Ancient Laws of Norway and Iceland. A Bibliography (Ithaca, N.Y., 1911)

Ireland and Northern Ireland

Italy

Latvia

  • Digital Library, National Library of Latvia – here also for example old maps and periodicals; interface Latvian and English
  • Gramatas, Latvijas Nacionālā Digitalā Bibliotēkā – interface Latvian, Russian and English

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Luxemburg

Malta

  • DigiVault, National Library of Malta – the general digital library of Malta

Moldavia

Monaco

  • Presse ancienne, Mediathèque de Monaco – two newspapers and two journals

Montenegro

  • Digitalna biblioteka Crne Gore, Nacionalja Biblioteka Crne Gore Durde Crnojevic, Cetinje – with also some digitized archival records; interface Montenegrian and English

Netherlands

  • Delpher, Royal Library, The Hague – including works from the project Early Dutch Books Online (1780-1800), journals and newspapers, and also official gazettes as the Staatscourant and the Staatsblad, with their supplements (bijblad) and forerunners, including also gazettes for the Dutch Indies and Suriname – the Delpher collection within the Internet Archive contains only newspapers and official gazettes (mainly 1814-1850)
  • Staten-Generaal digitaal, Royal Library, The Hague – parliamentary documents, 1814-1995; alas the accompanying information has been removed at the transfer to a general Dutch portal for official governmental information in 2019
  • Beeldbank, Allard Pierson Museum / Bijzondere Collecties, Universiteit van Amsterdam – both books and manuscripts, see also the overview of image databases and digital collections
  • Beeldbank, Bibliotheek Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam – a simple name for a portal with digitized books, manuscripts, portrait paintings, Bible illustrations, maps and journals
  • Leesmuseum, Rozet, Bibliotheek Arnhem – in its digital library this public library has digitized also a number of legal works
  • Digitale collecties, Athenaeumbibliotheek, Deventer – a wide variety of works in this historical library
  • Digital Collections, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen – here in particular 127 Papyri Groninganae
  • Digitale Collectie, Tresoar, Leeuwarden – the fromer digita; ;ibrary of the Frisain provincial archive with for example some manuscripts concerning Old Frisian law and some court files of famous trials; at ist new digital platform Collecties Tresoar currently some small books collections and many thousand images are available, and an archival collection on the 1951 Kneppelfreed riot
  • Digital Special Collections, Leiden University Library – a growing variety of digitized books, manuscripts and archival collections
  • Colonial Collection, Royal Tropical Institute – this digital collection contains some 1300 books and many scientific journals, many of them touch upon law and justice; since 2013 the collection is managed at Leiden
  • Project Digitalisering Erfgoed, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen – simple but effective access to digitized books with six alphabetical lists; there is now also a portal for the digital Bijzondere Collecties [Special Collections] with both manuscripts and books
  • Digitized Objects Special CollectionsBijzondere Collecties, Utrecht University Library
  • Dutch Government Publications, Internet Archive – apart from official publication you can find here the Staatsblad, the Staatscourant, the Tractatenblad (for treaties), parliamentary reports and much more, the focus is the early 21st century
  • Peace Palace Library Digital Collections, The Hague – with books on the peace movements, the Scheldt Collection on the Belgian-Dutch dispute about this river, posters, cartoons, engravings, photographs, and a general book collection

North Macedonia

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Rumania

Serbia

Slovakia

Slovenia

  • Digital Library of Slovenia – the digital library of the National and University Library; interface Slovenian and English
  • Sistory Zgodovina Slovenije [Portal for Slovenian History] – with access to digitized archival collections, books and journals, including census records, official gazettes, parliamentary debates and legislation; interface Slovenian and English
  • Kamra: digitalarana kulturna dedišcina slovenskih pokrajin [Kamra, digitized cultural heritage of Slovenian regions] – a portal with mainly digital collections from a number of libraries; interface Slovenian, Hungarian, English and Italian

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

  • e-Helvetica, Swiss National Library, Bern
  • Bibliothèque numérique RERO DOC – with an user interface in four languages
  • e-rara – a digital library portal for old editions, with a search interface in English, German and French
  • e-periodica, Eidgenössiche Technische Hochschule, Zürich – a portal to digitized Swiss journals; interface German, English and French
  • e-newspaperarchive.ch – a portal for digitized Swiss newspapers; interface in four languages
  • Amtsdruckschriften, Schweizerisches Bundesarchiv, Bern – the Bundesblatt from 1848 onwards, diplomatic documents for 1848-1945, Bundesratsprotokolle 1848-1882, and the Amtliches Bulletin der Bundesversammlung 1971-1995
  • Verfassungsgeschichte, A. Tschentscher, Bern – Swiss constitutions and constitutional documents; there are also sections for the United Kingdom and the United States
  • Sammlung Schweizerischer Rechtsquellen online (SSRQ), Rechtsquellenstiftung des Schweizerischen Juristenvereins – digitized versions of the earlier series with source editions; interface in German, French and Italian – also as XML/TEI and searchable at histHUB with other resources
  • Rechtsquellen des Kantons Zürich, Sources Online and Staatsarchiv des Kantons Zürich -search interface German, English and French
  • Recueil helvétique, Pascal Delvaux – a database version of the eight volumes of the Bulletin des lois et des décrets de la République helvétique (1798-1803)
  • DigiBern: Berne Kultur und Geschichte im Internet, Universitätsbibliothek Bern – with a section Gesetze und Verordnungen, there is also attention for the lawyer Eugen Huber
  • Biblioteca digitale del Cantone Ticino
  • Bodmer Lab, Fondation Martin Bodmer and Université de Genève – several digitized special collections
  • Patrinum, Réseau vaudois des bibliothèques – the digital library for cultural heritage of a number of libraries in the region around Lausanne; interface in four languages
  • Scriptorium, Bibliothèque cantonale et universitaire (BCU), Lausanne – a platform for digitized newspapers, almanac , journals and books, with also the Encyclopédie d’Yverdon (58 vol., 1770-1780, see this search guide) and the Bulletin du Grand Conseil

Ukraine

 United Kingdom

Vatican City

  • DigiVatLib, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana – online catalogues and digital collections of an incomparable library