Rhein-Main Universitäten (RMU)

The holdings of the former Senckenberg Library are almost entirely listed in the online catalog. All works from the Frankfurt section of the Royal Garden Library in Herrenhausen are also listed there. The historical medical and natural science collections date back to the former “Senckenberg Library.” This was created in 1850 by merging the private library of approximately 10,000 volumes donated by Johann Christian Senckenberg (1707–1772) in 1763 with the libraries of several civic associations that supported natural history research in the absence of a university. 

As a specialized medical and scientific library, the “Senckenberg Library” was given the function of a university library for the relevant subjects when the university was founded in 1914. As part of the supraregional literature supply, it took over the special collection area of biology (Virtual Specialist Library of Biology “vifabio,” www.vifabio.de). To this end, almost 3,000 biological journals are continuously subscribed to and around 2,300 monographs are acquired each year. Even after the merger with the City and University Library to form the Johann Christian Senckenberg University Library in 2005, the historical holdings remained the property of the old maintenance providers and are available to the university on permanent loan.

The holdings were supplemented by a partial purchase of the so-called “Royal Garden Library Herrenhausen” in 2008. The 926 volumes are predominantly botanical printed works from the 17th to the early 20th century. Among the outstanding objects are hand-colored natural history works in particular. The holdings of the former Senckenberg Library are almost entirely listed in the online catalog. All works from the Frankfurt section of the Royal Garden Library in Herrenhausen are also listed there.