The holdings at a glance
The Berne Physiologus from the ninth century, the late mediaeval illuminated chronicle of the history of Switzerland by Diebold Schilling and the Prayer Book of Ursula Begerin, and the private archives of Albrecht von Haller, Jeremias Gotthelf and Ernst Kreidolf make the Burgerbibliothek of Berne a very important institution for the study of Bernese culture and history. Its holdings comprise 50,000 image documents, including daguerreotypes by Carl Durheim and glass plates by Jean Moeglé dating from the early days of photography, graphics, postcards and portrait paintings, together with family, corporate, society and guild archives, the archives of the Burgergemeinde of Berne and a collection of manuscripts by Jacques Bongars, including 1000 valuable codices.
