Bibliotheca Palatina (Biblioteca apostolica vaticana)

The Bibliotheca Palatina ("Palatinate library") of Heidelberg was the most important library of the German Renaissance, numbering approximately 5,000 printed books and 3,524 manuscripts. The Bibliotheca was a prominent prize captured during the Thirty Years' War, taken as booty by Maximilian of Bavaria, and given to the Pope in a symbolic and political gesture. While some of the books and manuscripts are now held by the University of Heidelberg, the bulk of the original collection is now an integral part of the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana at the Vatican. The important collection of German-language manuscripts have shelf-marks beginning cpg (older usage: Cod. Pal. ger., for "Codices Palatini germanici"), while the vast Latin manuscript collection has shelf-marks with cpl (or Cod. Pal. lat., for "Codices Palatini latini").