Founded in Munich in 1558 through the acquisition of the private library of the Renaissance Orientalist scholar and diplomat Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter, the Bavarian State Library has treasured and developed its Oriental collections over the centuries. It serves today as the central state library and repository library of the State of Bavaria (Freistaat Bayern). Hebraica holdings include ca. 36,000 printed titles, ca. 700 manuscripts, and 17 incunabula. These various materials are written in Hebrew script, and in Hebrew, Yiddish, Arabic and other languages, and come from a vast spectrum of proveniences and periods. Among the most outstanding manuscripts is the so called Munich Manuscript of the Babylonian Talmud (Cod.hebr.95), the only complete manuscript of the Bavli in existence (France, 1342).
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