As part of its historical heritage, the library holds a collection of approximately 77,000 printed works from the 16th to 18th centuries. Most of its historical prints come from the libraries of the Jesuit branch in Mainz, which was dissolved in 1773, and the Mainz Carthusian monastery, which was abolished in 1781.

Other important monastery libraries from Mainz and the surrounding area, whose book collections were transferred to the Old University Library after secularization, include those of the Carmelites, the Benedictine monastery of St. Jakob, the Capuchins, the Augustinian hermits, and the Franciscan Observants. Significant remnants of the Bibliotheca Palatina, including 63 Ottheinrich volumes, found their way to Mainz via the Jesuit settlement in Heidelberg.

An overview of the linguistic and content composition of the old holdings up to 1900 and their provenance is provided in the article in the "Handbuch der historischen Buchbestände in Deutschland" (Handbook of Historical Book Holdings in Germany) (link at the bottom of the page). It gives the total number of prints after the incunabula period up to and including the 19th century as approximately 125,700 titles.

In addition to the online catalog, the historical volume catalogs in the reading room can also be used to research old holdings. The alphabetical volume catalog is also available in digital form at www.dilibri.de.

The incunabula of the city of Mainz have been housed in the Gutenberg Museum since 1962, where they are cared for and catalogued. Please direct any inquiries regarding the incunabula to the Gutenberg Museum library:

Tel. +49 6131 12-2562
gutenberg-bibliothekstadt.mainzde

The Scientific City Library has a rare book collection with printed works from the 16th to 21st centuries that are particularly rare or valuable in various respects. Rare books can be historically, scientifically, and literarily outstanding printed works—books that changed the world or editions that are remarkable in terms of book history and book art. Printed works of special value to Mainz and the history of Mainz libraries have their place here, as do copies with individual features that make an "ordinary" print unique. Printed works that have been bound in manuscript waste are, without exception, part of the rare book collection, as they may provide important research material.

Copy-specific features such as bookplates, ownership entries, binding and purchase notes, or censorship notes form the basis for provenance research, which documents the origin and history of a book copy and records the traces left behind by previous owners in these books. Who bought and bound the copies, when and where, how did they pass from one previous owner to the next, what significance was attached to them, and how were they used? Provenance research in a library context attempts to answer these questions and make the results available for research.

Provenance and copy specifics can be searched in the online catalog of the Mainz City Library using the search key "Provenance / Copy specifics [PRV]". So far, only part of the old stock has been linked to provenance information, but the cataloging and visualization of provenance is being systematically continued.