There are more than 14,000 libraries in Germany. The State Library of Bamberg in Bavaria which is one of the oldest of the German libraries was founded in the year 1803. The Library has been housed since 1965 in the former royal ‘New Residence’ of the bishop of Bamberg. This is the first library where woodcut illustrated books written in the German language found place. Priority is given to humanities in the Bamberg State Library. 450,000 volumes of research material is stored in the form of manuscripts. Researches throng to the Bamgerg State Library to refer to these volumes and pursue their research work.

The State Library of Bamberg is known as the scholarly library of Germany because it offers the best available souce to humanites-studies. It was emperor Henry II who started the collection of books in the year 1007. He presented to the Cathedral some valuable manuscripts which his ancestors might have collected. At that time many manuscripts were brought from the spiritual centers of the West and books were written based on these manuscripts from then on.