Another objective of the libraries involved in e-rara.ch is the digitization of all incunabula printed in Switzerland. In absence of a complete Swiss incunabula catalogue their estimated number is 600. Four out of six existing incunabula from the Canton of Bern will mark the beginning of this collection. They were printed in 1475 by a traveling printer who worked in Burgdorf near Bern. Also part of the collection are a few selected prints from Basel.

An initial focus for the e-rara.ch project which includes material from all over Switzerland comprises Swiss prints from the 16th century. These play an important role in the history of ideas in Europe and especially in the history of the Reformation. The digitization is being coordinated with the VD 16-1 digital and VD 16-2 digital projects (Bavarian State Library in Munich).

Swiss prints from the 17th century are a further national focus of the e-rara.ch project. Systematic digitization is to commence in 2012.

The systematic digitization of 18th century Swiss prints is as yet not within the scope of the e-rara.ch project. Accordingly, only selected holdings on specific themes will be incorporated.

The systematic digitization of 19th century Swiss prints is as yet not within the scope of the e-rara.ch project. Accordingly, only selected holdings on specific themes will be incorporated.

Between 1928 and approx. 1940, C.G. Jung built up a collection of over two hundred early printed books on alchemy. In his works he analyzed them from a psychological point of view. Thus arose one of the most complete private collections of its time in the field of alchemy. It also includes other rare works in related areas such as magic, mysticism and Kabbalah, along with ancient books of dreams and literature of the Church Fathers.

The BPUN holdings are particularly well-stocked in the subject of anatomy, largely thanks to the legacy of Jacques-Louis Borel (1795-1863), a doctor and native of the Neuchâtel region who, in the nineteenth century, made a key contribution to the medical and intellectual life of the canton. He was the king’s personal physician before being appointed chief doctor for the canton in 1848, and was one of the founders of the Société neuchâteloise des sciences naturelles (1832) and the Société médicale de Neuchâtel (1852), as well as a member of the library committee. The latter institution was particularly close to his heart and, upon his death in 1863, he bequeathed to the library some 1,200 works on medicine and natural history dating from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century.

This collection comprises popular publications and reference works pertaining to the city and the canton of Bern.

The 9 illustrated bibles from the Bibliothèque des Pasteurs date from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries and were selected for this project for reason of their historic and artistic interest. The digitization is the first stage of a project which will include an in-depth analysis of these works as well as a study of the relationship between text and image.

The Salita dei Frati Library in Lugano is initially publishing a batch of rare editions of seventeenth-century Italian poetry on e-rara.ch, almost all of which come from the rich collection of the eminent Italianist Father Giovanni Pozzi, who bequeathed it to the library.

The digitization and online publication was made possible through the support of the Fidinam Foundation.

The collection Miscellaneous contains digitized material which does not fit in any of the other collections.

The Salita dei Frati Library owns a rich collection of 18th and 19th century books printed in Ticino (Ticinensia). The first editions go back to the year 1746, when the printers Agnelli from Milano founded the first print shop in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland in order to pursue their activities without being subject to the censorship exercised in the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom.

The BPUN has some of the most beautiful works on birds from the Western world, which were acquired either from the bequest left to the library by David Pury or through donations from wealthy members of the local community at the time of the institution’s foundation. These holdings include key pieces from a modest yet reasonably rich collection which charts the development of our knowledge about birds and the evolution of ornithological works.

This collection gives an overview of the original editions of the works of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, regardless of whether they were printed separately or published in complete editions of his works.

This category includes scientific books collected by the ETH-Bibliothek, dating from the middle of the 15th century to the end of the 19th century. The focus is on subjects such as astronomy, mathematics, technology, architecture and natural sciences.