ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the Gottingen library as an innovative research instrument in support of the historical-criticism of the Gottingen School. The library-historian Bernhard Fabian has convincingly argued that Gottingen was the first modern library for scholars. The specific purpose of the Gottingen library was to function as an instrument for research. This conception directed the founding, organisation, and collections of the library in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Acquisitions to the Gottingen collections took many forms, including donations and gifts, the incorporation of private libraries, and Heyne's international networks. In selecting acquisitions, particular fields and disciplines were favoured to strengthen the library collections. The organisation of the library was essential for the realisation of the institution as a research instrument following a historical-critical methodology. In Gottingen, the Realkatalog was significant for Samuel Taylor Coleridge as a practical tool, as well as an idea. Coleridge understood the usefulness and practicality of such a catalogue in stimulating new entry points for research.
