Dürer Bibliography
Within the German-speaking world, Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) has produced and inspired probably the largest amount of specialist literature in the disciplines of cultural studies, not only as an artist but also as an influential theorist and eloquent contemporary witness. The intellectual analysis of his life and work is as old as the subject of art history itself. Matthias Mende’s 1971 bibliography already listed 10,271 titles on Dürer. The “Dürer Bibliography”, compiled in cooperation with the art collections of the City of Nuremberg, the Albrecht-Dürer-Haus-Stiftung e.V. and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, aims to merge older and elusive international literature on the subject and, for the first time, make it comprehensively searchable with the aid of a database. Particular attention will be paid to Dürer's afterlife, as the wide distribution of his graphic art has meant that his work has remained the subject of intense artistic debate to this day.
The bibliography is hosted and operated by the Heidelberg University Library in accordance with its current DFG project “arthistoricum.net - Fachinformationsdienst Kunst” (“arthistoricum.net – Specialised Information Service for Art”). The titles are created and indexed by the Heidelberger project team and the staff in Nuremberg in the Southwest German Library Network (Südwestdeutscher Bibliotheksverbund, SWB) using standards data from the Integrated Authority File (Gemeinsame Normdatei, GND). The presentation will use the open-source discovery system VuFind. The concept developed here as a prototype for the topic of "art forgeries" is to be further developed as a versatile tool for the electronic recording of specialist bibliographies. Its layout can be variably adapted to external settings. In addition to the convenient search options available, further functions are planned.