Exhibition: The Block Books of the University Library of Munich

A block book is a work printed on wooden panels containing images and text. A distinction is made between chiroxylographic (images printed as woodcuts, text written by hand), xylographic (images and text both carved into wood), and typoxylographic (images printed as woodcuts, text set in type) block books, which cannot always be clearly separated. They date back to the 15th century; some scholars place them before the further development of the art of printing by Gutenberg around 1420/1430, while others argue for a later date. Block book production ceased around 1530.

Worldwide, there are nearly forty known titles in about one hundred different editions of block books. With nine titles in eleven editions, the University Library of Munich houses the third largest collection of block books in the Federal Republic of Germany, after the Bavarian State Library and the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett.