Certificates

The 250 documents from the Ponickau Library date mainly from the late Middle Ages and the early modern period. Around half are parchment documents, and in many cases even the seals have been preserved. These are generally documents from the Central German region covering a wide variety of legal matters, ranging from letters of feud to promissory notes.

Of the 280 items held by the Thuringian-Saxon Historical Society, over a third date from the Middle Ages. Numerous documents relate to the monasteries of St Nicolai in Halberstadt and St Georg in Kelbra. Alongside original documents, this sub-collection also contains a few facsimiles and later copies, such as handwritten transcriptions by Johann Christoph von Dreyhaupt (1699–1768).

The largest and most significant part of the collection in terms of its national importance is the Carlo Morbio collection, comprising some 3,651 manuscript and 418 printed documents. These are documents dating from the 10th to the 19th century, issued for recipients in northern Italy. In addition to documents issued by rulers and the Pope, this sub-collection contains numerous documents from ecclesiastical and secular lords, as well as over 2,000 notarial deeds. It is the largest collection of documents relating to the history of Northern Italy north of the Alps. It was acquired in 1889 at an auction on behalf of the Prussian Ministry of Education and assigned to the University Library in Halle in 1890. The collection was catalogued as part of a project completed in 2024 Projects fully digitised.