Grafiksammlung
The graphic collection of the University and State Library inclues approximately 4700 portraits and approximately 3000 views and plans, mostly from the 17th-19th centuries.
The Saxon Secret War Council Johann August von Ponickau (1718-1802) laid the foundation for this graphic collection. With the holdings of the Bibliotheca Ponickaviana, it moved to the University and State Library Saxony-Anhalt after the dissolution of the Wittenberg University Library in 1823.
Examples of this collection are the well-known copperplate engraving Philipp Melanchthon by Albrecht Dürer (1526), a rare coloured woodcut, anonymous: Portrait of the venerable Mr. Philipp Melanchthon (around 1570), printed by Christoffer Diebel in Lübeck, and a copperplate engraving by Hans Tröschel based on a drawing by Balthasar Swan: Frederick the Wise, Martin Luther, Philipp Melanchthon, Elector Johann Georg I (1617, made on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Martin Luther's thesis in Wittenberg). In addition, the Halle collection contains: "The Orphanage of halle", copper engraving, around 1730 a very rare sheet, a coloured copper engraving by Johann Mellinger (1540-1603) Hall in Saxony (from Braun-Hogenberg, Civitates orbis terrarum, V. Bd Plate 48) and Johann Gottfried Zeidler's reprint from 1678 with the original wooden stick "Bey Johann Wilhelm Boßögel" from 1611.
It is planned to offer a selection of the copperplate portraits on CD.