Erfurt Enchiridion

This was one of the very earliest published collections of Lutheran hymns, intended to facilitate hymn-singing as a means of communicating the central tenets of Reformation faith while also fostering a sense of community amongst Luther's followers. As these rather flimsy paper-bound pamphlets were carried around and used regularly, most copies perished before too long. It was widely believed that the last surviving copy of Maler's edition of the Enchiridion had been destroyed by fire when the City Library in Strasbourg was bombarded during the Franco-Prussian War in August 1870 (though a facsimile had been published in Erfurt in 1848, so its content remained known). Trinity's unique copy of the original print therefore attracted much attention when displayed as part of a library exhibition in 2013. It even featured in a news report in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, where its 'rediscovery' was described as a 'small sensation'. It is now available to researchers worldwide through the Library's digital repository.