The book tells the story of the archiving and research library from its beginnings in the sixteenth century to the present and takes readers along on a tour of its rooms of collections and knowledge: in the historical library building, the path leads from the Renaissance Hall with the exhibition Cranach’s Torrent of Images, to the Rococo Hall from 1766, and on to the book tower. Via the underground stacks, one arrives at the study center with the central book cube, which was opened in 2005. Thematic contributions present the diverse collections: they look at manuscripts from the time before book printing as well as pamphlets of the Reformation period, the world’s biggest collection of Faust, or the so-called Ash Books, which have been restored since the fire in 2004.