The University Library holds special collections in literature concerning the Palatinate and Baden, egyptology, archeology, the history of art, and South Asia.

Its roots trace back to the purchase of a chest of documents by the first Rector Marsilius von Inghen in 1388, which was stored in the Heiliggeistkirche.

Otto Henry, Elector Palatine, combined the university's libraries in the 16th century, thus creating the Bibliotheca Palatina.

After Heidelberg was conquered by Tilly in September 1622 during the Thirty Years War, the victorious Maximilian I, Elector of Bavaria donated the Bibliotheca Palatina to Pope Gregory XV.

Several manuscripts dating from the 10th to 18th century from the libraries of the secularized monasteries Salem and Petershausen constituted the basis for the reconstruction.

Efforts to recover the Bibliotheca Palatina led to a partial success in 1816: 847 German manuscripts from the Vatican and some Latin and Greek works came back from Paris to Heidelberg.

In 1888 the Codex Manesse, which was at that point located in the Royal Library in Paris, returned to Heidelberg as part of an exchange.

From 1901 to 1905, a richly ornamented four-wing red sandstone building was constructed for the library across from the Church of St. Peter.

It was designed by Josef Durm, who adapted the Renaissance style of Heidelberg Castle and added numerous elements of Art Nouveau.

The Große Heidelberger Liederhandschrift was written in Zurich between 1300 and 1340 and is the most extensive collection of Middle High German poetry.

The graphic collection contains views and portraits in drawings, woodcuts, copper and steel engravings, etchings and photographs.

The Heidelberg document server heiDOK is an open access platform that offers members of the university the opportunity to publish on the web free of charge.

[6][7] Within the framework of the cooperative system of national literature and information supply funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the Heidelberg University Library oversees the specialized information services (FID) for Egyptology, Classical Archaeology, European Art History up to 1945 and General Fine Arts Studies as well as South Asian Studies.

The library is tasked with collecting the German and foreign scientific literature for these departments as exhaustively completely as possible, indexing it and making it available via interlibrary loan.