The establishment of Aby Warburg’s private library as a research institute under Fritz Saxl in 1921 arose directly from the impulse to generate scholarship and publications. When the books and images of the Bibliothek Warburg were transferred from Hamburg to London in 1933–34, Saxl and his staff, now encouraged by scholars and well-wishers in England, took immediate steps to reaffirm that integral purpose. In 1936 they launched a new book series, Studies of the Warburg Institute, a successor to the similarly-named Studien der Bibliothek Warburg.
The next year saw the foundation of the Journal of the Warburg Institute; two years later they embraced the entry of the Courtauld Institute into the new project—a fruitful collaboration which continues to flourish in the Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes.
Today, the Warburg’s publication activities and international scholarly networks are more extensive than ever before, having grown steadily since those optimistic beginnings.
