Izvorni znanstveni članak
The Founding of the Library of the Archaeological Museum in Split
Arsen Duplančić
; Arheološki muzej u Splitu
Sažetak
In the specialised literature, in surveys and statistical reports, the year of the founding of the library of the Archaeological Museum in Split is usually given as 1820 or 1821, while 1827 is mentioned once. However, analysing of museum and other documents shows that the museum was not founded until 1845. When the Museum was founded in 1820, its purpose was to excavate and look after ancient monuments from Salona, not to study or publish them. Accordingly, no funds were provided for the purchase of books, but only for the excavations and related costs.
In October 1842, the management of the Museum was taken over by Francesco Carrara, who, full of élan and ardour, wanted to revive this moribund institution. The next year he wrote to the Court chancellery and said that the Museum had not a single book, and, aware of the importance of professional literature for the processing of monuments and the publication of accounts of them, on June 14, 1845, Carrara sought permission to buy the most essential furnishing, including two glazed cupboards and twenty or so books and the purchase of archaeological objects. At the end of 1845, Carrara bought in Vienna the first books, and so this was the year of the foundation of the Museum’s library.
If we sum up the facts adduced, then we can conclude that from 1845 to 1853, the Museum procured 47 printed works and two journals, totalling 102 volumes, seven of them being accounted for by periodicals. Reading the titles of the books obtained then, we will note that thirteen referred to numismatics, four to epigraphy, and the rest to archaeology, history and art history, two to travelogues and there was one dictionary. This reflects both Carrara’s interests and his considered views about the books that were necessary for museological and scholarly work. As for the manner in which buying took place, most of them were bought from the Viennese booksellers Franz Gräffer, Ignaz Klang and Carlo Geroldo; also providing books were H. F. Favargero from Trieste, the Split booksellers Giovanni Lucatello and Bernardo Piperata, the preparator of animals and antiquarian Luigi Bonfico of Split and a certain Montfaucon. At the beginning the books were housed in two wooden glazed cabinets, together with small archaeological objects, in a small room to the right of the entrance into the high school, which was alongside the eastern wall of Diocletian’s Palace, on the outer side of which was the building of the Museum with some stone monuments. As the number of books rose, and of small objects too, in 1850 Carrara bought some shelving. He was concerned not only with the purchase of books, but also with their protection and housing, and had some of them bound into hard covers (Lavallée–Cassas, Winckelmann). By the end of his management of the Museum, Carrara had increased the number of books and formed a sound foundation on which future directors, Francesco Lanza, Mihovil Glavinić and, in particular, Frane Bulić were to continue to develop the Museum’s library and put it on a proper footing not only in archaeology but also in history and art history. Apart from that, the Archaeological Museum is the third oldest institution in Split to have a continuous history of activity in Split, after the Archiepiscopal Seminary, founded 1700, and the Classics High School, founded 1816, and the beginnings of its library accordingly require an article to themselves, the more so that many Croatian and foreign scholars have worked in it.
Ključne riječi
Hrčak ID:
240925
URI
Datum izdavanja:
29.6.2020.
Posjeta: 1.028 *