Osječki zbornik, Vol. Vol. 29 No. xx, 2009.
Original scientific paper
The library of Julijana Normann - a review on woman's books collection
Marina Vinaj
; Museum of Slavonia Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Abstract
Heritage institutions preserve in their archival collections
precious book holdings of former associations, institutions
as well as family libraries or merely their fragments.
The value of these holdings consists not only of the
rare, collector’s items exceptional within bibliophilic boundaries
but also of the whole notion considering a history
part of the specific region. By perusing the pages of family
library, it is mostly about revealing its past, habits and interests
of its members. Why is the library of Juliana Normann
separated from a well-ordered count’s librarian holdings
that had been gathered for years? Can we talk here about
‘’woman’s library’’, recognizing and noticing a ‘’lighter’’
literature?
The fact that there were also collectors and readers in
our region, is not less worth mentioning compared to the
preserved fragments of specific family collections which
witness within marks on ex libris, the expert systematized
book holdings.
Thus this book is often more than a book, its value surpasses
its contents and even a binding value and quality, it
speaks of its owners’ traces, revealing each one respectively.
Museum experts thus recognize these holdings as such
and the revealing of particular ‘’level’’ via owner’s note is
compared to archaelogical research.
For that very reason this ‘’book archaelogy’’ is, often
literally, necessary due to a bad holdings condition and a
large number of unknown or more precisely unrecognized
parts of our cultural heritage.
Unfortunately only a small part of these holdings is
registered as a cultural monument and unfortunately many
holdings, especially those in church communities, are unavailable
to the public thus it is impossible to talk about the
whole heritage book holdings of our region.
A large number of librarian but also non-librarian holdings
in the possession of the Osijek and Slavonian families,
individuals, associations, organizations, schools, with
completely or partially preserved documentation are mosaic
pieces of our cultural history and must be necessarily
regarded as such.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
95658
URI
Publication date:
20.5.2010.
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