Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21857/mnlqgc060y
RUDOLF HORVAT ABOUT HIS MANUSCRIPT THE HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF VARAŽDIN
Ana Kaniški
; Varaždin
Abstract
The most comprehensive and most cited work on the history of “the Baroque
Town” is undoubtedly the best description of The History of the Town of Varaždin
by the renowned Croatian historian Rudolf Horvat (Koprivnica, 14 March 1873
– Zagreb, 25 May 1947). The manuscript was meant to be printed on the 700th anniversary
of the founding of the town of Varaždin (in 1909), but the plan failed; it
was only printed in 1993. In 2017 it was seven decades since the author’s death,
and in 2018 we marked 125 years since his birth and a quarter of a century since
the publishing of his historiographic work. With the help of rich and comprehensive
archive material in State Archive in Varaždin and Croatian State Archives
in Zagreb, we get the full picture about the making of his work. Reading the
minutes from town assembly sessions, the letters by vice-mayor and Education
board, and the correspondence between town officials and Horvat, we see how
ardent the author was in conducting a comprehensive research of the history of
Varaždin, in collecting the materials for the future historiographic work, in his
vision regarding the work’s content, and in his persistence in negotiating the fee
he deemed reasonable for his 30-years effort. We can also see the commissioner’s
efforts to discuss the reasonable fee with scientific and publishing institutions, in
order to agree a fee in accordance with the poor economic situation of that day
and age; they negotiated the cost of printing of his future historiographic work
with different printing offices having sent them similar examples of historiographic
works, including Horvat’s own. The commissioner was keen to involve
other competent people in this process – representatives and non-representatives
of the town assembly of Varaždin – who were supposed to use their professional and work experience and draw an expert conclusion about the manuscript by
means of three multimembered committees. Horvat had worked on it for almost
thirty years. He handed over his manuscript in parts in March 1934, 1935, 1936,
August 1938 and in the Spring of 1939; he used to com to Varaždin in person or
send the text via the mayor Novaković or one of his close friends. It is thought
he planned to publish the manuscript in multiple volumes: the first part, general
and political history, was published in 1993, whereas the topic-based, second part
with separate chapters has never been published. This text titled Doctor Rudolf
Horvat: The Cultural History of the Town of Varaždin, together with the published
first part, is kept in the Varaždin City Museum. Wanting to give Horvat the time
for research and writing of his historiographic work, the town authorities, with
the help of the former governor of Croatia Ban Pavao Rauch, sent the author to
the then Royal State Archive in Zagreb, where he studied archive materials, and
helped him financially to continue his research in Austrian and Hungarian archives,
as well as to publish the study Varaždin in the Late 16th Century. In the Royal
State Archive in Zagreb (today’s Croatian State Archives), Horvat had the time
and opportunity to research not only the history of Varaždin, but also the history
of other Croatian towns, which allowed him to write historiographic works
about these towns as well. That way the representatives of the Varaždin town
assembly from 1909 made a small contribution to the development of historiography
in Croatia. Regarding that and keeping in mind that Horvat worked on the
manuscript for almost thirty years up until 1939, it is necessary to compare this
manuscript in the context of historiographic works from the 1930s.
Keywords
Rudolf Horvat; The History of the Town of Varaždin; manuscript; Varaždin; Stjepan Novaković; Krešimir Filić; historiography of Varaždin.
Hrčak ID:
214512
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2018.
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