Povijesni prilozi, Vol. 20 No. 21, 2001.
Review article
The history of The Library Of The Croatian (at that time Yugoslav) Academy Of Arts And Science
Jelica Leščić
; Knjižnica HAZU, Zagreb
Abstract
The cultural riches of the greatest value in the territory of Croatia have been created for centuries - the builders’ heritage, the artifacts of eternal value, the culture of the written word, as a testimonial
of existence and development of the Croatian nation as a part of its European surrounding. Although permanently exposed to foreign territorial claims and always forced to prove itself and fight for its identity, divided and politically and economically dependent of Austria, Hungary and Italy, the Croatian nation contributed the European culture by the whole range of extraordinary artists, scientists, writers who were famous and recognized around the world, who were members of scientific societies as well as founders of academies in the European states. The literature in national language - chakavian, kajkavian and stokavian dialects developed rather early in Croatia, as well as equally important literary works of the Croatian Latinists. The meaning of the literary
written word was acknowledged by the founders of the Academy, which was supposed to link the top level scientists from all the Croatian lands that were divided in that period of time. In accordance
with the pan-Slavist ideas of that period, Strossmayer and Rački directed the activities of the Academy towards other Slavic, mostly South Slavic countries. The national movements in the European countries also influenced Croatia - the distinguished people of that time, however, were not strong enough to make a step forward towards the complete independence of the Croatian state, nation, culture. The Croatian Academy of Arts and Science had an important role in the development of the national culture, and the large collection of books in its Library proves permanently the national cultural history. The Library, as well as the Academy itself, verifies by its existence and holdings not only the culture of its nation and individuals that were creating it, but also the historical burden of the past times. The focus of the Academy’s activities was studying the Croatian culture and history, which can be seen from the inherited holdings of the Library of the Academy. The Library owes its value and importance in many ways to Ivan Kukuljević Sakcinski, his versatility and efforts to collect the documents important for the history, culture and literature of his nation. The Library of the Academy was looked at from the aspect of accommodation, financing,
management, personnel who was in charge for it, but also from the aspect of upgrading the holdings and ways of acquisition of the library material. The attention was also paid to the library activities, expert processing of the materials as well as the utilization of the holdings.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
28739
URI
Publication date:
11.2.2002.
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