AZ EGYETEMI KÖNYVTÁR ÉVKÖNYVEI 4. (Budapest, 1968)

Könyv- és könyvtártörténet - Kalmár Lajos: The Bibliotheca Christiniana in Stockholm. (Summary)

miatt oly rohamosan nőtt, hogy ennek feldolgozására már sem az idő, sem a személyzet nem volt elegendő. így nagyrészt katalogizálatlan holt anyag maradt. Még a csonka, töredék katalógusok elkészítése is hiábavaló munkának bizonyult, amikor Krisztina összedobáltatta a már elrendezett anyagot a könyvtár helyiségének indokolatlan változtatása miatt. A gyűjtemény sorsát tehát kénye-kedve szabta meg, mert kizárólag magántulajdonának tekintette. Fel sem merült benne a gondolat, hogy királyi könyvtára nemzeti kincs, amelynek külföldre vitelével saját országát károsítja meg. Tette mégsem ütközött ellenállásba. Ez arra mutat, hogy az országban sem volt akkor még a könyvtár nemzeti alapon való megtartása társadalmi szükséglet, különben a rendek nem engedték volna idegenbe vinni. Ily módon elsikkadt egy nemzeti könyvtár megalapozásának komoly lehetősége. THE BIBLIOTHECA CHRISTINIANA IN STOCKHOLM (Summary) The study only deals with the Sweden period of the history of queen Christina's library, from 1634., the first disposition of the library, made by the governing council at the time of the queen's nonage, until 1654., when she renounced the throne and left the country. Her librarians were the most distinguished scholars of the epoch, therefore we know chiefly their scientific activity; their librarian's working is mostly in obscurity. The most active leaders of her library were Nicolaus Heinsius and Isac Vossius - of course most documents remained of these two men - who were in her service almost from the beginning of her reign. Both of them brought their manuscript collections of great value to Stockholm, too. They had, alas, scarcely time for library leading and for organizing of library work, because they were entrusted first of all with the buying of books abroad. They participated in auctions, made researches into the most famous European collections, and, following their queen's exorbitant orders, purchased for big sums the rarest manuscripts, even after the treasury's running into debts, - on credit. The number of printed books increased at a very quick pace, for during the Thirty Years' War the Swedish armies poured the material of the occupied libraries as spoils of war into the Stockholm royal library. For the full cataloguing of these there was neither time enough, nor personnel. Thus it remained for the most part uncatalogued. Though Vossius worked for many years - with longer pauses - on the catalogue of the library, there were done no more than two folio volumes. The catalogued material was ordered with great efforts, but Christina soon after made them cast together because of the unjustified changes in the rooms of the library. So could it happen that even the carefully kept manuscript collections of Heinsius and Vossius got lost in this unlucky disorder. All this was crowned by the devastating epidemic of the plague which broke out at the end of the year 1653., from which the disorganized court escaped to Uppsala with a part of the library. Christina made the best of it ship soon after and sent it to France for being forwarded to Rome. The remained material became a free prey. Scarcely a few months after, in summer of 1654. Christina renounced her throne and abandoned no her realm for ever. Thus, in spite of ther fact that the queen was one of the most educated rulers of her epoch, her great collection still did not become a library. Her capricious personality hindered her from systematical but moderate collecting. Instead of it she bought rare manuscripts at random and for tremendous sums. She also exhausted her treasury to such an extent that she could not even pay her officials. Under these conditions working systematically was impossible. She gathered in vain the most excellent scholars in her court, she did not esteem their library work - without which there is no library -, she even hindered it. Really Christina was not a bibliophile, only a bibliomaniac who did not even care for that serious negative that most of the library's material consisted of spoils of war. She treated the collection exculsively as a private property and with her going away she deprived her country of its best material. The thought of the royal library being a national treasure did, alas, not arise in her. Therefore the possibility of establishing a national library got lost. 20L