“The past lies frozen before us”
Libraries as listed monuments in Hungary
MúzeumCafé 42.
Wherever you travel in the world you rarely come across the notion of a library as a public monument – apart from Hungary. Naturally, that doesn’t mean that elsewhere there are no similar institutes whose stock and buildings are preserved in their original condition, rather there wasn’t the necessity or demand for such a category with which to give high-level protection to former aristocratic or ecclesiastical collections of books and library interiors. In Hungary the concept was formulated with a view to preserving collections which had remained intact. The libraries established by the former elite were transformed from sanctuaries of learning to tourist attractions, the ‘museum function’ neutralising the spirit of the place. In Hungary the concept of a listed library appeared in the 1950s with the goal of maintaining and protecting valuable collections following nationalisation. In general, what was included were libraries with historical and cultural-historical significance being preserved in their original locations, which in the main or entirely were in their original condition. The definitions stressed the museum-like function and that the contents could be researched for academic purposes. In place of collecting and expansion, the stress shifted to preservation and presentation. Reading was replaced by visiting, and the emphasis was put on use and usefulness. “Concerning listed libraries,” says István Monok, director of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences’ Library and Information Centre, “since there is no such official category in library science, anyone can say whatever they want. The concept itself was formed after 1945 and it’s rather political jargon than a professional library term. A collection can be regarded as a listed library housing a stock of documents with a related manuscript archive which represents a part of protected cultural heritage. It is held in a space where the material environment and the furnishings are also part of protected heritage. Although a listed library has the character of a museum, it does not become one, only its services are similar.” A listed library is an important element of cultural memory, since it relates not only to the moment when its furnishing were made but also to learning, education, language and the relationship to the language, book printing and even to the process of collecting, bearing in mind that books and codices were always very prominent in Hungarian collecting. King Matthias’s Bibliotheca Corviniana was one of the most significant collections of its age, and contemporary Church dignitaries also had their libraries of various sizes. The Ottoman conquest dealt a severe blow to these nicely developing collections – as did the Second World War to later collections. Thus the libraries of the Hungarian humanists are found today beyond the country’s borders. The books of Boldizsár Batthyány are in the Franciscan’s library in Güssing; the collection of János Zsámboki (1531–1584), which was unique in its day, is in the National Library in Vienna. The library of Debrecen’s Calvinist College, founded in 1538, fell victim to fire and there are only a few surviving collections from the era, such as the library of the Calvinist College in Sárospatak. However, several decades after the Turks were driven out significant libraries were again founded, in fact book collecting for its own sake was superseded by the establishment of well-planned public libraries, which not only accumulated books but also items relating to natural science, history and art. Public libraries established by Church dignitaries in the second half of the 18th century can be seen today – those of Bishop György Klimó in Pécs (1774), Baron Ádám Patachich in Kalocsa (1784), Count Károly Eszterházy in Eger (1793) and Count Ignác Batthyányi in Gyulafehérvár/Alba Iulia (1798). The libraries of the nobility were also much developed. The 18th century saw the founding of the libraries of the Festetics family in Keszthely, of Ferenc Széchenyi in Nagycenk, Gedeon Ráday in Pécel, and of Sámuel Teleki in Marosvásárhely. In 1802 Széchényi laid the foundations of today’s National Széchényi Library with the offer of his collection. The Teleki family followed suit in 1826 vis-à-vis the library of the Academy of Sciences. The example was catching. In the 19th century there were significant book lovers to be found among the lesser nobility and the well-to-do, as well as landowners, university professors and others. Fortunately, in the main their collections were not dispersed after their deaths and most ended up in the library of the Academy or in the National Széchényi Library. These libraries are often ‘closed’ units, which in principle cannot be expanded further, since with the deaths of their founders and donators collecting ceased. In the past half century, for librarians the protection of the existing stock has been an important issue.