400TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE NATIONAL AND UNIVERSITY LIBRARY IN ZAGREB (C)

Motif: The facade of the old and new NUL building The four-century long history of the National and University Library is not only history of this manifoldly unique national institution as a temple and treasury of the Croatian written heritage but it in good measure depicts and represents a wider historical frame in which it was established and the way it worked and developed its activity. It was founded in 1607 as the library of the Jesuit college, i.e. the library of the first public grammar school in Zagreb which soon afterwards became the library of the first high school in Croatia. After Emperor Leopold I issued his Diploma in 1669, it was further established as the Jesuit Academy in the Royal Free City of Zagreb. By the dissolution of the Jesuit order in 1773, i.e. by the establishment of the Zagreb Royal Academy as a high school for law, philosophy and theology, in 1778 the National and University Library became the library of the Royal Academy. In the next year its fund was increased by the gift under the testament of the Zagreb canon and historian Baltazar Krčelić who asked that the library be opened to the public which was realized 40 years later. The giving of books and other library material as gifts has been one of the essential characteristics of this library throughout its history. Let us mention but a few other benefactors: Josip Sermage, Countess Eleonora Patačić, Bishop Maksimilijan Vrhovec, Vice-Roy Ivan Tomašić, Miroslav Krleža and others. Owing to the founding of the University in Zagreb in the year 1874, the Library became, both by its tasks and its name, the University Library and it remained so to the present time. It should be mentioned that up to the early 70s of the 20th century the University of Zagreb was the only university in Croatia. In this way this library has, from its very beginnings, been and remained the library of the highest education and academic institution in Croatia. It is owing to the significance of this university for the whole of Croatia that this library had in time grown outside the frame of the Zagreb Academy and University and also surpassed its primary task becoming thus the Croatian national library. At the very beginning of the 19th century, though Croatia was then within the framework of the Austrian Empire, this library started acquiring national features, primarily by the regulation demanding an obligatory copy (1816 and 1837) and particularly in the atmosphere of the Croatian National Revival known under the name of the Illyrian Movement in the middle of the 19th century. Since then, and particularly from the second half of the 19th century and further on into the whole of the 20th century its national assignment, i.e. its task as a national library was becoming dominant. Officially though, of course, retaining the name of the university, it was in the middle of the 20th century that it started being called the national library as well. In its four centuries of activity the Library changed four buildings or locations. From its founding all through to the year 1883 the Library was situated in the Upper Town and from 1883 to 1913 it worked in the University building. In 1913 the Library moved to the new building on today’s Marulić Square. This building was the first one in this part of Europe built purposefully for a library, and it is definitely one of the finest Secession buildings altogether. A beauty that has been visited for decades, all up to the year 1996, by whoever wanted to learn, study and research: by numerous generations of Croatian students, professors and scientists and other devotees of the written word. For many, both at home and abroad, this was one of the unforgettable periods in their lives though not only on account of having been young then. Presently, for eleven years to date, the Library has been working in the new building that dominates this part of Zagreb and is, in a way, welcoming all those who arrive from the southern direction to the centre of Zagreb. It should be emphasized that the greatest part of this edifice was built and equipped at the time of the war and aggression upon Croatia which is, definitely, a unique example in the history of building national libraries. If we add the data that the Croatian people had twice in the same century, at its beginning and its end, built a new edifice for its central cultural institution, then this, among other things, proves the attachment of the Croatian people to the institution that looks after its written heritage. At the same time it is a fact that it was culture that mostly contributed to the preserving of the identity of the Croatian people in the face of all the historic ordeals. The first and foremost task of the national library is permanent collecting, preserving and facilitating the usage of the Croatian written heritage regardless of its medium which means the inclusion of contemporary digital media as well. This actually makes this library the memory of the Croatian people, their “diary”, and expresses its national identity and determines its historic continuity. For example, let us just quote a few items, a few jewels of the Croatian written heritage: the manuscript of the Vinodol Law (end of the 13th century): at the time of its writing it was the second legal document in all the Slavonic countries; the first Croatian printed book, the Missal from the year 1483 written in the Glagolitic script; Judita [Judith] by Marko Marulić, the father of Croatian literature; works of Croatian and European great men of ideas (Franjo Petris, Matija Vlačić Ilirik, Ivan Lučić, Pavao Skalić, Marko Antun De Dominis, Faust Vrančić, Ruđer Bošković...); Razgovor ugodni naroda slovinskog [Pleasant Conversations of the Slavonic People] by Andrija Kačić Miošić, the most re-read Croatian literary work; Kraljski Dalmatin, the first newspapers in the Croatian language; Kratka osnova...[Brief Basis...] by Ljudevit Gaj; Smrt Smail-age Čengijića [Death of Smail Aga Čengić] by Ivan Mažuranić; the works of August Šenoa, Balade Petrice Kerempuha [Ballads of Petrica Kerempuh] and other works of Miroslav Krleža, poems of Tin Ujević, works of Ranko Marinković.., manuscripts of the best known Croatian composers, graphics and drawings of the Croatian graphic artists and some exceptionally valuable geographic maps. One of the special features that we want to refer to is the Zrinski library, the book collection of one of the most famous families in the whole of the Croatian history. It is for almost two centuries that the completeness of the Croatian written word is based on the obligatory copy. The Croatian written treasure, the Croatian written heritage that is preserved and looked after by the National and University Library, had been written or printed in all the three scripts: the Latin, Glagolitic and Croatian Cyrillic script (called Bosancica) and all the three languages: Croatian, Latin and Old Slavonic (Croatian revision), which the Croats had parallely used through centuries, using them as their own script and their own language. The library is nowadays a full member of the European library that is a joint institution constituted by European national libraries and definitely represents one of the most valuable common European projects in the field of culture and knowledge. It is also connected with the net of all the Croatian libraries. In this way the users are able to access not only the sources of knowledge that are preserved in it but also those in other Croatian libraries and libraries not only in Europe but all over the world. This makes the everyday visit to the Library physically superfluous, because daily there are more and more information and sources of knowledge, both in ours and other libraries that are accessible at a distance – by internet, round the clock. Thus its primary functions as a national library or as the university library have not been lost, but are realized differently in the information environment, new information landscape and owing to the new technologies and media. All this definitely in a faster, simpler and more complete way. Despite everything mentioned above, numerous users will in future continue coming to our National Library every day, on account of the sources of knowledge and information but also on account of numerous events there (exhibitions, lectures, presentations, round table discussions, concerts...) and they will feel comfortable in the ambience under the glass vaults, in the interplay of stone, metal and glass, surveying from the glass lobby almost the whole of the edifice and at the same time enjoying the unique and wonderful panorama of Zagreb with Sljeme in the background, a vista to remember. They will continue feeling as if they were in a temple and treasury of knowledge but of beauty as well. It is culture that is the only one to remain permanently. And the National and University Library is one of the proofs of that! Josip Stipanov, Ph.D.