Imre Dániel – the First Librarian of the Batthyaneum – and His Book Collection
Librarian Imre Dániel’s book collection has been geographically spread over the territory of Transylvania. Nevertheless, the three present-day locations (the Library of the Roman-Catholic Theological Institute and the Batthyaneum Library in Alba Iulia and the Library of the Armenian Church in Dumbrăveni) are strongly connected to the places where Dániel was active: he was born in Dumbrăveni and worked as a librarian in Alba Iulia.
The library of the above mentioned institute includes 43 volumes that entered the collection, as duplicates from the Batthyaneum Library, even since the time of bishop Haynald (1852-1864). The Library of the Armenian Church includes 24 volumes. The Batthyaneum Library should include in its collection ca. 30-40 volumes, but the absence of a catalogue of owners render the identification efforts Sissiphic; under this respect, research must be left unfinished. The inclusion of these works in a short catalogue stresses the fact that during that era clergymen left their spiritual goods to the use of the Church, in the present case cultural institutions in which such goods could be preserved unaltered in the benefit of science.
The books that were handed down to us are specially theological and philosophical in nature, reflecting Dániel’s studies in Vienna, but one can also find among them some works on ecclesiastic history, Hebrew, and Latin. The books are in a good state of preservation; most are printed works, thus mostly having specific property marks, ex libris that attest each book’s itinerary to or from Imre Dániel. The research allowed me to discover so far 67 volumes that I was able to bring together and include in a short book catalog of what was once a librarian’s library.
Keywords: books, library, Imre Dániel, Ignác Batthyány, Roman-Catholic Theological Institute, Batthyaneum Library, Library of the Armenian Church in Dumbrăveni.
Site-uri:
