Aristocratic Libraries, Censorship, and Bookprinting in Late-Eighteenth-Century Hungary

The late-eighteenth-century heyday of aristocratic libraries was a brief but important chapter in Hungarian library history. In building their libraries, cosmopolitan Hungarian aristocrats tapped the resources not only of Hungary but of the entire Habsburg monarchy (especially Vienna) and Central an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of library history (1974) 1987-01, Vol.22 (1), p.23-41
Main Author: Gates, Rebecca A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aristocracy
Banned books
Censorship
French literature
Libraries
Library collections
Literary history
Monarchy
Travel literature
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Summary:The late-eighteenth-century heyday of aristocratic libraries was a brief but important chapter in Hungarian library history. In building their libraries, cosmopolitan Hungarian aristocrats tapped the resources not only of Hungary but of the entire Habsburg monarchy (especially Vienna) and Central and Western Europe as well. The most striking characteristic of the collections' contents was their encyclopedic nature. Acquisition of books for the libraries was complicated by the vagaries of censorship, which was relaxed only briefly during the reign of Joseph II; but determined aristocratic bibliophiles filled their libraries as they wished throughout the period. While some libraries served merely as a fashionable expression of the eighteenth-century predilection for "collecting," there were genuine book lovers among aristocrats as well, with broader views concerning the usefulness of their libraries. The "golden age" of the aristocratic book collector had passed when, toward the end of the eighteenth century, reading and the possession of books gradually became more wide-spread.
ISSN:0275-3650