British Library Slavonic and East European Collections
|
The British Library Slavonic and East European Section acquires
material across the spectrum of the humanities and social
sciences. It is responsible for obtaining and making available
material published in the countries of Central and Eastern
Europe, and for material in the languages of those countries
published anywhere in the world.
This page provides an overview of the Slovak Collections,
illustrated by specific examples.
|
|
| |
The official emblem of Slovakia
|
Contents
An overview of the Slovak
Collections | Catalogues, printed guides
and other resources |
Slovak material elsewhere in the British Library
Further information
Collections
The exact size of the Slovak holdings is not known, since, like
other country/language holdings, they have no separate catalogue
and are dispersed within the rest of the collections. It is known
that the Library holds some 480 books printed in Slovakia before
1801. Although there are gaps in the collections due to the scarcity
of early Slovak printed books, modern Slovak material is very well
represented. There are approximately 4,350 titles in Slovak in the
current Catalogue (which covers items acquired since 1975).
In the following text, codes which appear in brackets after references
[C.36.f.21] indicate British Library shelfmarks.
From the 10th century to 1918, Slovakia was under Hungarian rule
and its religious, political and cultural development followed that
of Hungary. The latest research dates the beginning of printing
in Slovakia to the last quarter of the 15th century. The development
of the first printing presses was influenced by Lutheranism and
the 16th century was a period of traveling printers who, harassed
for their religious beliefs, often had to change their place of
work. One of the earliest examples in the British Library of a book
produced under these conditions is P. Bornemisza's Elso resze
az evangeliomokbol (1573) [C.36.f.21] printed
by him partly at Komjatice (near Nitra) and partly at Sintava (near
Trnava).
The language of the landlord class and most of the urban population
was Hungarian and it was in the Hungarian language that a large
proportion of printing was carried out in Slovakia until the end
of the 18th century. Books in Czech for the Slovak-speaking population
(the standard Slovak language did not develop until the 1780s) were
mostly imported from Bohemian and Moravian presses that were technically
better equipped to produce larger volumes like Bibles, postillas
and hymn-books. Such printing in the Czech language as existed in
Slovakia concentrated on works of a popular nature such as textbooks
and calendars. These have survived in only a few copies and are
now very rare. Books in Latin, the language of the Church, are much
better represented in the British Library collections.
Until 1700, the largest book production was concentrated in Levoca
which was followed by Trnava, Kosice, Bardejov, Bratislava, Trencin
and other places. Two examples in the collections of imprints from
M. Telegdi's press at Trnava are his postil Az Evangeliomoknac
[C.36.f.19] and Ordinarium officii divini
[3365.de.11], both printed in 1580. From Bardejov
comes Hungaridos libri poematum (1599) [11409.ee.15]
by J. Bocatius, and Bratislava is represented by P. Pazmany's Peniculus
paporum apologiae (1610) [3913.aaa.69]. Among
the 17th-century Trnava imprints are G. Barsony's Veritas toti
mundo (1681) [1020.h.16], and two titles by
M. Szentivanyi; Curiosiora et selectiora variarum scientiarum
(1689) [718.e.29] and Dissertatio paralipomenonica
(1699) [590.e.15].
In the 18th century the idea of Slovakia as a nation began to
take shape. Problems of nationalities were the subject of M. Bencsik's
Novissima diaeta nobilissima (1722) [9314.bb.31],
and among the several works by S. Timon, the founder of Hungarian
historiography, who formulated the definition of Slovakia as a nation,
are Imago antiquae et novae Hungariae (1734) [9315.aa.33]
and Epitome chronologica rerum Hungaricarum (1736) [9315.f.14],
both printed at Kosice.
M. Bel, the great Hungarian scholar of Slovak origin, began to
stress the importance of Slovak as a national language. The Library
has his Compendiolum regnorum sclavoniae (1777) [1608/373]
printed partly in Bratislava, partly at Kosice, both important
printing centres in the second half of the 18th century. The standard
Slovak language, which developed gradually from the standard Czech,
was codified in 1787 and it was the end of the century that heralded
the beginning of the Slovak National Revival. There is a representative
selection in the British Library of works by the founders of the
Revival. The second edition of J. Kollar's Slawy dcera (1824) [11585.b.20]
contains autograph notes by J. Safarik and J. Bowring, the English
author and linguist who translated Eastern European poetry. The
leading figure of the last stages of the Revival, poet, journalist,
linguist as well as fighter for political and social reform, L.
Stur is represented in the collections by several works, including
O narodnich pisnich (Prague, 1853) [Ac.800/10 (16)]
and Slavianstvo i mir budushchego (Moscow, 1867)
[8092.g.6].
20th-century writers are covered on a wide scale in first or later
editions and compilations. Since the 1960s, Slovak material has
been acquired systematically by purchase and exchanges with Slovak
libraries. The average intake of monographs is now around 450 titles
per annum and there are some 150 current periodicals taken including
daily and weekly newspapers.
Catalogues and printed guides
- Czechoslovak collections in the British Library (London:
British Library, 1989) [YA.1995.a.21571]
- Hellyer, P. and D. Pavlik, Czech and Slovak samizdat: a
catalogue of British Library holdings (London: British Library,
2003) [YA.2005.a.13821]
Other resources
Slovak material available elsewhere in
the British Library
Further information
For further information on the Slovak collections please contact
Susan Halstead:
Slavonic and East European Collections
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
United Kingdom
e-mail: slavonic@bl.uk
