VESELÁ Lenka
Šlechtická knihovna jako intelektuální zrcadlo? K reflexi dobové mentality na příkladu knižní sbírky Hieronyma Becka z Leopoldsdorfu (1525–1596), in: Český časopis historický 113 (2015), 4, s. 941-964
(A Nobleman’s Library as His Intellectual Mirror? On a Refl ection of Contemporary Social Mentality using the Example of Hieronymus Beck von Leopoldsdorf ’s Book Collection, 1525–1596)
ABSTRACT:
This study presents the until now unknown Lower Austrian book collection from the end of the 16th century, which is, indeed, unique in many aspects. It was carried off to Sweden as part of literary war booty from Bohemia and Moravia towards the end of the Thirty Years’ War. The aim of this study is to fill in one of the gaps in our knowledge of Central European aristocratic libraries in the Early Modern Age. After all, Beck’s Library was one of the little known aristocratic libraries of a progressive, intellectual archetype. The Library, in its irreplaceably poignant personal character, reflected some elements of Hironymus Beck’s life and his world outlook, difficult to ascertain otherwise and uncaptured from other primary sources. Therefore, the author strives to decipher until now unknown intellectual horizons of its creator and to classify the Beck book collection within the context of other contemporary aristocratic libraries in the Austrian Lands.
Key words: Hieronymus Beck von Leopoldsdorf, aristocracy, Austria, history of libraries, war booty, Sweden
RESUME:
This study is dedicated to the personality of the Lower Austrian aristocrat Hieronymus Beck von Leopoldsdorf (1525–1596) and the possibilities to reflect on his intellectual horizons through his family library, which he compiled at his Ebreichsdorf Castle in the second half of the 16th century. The detailed reconstruction of this book collection, which contained between 2.000 to 2.500 volumes, showed that it belonged amongst the little known progressive aristocratic libraries of an intellectual archetype, whose owners were not bound either by a family tradition or an intention to create collectors’ libraries of a universal nature.
Contrary to the until now known extensive book collections (Ferdinand II of Tyrol and Peter Vok of Rosenberg) Hieronymus Beck did configure carefully the contents of his book collection. His active reception of contemporary literature is documented not merely by his reader’s notes but also by the original divisions of his library, where he created a number of new and until then unorthodox sections: for example, for books in which a visual art prevailed (graphic albums, maps); for books on ancient life and institutions; or basic school texts. Yet, he also introduced sections, which were narrowly defined, such as mathematics, military art and architecture. Beck’s outlook and principal interests were also reflected in a totally different language composition of the Ebreichsdorf Library, which also focused on the Italian and French language regions, rather more than other Central European libraries. Both Romance languages, of which Beck had an active knowledge, were the means to facilitate access to literary and educational works, otherwise unavailable from other sources.
In his collecting activity Hieronymus Beck overlooked or even excluded altogether genres and themes which were of no interest to him or which he rejected for ideological reasons. In his Library, for example, there are not to be found manifestations of fashionable Renaissance Neo-Platonism or alchemist treatises. Despite his strong inner religiosity and commitment to the Roman Catholic Church, Hieronymus Beck exercised his independent mind, even in the spiritual sphere. It seems that he was the only aristocrat in the Hapsburg Lands who methodically excluded Protestant theological literature from his acquisitions and its meagre torso was allocated a place of dishonour at the very end of the Library. On the other hand, he owned large numbers of prohibited books of a nonreligious nature (especially belles lettres and treatises on natural science). He even exerted significant efforts to acquire them as also documented in his dispute with the Viennese Bishop J. C. Neubeck in 1586. Beck was also greatly interested in mathematics (primarily numerical geometry), in the Gregorian Calendar Reform, chivalric romances and Renaissance novels, historical treatises, ancient history, ancient life and institutions, as well as Turkish studies. In the framework of Central European libraries, Hieronymus Beck also owned the largest collection of topographical and geographical literature, in which the works on Roman monuments in Italy prevailed. His collection of architectonical literature from direct Italian sources was also highly representative.
The Ebreichsdorf Library is also a unique proof of interaction between the Viennese learned and aristocratic environments of the second half of the 16th century. Hieronymus Beck acquired (or was gifted) a considerable number of manuscripts whose authors were active at the University of Vienna or at the Court of Maxmilian II. These manuscripts, albeit they (similar to the majority of books from the Beck Library) have not been preserved until the present, help in reconstructing the literary and intellectual relationships of Hieronymus Beck and simultaneously reflect the profound changes which the Viennese intellectual environment underwent in the second half of the 16th century.
Siehe http://www.hiu.cas.cz/cs/nakladatelstvi/periodika/cesky-casopis-historicky/2015/cislo-4.ep/
Ein englische Fassung erschien auch 2015:
Lenka Veselá: A Knight and Intellectual: Hieronymus Beck of Leopoldsdorf and His Library, in: Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Buchforschung in Österreich 2015/1, S. 23-31.