Deținători, donatori, ex-libris-uri și frecvența lor în colecțiile tulcene
Owners, Donors, Ex-librises and their Frequency in the Collections of Tulcea

Summary/Abstract: In the past, there were libraries built by important people whose devotion to the country urged them to great cultural works. They also founded institutions and donated their own libraries, which became public. The owners created or ordered ex-librises in various forms, then appeared books in the funds of the big national libraries, following donations, communist regime seizures or collections taken over between institutions. The reconstruction of the old libraries, either public or private, which contributed to the cultural and spiritual development of the Romanian people, is a challenge for researchers and library scientists, because the identification of ex-librises and the spread of books in time and space requires information about the history of the owners, the evolution of the collections and the authors of the ex-librises. Based on these considerations, in this study we present some public and private owners, books and manuscripts with stamps or ex-libris labels which are kept in the collections of The Eco-Museal Research Institute „Gavrilă Simion” Tulcea. The 29 copies of books and a manuscript date back to the 19th century and represent Romanian books printed after 1830. The volumes entered the heritage of the museum in 1978-1980 through a transfer from the Romanian Academy Library, while others were bought in antique bookstores in the '80s of the 20th century. For a systematic approach, we divided them into two categories: I. Ex-librises for institutions and cultural settlements of the past centuries (public owners); II. Ex-librises for Romanian personalities in different domains (private owners).In the first part we refer to three important public libraries, built with donations from some political and cultural personalities of the country: Scarlat Rosetti, Alexandru Saint-Georges, the Brătianu family. The ex-libris stamp of the Romanian Athenaeum Library, bearing the name of the founder Scarlat Carol Rosetti (1802-1872), appears on two copies of Romanian book. The books in the library and museum of Alexandru Saint-Georges (1886-1954) circulated with three forms of ex-libris stamp, depending on the historical stage of the fund. After 1958, the Saint-Georges collections arrived in the National Library and the Romanian Academy Library. At Tulcea there are 12 volumes with this institutionalized ex-libris, a French book of the 18th century and 11 Romanian books printed between 1843-1886 (ill. Pl. I/1-6). We find special the ex-libris label of „Ion I. C. Bratianu” Library, printed by Titu-Dan Elian, applied in 1932-1933 on the books brought from Florica-Argeṣ mansion to Brătianu houses in Bucharest. Here, Elisa Brătianu set up the „Ion I. C. Brătianu Library” Foundation in memory and at the will of the great political man Ion I. C. Brătianu (1864-1927), who had one of the best libraries in his time. Another eight copies which belong to the collections of Tulcea have the ex-libris «Ion I. C. Brătianu Library». After 1948 it was covered by the label of the Cultural Settlement Library „Nicolae Bălcescu”, in order to hide the ownership of this heritage of the Brătianu family (ill. Pl. II/1-2).In part II we refer to three less known ex-librises, their private owners being important people for the Romanian science and culture: the engineer Constantin D. Buṣilă (1877-1950); Ioan Pallady, the father of the Romanian painter Theodor Pallady (1871-1956); the diplomat and enthusiast collector Constantin I. Karadja (1889-1950), who owned an impressive collection of rare books and manuscripts. Some books of the above-mentioned people can be found in the collections of the Romanian Academy Library or in the antique bookstores of Bucharest. Later, some copies entered the heritage of the museum of Tulcea (ill. Pl. III/1-4).

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