BIBLIOTECA LUI JOHANN GEORG VON SCHWANDNER
Library of Johann Georg von Schwandner

Summary/Abstract: Johann Georg von Schwandner was a well-known personality in the 18th century, and the way he organised his own library is evidence of the years of practice he spent as custodian of the imperial library in Vienna. The catalogue of books from his personal library, which is in the collection of the Slovak National Library at Martin, is a model of how to organise a large book collection (about 6000 titles). In addition to analysing the contents of J. G. von Schwandner's personal library, the present research also deals with his literary activity, since the author wrote a number of works on graphic art, paper processing, the history of the Slavs, etc.; some of these remain in manuscript, but the most emblematic of the printed works is Scriptores rerum Hungaricarum veteres ac genuini, in which he used unpublished sources or editions found in the holdings of the imperial library. The Sciagraphia Catalogi bibliothecae domesticae gives advice to those wishing to establish a library, about the organisation of books, about scientific fields; a good library should not only contain valuable books, but also useful ones. Thus, J. G. von Schwandner's library contains books on history, geography, genealogy, heraldry, numismatics, books on rhetoric or epistolography, works on mathematics, metallurgy, philosophy, politics or botany, grammars, dictionaries of Western and Eastern languages.

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