journal of jesuit studies 2 (2015) 283-301 brill.com/jjs The History of Jesuit Libraries in Croatia An Overview Marica Šapro-Ficović City Library Dubrovnik, Croatia
[email protected] Željko Vegh City Library Zagreb, Croatia
[email protected] Abstract The purpose of this study is to provide a historical overview of the Jesuit libraries in Croatia from their foundation to the present. The first known libraries were at Jesuit high schools, called “colleges,” established during the seventeenth century. This article deals with foundation of libraries at the Jesuit colleges in Zagreb, Varaždin, Požega, Rijeka, and Dubrovnik, emphasizing their role supporting education and the dissemination of knowl- edge. These libraries were witness to a strong influence of Jesuits colleges on the spiritual, educational, and intellectual life of many Croats. Highlighted in this respect is the famous library of the Jesuit school in Dubrovnik (Collegium Ragusinum). After the suppression of Jesuit order in 1773, the colleges were closed, and their libraries scattered and plundered. Nevertheless, many books survived. Portions of the collections of the former Jesuit col- leges are today an invaluable part of the patrimony of the largest Croatian libraries. Keywords Jesuits – Croatia – translation – Dubrovnik college – Zagreb college – Varaždin college – Požega college – Rijeka college – library history – old and rare book collections Introduction Jesuits arrived on Croatian soil in the mid-sixteenth century by invitation, shortly after the founding of the Society of Jesus. In the seventeenth century, © Šapro-Ficović and Vegh, 2015 | doi 10.1163/22141332-00202008 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 4.0 Unported (CC-BY-NC 4.0) License.