LXI Series Historica 2022

Abstract: This research has as a starting point some information discovered in the library catalogues where reference is made to the existence of duplicate incunabula in the book holdings. They are catalogues drawn up after the death of the library’s founder, bishop Ignác Batthyány (+ 1798) by the second librarian, András Cseresnyés. Following the bishop’s death, the Government of Transylvania also requested the inventory of the book holdings and writing catalogues to know the exact holdings considering the lawsuit filed by the family of the deceased bishop. 

On this occasion, librarian A. Cseresnyés drew up several catalogues to which he also added that of the duplicates existent at that time. Among the duplicates are mentioned a series of incunabula which over time were given in exchange (in 1826) or sold (between 1930 and 1931) due to financial difficulties. Of those discovered to date, only the bishop-founder had incunabula in his collection. Of these, several tens with lacks, damp stains, fragmented etc were removed from the initial holdings. The library needs a new incunabulum catalogue to contain maybe also a short description of the circulation of each copy till Transylvania; similarly, it also needs to find out, if possible, about the potential local collectors, especially local private individuals, for example from the Saxon Transylvanian area. The incunabulum collection held by the bishop founder of the institute from Alba Iulia was amassed in different ways; all of them left traces on the works such as ownership marks. 

The study also tackles the works or articles written in Romania concerning the incunabulum collection of the Batthyaneum Library to offer, we hope, a starting point for researching the holdings and, perhaps, for writing a new catalogue. 

Keywords: incunabula, Ignác Batthyány, Batthyaneum Library, Alba Iulia, catalogue, duplicates, description