The Making of a Polymorphic Collection of Books: Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Armenian, and Jewish Books in the Early Modern University of Zamość Library

• In Event: Ruthenia - Courland: Transregional Exchanges in the Early Modern Eastern Europe

Abstract

This paper scrutinises the influence of early modern Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Armenian, and Jewish theories of library-making on the Eastern European libraries on the case study of the University of Zamość library. The University of Zamość as the Catholic "studium generale" was founded in 1594 by the Chancellor and Crown Hetman of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Jan Zamoyski (1542-1605). The university appeared in the city of Zamość in the Chełm land of the Ruthenian Voivodeship, the south-eastern part of the Commonwealth that bord enjoyed ethnic diversity. Founded in 1580, the city allocated Catholics as much as Protestants, Orthodox, Armenian, and Jewish communities. Even though the University of Zamość was a Catholic foundation, due to the multinational status of the city, its library enjoyed a vivid collection of books that went far beyond Catholic books only. This paper argues that the University of Zamość library was formed under the influence of various bibliological traditions that were represented in the city due to its multinational status. The Unviersity of Zamość Library did not hesitate to accept Protestant, Orthodox, Armenian, and Jewish books even though they hardly represented the purely Catholic status of the unviersity.

Author

• Stepan Blinder, U of Cambridge (UK)