Collections
of the Manuscripts and Rare Books Department (MRBD)
All materials of MRBD can be used in the reading-room of the department
(room no 294).
RARE BOOK COLLECTION
The collection of rare books contains early prints and other rare and
valuable books that have been withdrawn from the general collection in
order to be better preserved, more thoroughly described and studied. The
collection maintains the general location system of the library collections.
Rare materials are described in general catalogues and special catalogues
of the department.
Label of rarities: R.
The collection holds 48 incunabula, more than 2 000 16th century
Western European books, 50 16th-18th century Cyrillic prints, and
about 800 18th century secular Russian books.
The collection of rarities also contains more than 500 titles of early
Estonian prints (published before 1860), approximately 300 16th and 17th
century books in foreign languages published in the provinces of Estonia
and Livonia, including 58 titles published at the Tartu University printing
shop during the Swedish period of the university; the collection also holds
the materials published and printed by M. G. Grenzius, the first
printer of Tartu University reopened in 1802. Besides, the collection includes
more than 100 Finnish and other nations’ early prints.
Among other rare and valuable prints there are the first editions of
science and literature classics, pioneering works in cultural and general
history, outstanding examples of book art and book-binding, books that
were published or have been preserved in a small number of copies, books
that have belonged to famous persons, old albums of portrait engravings,
books with illustrations of outstanding beauty, etc. The department holds
Gustav Bergmann memorial collection and Pavel Aleksandrov memorial
collection. Four separate smaller collections have been created among
the collection of the department:
1. The Elsevier collection contains 241 high class prints from 1590-1710,
which have been made at the printing houses of Dutch printers
and publishers the Elseviers in Leiden and Amsterdam.
2. The donation from Livonian Countess Maria Aurora von Lestocq, which
formed the basis of Tartu University Library in 1800. The collection
of more than 350 volumes (about twenty of which have got lost), consists,
with a few exceptions, mainly of 18th century German prints – works on
geography and history, Enlightenment fiction and religious publications.
3. Books from the library of German writer and enlightener J.G.Herder.
Of the 500 books bought at the auction of Herder’s library in 1805, only
170 volumes arrived at TUL, because the ship that transported the collection
perished at sea. By now, only about a hundred of them – the 16th-18th century
books on history, literary and philosophical works, including many Italian
publications – have been found, as the collection was dispersed in the
library.
4. The collection of prints made at the printing shop of Tartu University
(operated in 1631-1710) during the Swedish time of the university contains
Xerox copies (more than 1200 titles) of early academic publications (speeches,
disputes, programs etc.), occasional and other prints. As the library does
not hold original publications, Xerox copies have been acquired from many
libraries and archives from Estonia and abroad.
MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION
Contains manuscripts from the 11th-12th centuries up to the present
time. The oldest manuscripts and records are held in the so-called collection
of manuscripts, which includes Western European and Oriental illuminated
manuscript books and historical documents, numerous source materials on
law and history of the Baltic provinces, and other manuscripts on the history
of culture and science. The collection is continued.
Personal and institutional archives make up the bulk of
the manuscript collection. The main part of the University archive from
its oldest period (Academia Gustaviana and Academia Gustavo-Carolina),
and various archival materials concerning the more recent history of the
university and its institutions, and also the library's archive starting
from the beginning of the 19th century are located here. The censor committee
archival collection contains culturally significant manuscripts. The manuscript
collection includes several fragmentary and complete family archives of
Estonian and Livonian estate owners (de la Gardie, Loevenwolde, Liphart,
Ungern-Sternberg, Samson v. Himmelstiern). The main part of the manuscript
collection consists of personal archives of university professors and scholars
from the 19th century up to the present time; the collection is continued,
the materials are being arranged (e.g. Johann Ludwig Müthel, Ferdinand
Giese, Karl Morgenstern, Johann Wilhelm Krause, Leonhard Masing, Nikolai
Maim, Julius Mägiste, Feodor Klement, Herbert Normann, Siegfried Aaslava,
Heinrich Riikoja, Richard Kleis, Jaan Konks, Pent Nurmekund, Ernst Raudam,
Viktor Masing, etc.)
Joseph Zmigrodski’s collection of materials about theatre stands out
among other collections of the department. The collections of autographs
(autographs collected by Immanuel Justus Essen, Karl Morgenstern, Friedrich
Ludwig Schardius, Helle Rätsep and a collection of new autographs)
contain about 12 000 letters and samples of handwriting of eminent
scientists, literati, musicians, artists, sportsmen and many others from
the 16th-20th centuries. To a greater or lesser extent nearly all personal
archives contain correspondences, but personal archives of Jaan Reinet,
Juri Lotman and Karl Morgenstern are excellent in this regard. The latter
contains, besides the owner’s personal correspondences, the correspondences
of Immanuel Kant. The collection of manuscripts holds also the correspondences
of Karl Lieven, Friedrich Maximilian Klinger and the magazine Dorpater
Jahrbücher.
Size of the collection: 32 273 items (01.01.2002).
PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION
The collection is continued; its core contains portraits, photos of
various locations and chronicle shots presenting Estonian cultural and
science history, and the life and history of Tartu University. The collection
contains very rare materials, beginning with the forerunners of paper photos
– daguerreotypes, and the first paper photos and photo engravings
in the world made by an Englishman W.H.F. Talbot in 1840-1850. Among
rare materials there are the naval lieutenant Ottocar v. Ungern-Sternberg’s
travel album from the 1870s, illustrated with coloured pictures of
different parts of the world and nationality types, and also Professor
of TU Edmund Russow's collection of stereo photos from the end of
the l9th century (1895-1899). The photo archive of Professor of medicine
Herbert Normann contains more than 3000 photos capturing the faculty of
the university, Estonian physicians, but also historical views of cemeteries
and other locations.
Size of the collection: 22 871 photos, in addition to that, 15 293 photos
in personal archives of the manuscript collection, yielding the total of
38 164 photos (01.01.2002).
THE ART COLLECTION
The most valuable part of the collection consists of 10 303 engravings
and drawings from the 15th-19th centuries. Mainly, these works were
obtained for the university art museum by Professor K. Morgenstern at the
first decades of the 19th century. For a period these works had been in
the possession of the university drawing school, they were handed over
to the library after the closing up of the school in 1891. Morgenstern
also left his personal art collection to the university by his will.
This oldest and biggest collection of old works of graphic art
in Estonia contains works by German, Dutch, Italian, French, English and
Baltic-German artists. The oldest works have been created by M. Schongauer
and A. Dürer, the collection also holds original works by L. Cranach
jun., H. Aldegrever, L. van Leyden, M. Raymond, Rembrandt and other well-known
artists. Among German lithographs from the early years of lithography (1796-1821)
there are 17 very rare works. Among 16th-19th century drawings there are
works made by German, but also by outstanding Dutch, Italian and Baltic-German
artists (A. F. Oeser, W. Buytewech, G. Flinck, K. Grass, K. A. Senff, J.
W. Krause, etc).
Five portraits by a German artist F. G. v. Kügelgen, painted at
the beginning of the 19th century, are the best works of a small collection
of oil paintings (74 works).
The bulk of the bookplate collection (3 377 items) consists
of Russian bookplates created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries,
which came to the library as a part of E. Jürgenson’s collection.
Modern Estonian bookplates are now added to the collection.
The collection of decorated citations of honour (401 items),
given to the university as gifts for its anniversaries in 1852-1977, contains
beautiful examples of Estonian, Russian and Scandinavian art of writing
and book-binding.
The most interesting artefact in the collection of presents (279
items) is a table clock made by J. Metzger in 1564, which had belonged
to K.Morgenstern.
Size of the collection: 14 436 items (01.01.2002).
