GLEETT - University of Washington

ok Pler Program (anrsiai aint $2,000 with an e±aoge rate of $1
for 9 kca. for if 85/86), I was given the graid tour. The center for the
rare book collection is a beautiful baroque library with carved wocxen
bookcases aid ceiling fresco. painted by Tiex,].o. Here I was shown,
aalKng other illusdnatei mannscripts, the ysahrad codex, created In
1085 on the ocoasion of the coronation of the first athenian king
Vratislav II, an autogra by an Ibs, the great Bciwaaian reformer,
aid a rare co1lecti of ike by the glish reformer thn Wycliff. A
huge dark tile stove in the Main Reading Ioea depicts the life aid death
of the isst f of all Jesuits, Ignatius of Wyola, reaixrlixig the
reader daily of the former rester. of the building.
Stathi ldhcvna CR hold. over six million books aid is, like the
Library of ress, a depository library. Their aid*nges are rim very
efficiently. We ware able to out down our am.a1 eçeidithres for
Crecti material. (ourraiat ani antiquarian including ausic scores)
acquired thru4i nercial thanla by over $2,000.
The other library I visited in Prague was that of the Narodni )tz
(the National. Wsaiim). This library was fcuid in 183.8 aM holds
ahut tao million books. be building is a typical exaixçile of the
cpilent national revival style of the mid-l9th oenthry so prevalent in
the intries of the Austro-Hungarian espire. he Narodni Huzetai, so
I was told by Dr. Jaro.]av Vrthotka, th. library director, was entirely
build by Czedi artisan. aid laborers aid designed by Czeth arthitecte.
Dr. Vroctotka is a proednent sre*er of the IPIA aid SpeakS fluent
German aid English. He is an e,cpsrt in the history of the book aid, eq a
librarian, supervises the book es in the many wanian aid
Ibrav1an castles dating beck to the MI.ddl. Ages.
The reniairder of my precious time in Prague was spent on the
Prazaky Hrad (Prague Cstle Hill), i,tiith m.t certainly be a of the
arthitectural wceder. of the world. It was diffioult to poll away in order
tàtakethetralnVuidthma toVienria, th.rs Iwas mat .ix hours later
at the station by Wilhelm lders, a D.ztdrean itho is one of the very
f rining Slavic antiquarian book dealers In ixope.
Wy b full day. In Vienna I spent astly in the onepany of Mr.
tho ciatantly travels In the utries of Eastern ztçe
(awoliding the Soviet Union) for the p.mpoee of buying antiquarian books
by container loads frca the stat, authorities. These books are ai.tly
tron formerly privat, libraries rf owi by the goverrasot, aid their
sale provide, desperately noeded foreign hard curxaiies. I spent hours
in tao of Mr. Seclders three separate waruaie, in the Viennese
district of Ottakring, maldng many selection. for our library aid
generally getting an idea of the nature of his tcck, whith is particniarly
.tg in Czed,cslovak, Hulgarian, Yugoslav, Prnenian, Russian aid
pclish laprints of the 19th aid early 20th century. Mr. Ssolderm is also
Interested in porthaslng stholarly libraries in the United States whith
contain Slavic iepriiita.
lb reouperate frcai dusty warehclng, I tried to take In scam of the
splaixiors of laperial Vienna by visiting the Hofb.irg, the former castle of
the Austrian ailperors. This truly cavenris asseably of buildings
houses, ai others, the National Library, the Spanish Riding Sc*col
with the world fa LIpizan horses, the. 1esus M.lssum with its
arthaeological eshibiti showing the Austrian excavation treasures from
AnatOlia, aid the seemingly endless balls with mrsical instruments
am can take de1it In a piano on .thith Franz Sthubert used to
play. The am important celtural event, thc4i, not to be missed in
Viaima betaeen Mezth aid 0cter, 1985, was the eshibiticn in the
53