The cartographic Felbar Collection (Collectio Felbar) was founded several decades ago, and thanks to the meticulous, critical selection of its founder, has become a collection of old historical and geographical maps and travelogues which mostly relate to the Croatian lands of the past, along with some neighbouring ones. In terms of its content and quality, it is currently one of the most important and most impressive private collections of its kind, whether in Croatia or further afield. Some of the items in the Collection are not even represented in the funds of the biggest national archives and libraries. The maps are of the Croatian lands during several stages of its long, turbulent history, when the territory was often fragmented, and show it in different settings of administrative-political state units. Therefore, these maps have been recognised as an important part of Croatian cultural and historical heritage. As reliable documents, they are witnesses to the geographical, geopolitical, ecological and other changes in the area. Through many centuries of producing maps of the Croatian lands, and the presence of Croatian cartographers on the European cultural stage or market, both have been acknowledged as part of the European cultural landscape. Various influences on maps and mapmakers alternated and overlapped through the centuries, and this can be easily ‘read’ from these old documents. One interesting question to which the maps as subjective, original works provide partial answers, is how other people regarded the Croatian lands and people. Central European influences on the creation and production of maps are the most obvious ones in searching for answers to this and similar questions. There were expert reverberations from cartographic centres such as Vienna and Budapest. Another important current of influence came from the Mediterranean, particularly the influx of cultural, intellectual and political ideas from Rome, Venice, Naples and Genoa. All these influences were reflected in the aesthetic and production quality of individual maps, but more so on their informative dimension as media of communication. So the Croatian cartographic legacy, whether housed in national institutions or private collections, is an integral part of world culture and science, but the potential for researching it depends on how accessible it is to the public. The Felbar Collection highlights this dimension of networking ideas and capacities, with the aim of making maps such as these more visible and accessible as historical sources.
At a time when people who own similar private collections of valuable historical artefacts are turning to national institutions, such as archives and libraries, to take care of their complex, vulnerable documents, for security, personal, or material reasons, the owner and founder of the Felbar Collection has decided to systematise the material further and ensure it is publically accessible to all those interested. In addition, he is conducting ongoing work to supplement it with the highest quality items, which he succeeds in tracing through antique dealers and auctions the world over.
Guided by his own motives, and in cooperation with experts in historiography, librarianship and the history of cartography, he has succeeded so far in collecting, processing and cataloguing a sizeable inventory of undisputed quality. This is now available primarily on the website (www.felbar.com), where the catalogue with a search tool was published some time ago. He is continuing work on updating and supplementing the catalogue. On the other hand, through an examination of existing forms of organisation and the latest concepts of compiling specialist collections like this one, the initial structure and form of the Collection have changed in accordance with trends in conceptualising, storing and analysing cartographic material, followed by the importance of making it openly accessible. Ewald Felbar’s latest activities aim to spread knowledge of the important items in the Collection and create a model not only for presenting it to the public, but by assuring it can be mediated logistically in a sustainable, secure para-institutional form by large archives and libraries. This would enable all interested users and the general public to access cartographic sources, whether by ordering and lending items for scientific research, or displaying them in exhibitions. Those charged with the ongoing care of the Collection are concerned with aligning its contents and (standard) bibliographic catalogue entries with some of the largest systemically arranged, academically accessible national institutions which keep and present cartographic material. This approach to what is basically a private, specialist archive is quite unusual, even unique, particularly when we remember that it allows access at the individual level, which may be of interest to students or scientists in Croatia and abroad, and help them in the production of scientific and expert papers. At the same time, the comparative advantage of opening a private collection to the public is clear in enabling multidisciplinary links between the scientific and private sectors. This is a major victory in preserving cultural heritage while also popularising scientific-research work and science and specialist scientific materials in general.
Finally, it must be noted that the clearly expressed, guiding notion of its founder and owner stands behind all these activities and ideas about creating and caring for a private collection and articulating its presentation. The Collection has been recognised as a valuable part of Croatian cartographic heritage which would otherwise have remained only partially known, but can now be used, popularised, and made accessible to all interested users.
Dr. sc. Dubravka Mlinarić, znanstvena savjetnica, Institut za migracije i narodnosti