I purchased my first map of Croatia in Prague in the spring of 1999. It did not even occur to me at the time that this map would become the foundation of the collection I have today. I bought the map as a memento of Croatia, where I was stayomg for business since 1998, and with which I also have ancestral ties and would later again have very close business ties. A spontaneous purchase very quickly developed into an unbridled passion for maps, curbed only by limited financial resources.
In a matter of years I managed to amass a, in my opinion, significant collection, which I would now, after 20 years of collecting, like to present to the interested public. In late 2018, my collection was described in detail in accordance with recognized scientific methods, owing to the good will of experts in the field: Mirela Slukan, Ph.D., Dubravka Mlinarić, Ph.D., and Ivana Matković, Ph.D., and is now available as a public catalogue in Croatian, German and English. I am very grateful to President of the Croatian Cartographic Society, Miljenko Lapaine, Ph.D., for his generous support, implementation of the project, translation coordination and copyediting.
In late 2018, the collection comprised 467 maps, vedute and illustrations of national costumes. The maps and vedute that depict Croatia, Istria, Slavonia, Dalmatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro can be found on this website. The collection includes 376 individual titles (currently consisting of two or more connected maps) – 74 vedute, and 302 maps and plans.
However, in addition to maps, my passion for collecting also includes historical books and travel memoirs from this region, with the collection including 356 titles in late 2018. Most of them, 188, are in German, 61 in English, 30 in French, 31 in Italian, 6 in Latin, 30 in Croatian and 7 in other languages. Among others, the collection includes rare works by Serafino Razzi, Giacomo Luccari, Alberto Fortis and Francesco Carraro.
I am thrilled and somewhat proud of the fact that the Collectio Felbar, with over 800 titles, is the largest private collection of maps and books in the region, but to me the biggest value and joy is being able to present the collection to the interested public.
Owing to the generous financial support of the Adris Foundation, the website was completely revamped and complemented by all maps and books in late 2018. This has allowed us to achieve our goal of presenting the private collection to the public in order to enrich the cultural heritage and disseminate knowledge about the historically unique depictions of the territories and descriptions of the people living in the region over the centuries.
I am, of course, eager to expand my collection and look forward to new offers relating to the region within my field of interest: Croatia, Dalmatia, Istria, Slavonia, etc. If you notice any inaccuracies on the website, which may also be the result of translation errors, feel free to send us your feedback, which will be considered a useful contribution to the website, which will be updated regularly on an annual basis.
Ewald Felbar, December 2019