The unique thematic collection by the collector Ewald Felbar comprises maps and books printed from the 16th to the 20th century by both manual as well as advanced machine techniques which have evolved in Europe since the 19th century. The collection, whose thematic backbone is southern Europe with Croatia and its neighbouring countries, has so far collected more than 400 book titles in various languages. As he began collecting geographical maps of Croatia and its neighbouring countries, Felbar expanded his interest also to literary material, seeking to create a collection of travelogues and historical works about Croatia and its neighbouring countries. The owner and creator of the collection systematically deals with the copies of books in his collection by researching the works and information about their authors. It also traces the bibliographic history of individual works, so that individual works contain information about overprints or facsimile overprints that have been published after a long time, which confirm the lasting value of the original on the basis of which they were published.
The diverse Felbar Collection can be described from different points of view, and it is almost impossible to summarize in a brief introduction its linguistic, thematic and bibliographic diversity, as well as the diversity in the covers and dimensions of individual books. Among the many titles in this thematic collection, attention is drawn to the interestingly worded and graphically emphasized book titles that make it difficult to resist the mermaid’s call to browse and read them. An interesting title sometimes may only be visually impressive or it may sound unusual engaging and intriguing to entice the reader to the content "between the covers", but that does not necessarily justify the reader's expectations every time. However, the books from the Felbar Collection should be picked up, whether the motifs are bibliophilic or other, and the collection should be viewed as a whole in order to combine usefulness with pleasure.
The book collection has about 400 titles, with the number of volumes being much higher if we know that one work can be printed in two, three, four or more volumes. The oldest copy of the book in the collection dates from the 16th century. This is a historical piece about Dubrovnik, whose author is a Dominican friar Serafino Razzi. The work, titled La storia di Ravgia, was printed in 1595 in the Italian city of Lucca. It is the only cinquecentina (the 16th century book) in the Felbar Collection. In proportion to the spread of the printing art in Europe in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, the number of books printed in those centuries is increasing in the Felbar Collection. The collection thus contains 8 titles from the 17th century (seicentin), 19 titles printed in the 18th century (seicentine), 213 titles printed in the 19th century (ottocentine) and 155 titles printed in the 20th century (novecentine). The entire Felbar Collection can also be divided according to the languages in which the books were printed, so most of the books in the Collection are in the German language (210). There are three times fewer books in English (70), and the books in Croatian (30), French (32) and Italian (37) are equally represented. There are fewer books in other European languages such as Latin (6), Slovenian (3) and Serbian (3). There is one book each in the Danish, Hungarian, Slovenian and Swedish language. Felbar's interest in the European area, which was often the scene of conflicts, disputes, and where different cultures alternated, was crucial to the creation and formation of this interesting collection. The authors wrote about Central Europe and Eastern and Southern Europe from a historical, geographical, ethnological, travelogue or scientific standpoint. Central Europe, Southern Europe and Eastern Europe are revealed throughout the entire Felbar Collection to the interested reader. The authors of the books in the Felbar Collection were archaeologists, architects, diplomats, writers, doctors, politicians, historians, naturalists and publicists. They all write about the places where they used to live or just travelled through them, and about people, human communities and their customs that were strange or unusual to them. In their books, some authors present in a monographic manner the entire European regions (the Balkans, Dalmatia, Istria) or depict individual cities on the Adriatic coast (Dubrovnik, Mostar, Opatija, Poreč, Rijeka).
The books are primarily read, but they can also be visually interesting because of the illustrations they are equipped with. Felbar also collected in his collection copies of books equipped with interesting illustrations in copper engraving and drawings, graphic maps, portfolios and vedutes. Some books are also interesting as documents of the particular time because they contain visual representations of cultural monuments and archeological remains of the Greek and Roman civilization on the Adriatic coast. The collector's private interest in Central Europe and in Southern and Eastern Europe is motivated by its biodiversity and varied reliefs. In this area empires, kingdoms, principalities were alternating, state and administrative formations were emerging and disappearing, and a written trace of it all has remained. The area was described and portrayed by individuals who came to Europe as diplomats, with the intention of scientifically exploring and describing it, or of traveling it out of sheer curiosity being interested in its sights, places, people and customs. Felbar was building and enriching his private collection by finding individual copies in antique shops and at auctions. The collection owner occasionally compiles a top list of copies that are particularly interesting to him and that he is proud of, which makes the entire collection particularly invigorative and interesting. In addition, he is very knowledgeable about the history of each individual copy, which can be seen and read in the notes on the cover page and on any page or sheet of each individual copy. The origin of some copies in the Felbar Collection can be reconstructed from the former owner's stamp or from a handwritten record. All the copies of various origins gathered in a unique private collection have been additionally marked by the owner with a watermark imprinted on one of the preliminary pages.
Ewald Felbar built his private collection of maps, graphic portfolios and books out of love and personal interests. Not wanting to jealously keep it only for himself and away from the public eye, he made it available to researchers and all interested users. Valuable copies of maps and books have thus been pulled out of the darkness of the shelves also providing interested users with an insight into the rich and engaging material. From this thematic collection interested readers can draw on a wealth of new knowledge, and researchers can open up possibilities for numerous interdisciplinary researches of the area presented in this thematic collection. In the end, each item from the Felbar Collection is valuable to itself, and on the other hand, each is a part of a larger collection, within which it is as significant as the whole. Therefore, each part is considered in relation to the whole, but also the whole is considered in relation to its each part.
Irena Galić Bešker, PhD, Coordinator of the Collection of Manuscripts and Old Books
National and University Library in Zagreb