Blue Blood, Black Ink. Book Collections in Aristocratic Families from 1500 to 1700.

Laminated illustrated wrappers, 4to, 26 x 22 cm, 183, [1] pp, ills, maps, ports. The catalogue of the international travelling exhibition, Zagreb, Martin, Bratislava, Budapest, Burg Forchtenstein, fall 2005-fall 2007. From the introduction - ".libraries, guardians of the written heritage, are certainly indicators of the cul tural maturity of a given milieu, and also of the pe-riod, the region, family and person. This is, among other things, a reason for the mounting of the Blue Blood, Black Ink - Book Collections of Aristocratic Families from 1500 to 1700 jointly organised by the National and University Library in Zagreb, the National Szechenyi Library in Budapest, the Slovak National Library in Martin, and the Esterhazy Private Foundation in Burgenland. From Croatia, there will be an exhibition of a selection of books from the Zrinyi family library, some extant copies of works of individual mem bers of the Frangepan family, and a selection of books from the Library of Janez Vajkard Valvasor, the Slovene nobleman, which has been kept since the end of the 17th century in the Metropolitana, the library of the Archepiscopate of Zagreb. As for the Zrinyi Library, it is worth pointing out that this library (500 volumes and 29 manuscripts that have been extracted) is kept as a special unit in the National and University Library, and has been since 1892, when it was purchased by the then Croatian National Government. Together with the books, some other emblems of these families are on show, and the books and libraries of aristo cratic families from Austria, Hungary and Slovakia will be displayed in a similar manner. This exhibition conveys many but two main messages. The noble or aristocratic families, both those from Croatia and those from the other countries mentioned, were not only political but also social and economic pillars of the society of the time. Many historical sources tell us beyond a shadow of doubt that in one way or another they were also an essential factor in cultural life, in the broadest sense, and not just in their own courts." Near Fine.…