[MR] Wikipedia: First Library Catalog, 1595

Garth Groff and Sally Sanford mallardlodge1000 at gmail.com
Fri May 24 02:24:08 PDT 2019


Noble Friends,

As a former library cataloger for the University of Virginia, I was
intrigued by a brief Wikipedia entry today: 1595 -- *Nomenclator*  of
Leiden University appears, the first printed catalog of an institutional
library.

The full name of the catalog, which was printed in book form, was *Nomenclator
autorum omnium, quorum libri vel manuscripti, vel typis expressi exstant in
Bibliotheca Academiae Lugduno-Batavae *(List of all authors whose books,
whether manuscript or printed, are available in Leiden University Library),
1595. A photo of the original catalog is found at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiden_University_Library#/media/File:Nomenclator.jpg
.

No printed cards in a file drawer yet. Cards didn't come until 1864, and
they were still bound into books.

The Leiden University was founded in 1575 by William I, Prince of Orange,
who had led the revolution against the Catholic Habsburg rulers of the
Netherlands:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiden_University_Library#/media/File:WilliamOfOrange1555.jpg
. William gave the University its first book, a copy of the *Polyglot
Bible.* The balance of the library's original collection collection was
plundered from a nearby Catholic monastery.

A photo of the Vault Room, where the original library was located, can be
seen at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiden_University_Library#/media/File:Gewelven_kamer_-_Leiden_-_20135437_-_RCE.jpg
. Soon the library moved to a building called Faliede Bagijnkerk . A 1610
woodcut of the second quarters can be seen at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leiden_University_Library#/media/File:Leiden_1610.jpg
. It looks about as large as the library where I paged at Chapman College
during my student years. Today Leiden University has well over a
half-million books plus other holdings, which puts it in the category of
major research libraries (it's holdings are comparable to UVA's library
system).

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆


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