Preskočite do glavnog sadržaja

Medieval maps and invaluable prints and ephemera donated to NSK collections

NSK staff unpacking valuable material donated to NSK by Ms Marija Orač.

On 26 May 2025, by way of a generous donation by Ms Marija Orač from Luxembourg, the National and University Library in Zagreb (NSK) received valuable items now making part of the Library’s Map Collection and Print Collection.

Especially valuable are the items which NSK has not held in its collections so far, such as several 18th-century maps of today’s Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and one of Croatian traditional regions, Slavonia (Le Royaume de Hongrie autora G. Valcka (Amsterdam, 1702); Principatus Transilvaniae In Suas Quasque Nationes earumque Sedes Et Regiones cum… by Johann Baptiste Homann (Nürnberg, c. 1730) and Royaume de Hongrie, principauté de Transilvanie, Sclavonie, Croatie et… by S. Robert de Vaugondy (Paris, 1752)). Also, the oldest donated item, a 1573 map by Augustin Hirsvogel (Schlavoniae, Croatiae, Carniae, Istriae, Bosniae finitimarumque regionum nova descriptio), published as part of Abraham Ortelius’s famous Theatrum orbis terrarium, is another treasure.

A valuable record of Croatia’s struggle for independence

Apart from a 1972 lavishly decorated bibliophile book marking the 400th anniversary of Croatia’s Peasant Revolt (Kervave kronike glas) featuring 20 prints by various prominent Croatian and Slovenian artists, standing out as particularly significant among the donated material added to the NSK Print Collection is An Appeal for Peace in Croatia, a priceless copy of a poster calling for putting an end to the aggression against Croatia in the 1990s which has been signed by 81 Nobel laureates.

Croatian heritage safe in the hands of NSK’s professionals

All donated material has been well-preserved and it will now undergo basic conservation treatment, along with the digital imagining procedure. Once catalogued, digitised and included in the Library’s holdings, all items will certainly make a significant contribution to CROATICA, Croatia’s national library collection which NSK curates as an integral part of Croatian cultural heritage.

NSK staff unpacking valuable material donated to NSK by Ms Marija Orač.

NSK expresses its deep gratitude to Ms Orač, for her efforts throughout the years to bring Croatia’s history and culture closer to an international audience, and to the staff of the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in the Kingdom of Belgium, for their part in making Ms Orač’s donation happen.