Central University Library of Cluj-Napoca
Encyclopedia
Lucian Blaga
-Biography:Lucian Blaga was a commanding personality of the Romanian culture of the interbellum period. He was a philosopher and writer higly acclaimed for his originality, a university professor and a diplomat. He was born on May 9, 1895 in Lancrăm, near Alba Iulia, Romania, his father being an...
Central University Library of Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
serves Babeş-Bolyai University
Babes-Bolyai University
The Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca is an university in Romania. With almost 50,000 students, the university offers 105 specialisations, of which there are 105 in Romanian, 67 in Hungarian, 17 in German, and 5 in English...
in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
.
History
The library was founded in 1872, at the same time as the University of Cluj (now Babeş-Bolyai University). Its initial stock, about 18,000 volumes, was made up by gathering the collections received from the Law Academy of SibiuSibiu
Sibiu is a city in Transylvania, Romania with a population of 154,548. Located some 282 km north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt...
, the Medical School and Government Archives of Cluj, and those of Iosif Benigni's rich private collections. In 1873/74 the Transylvanian Museum was transferred to the Central University Library. Its library had been founded in 1859, as the Library of the Society of the Transylvanian Museum, on the basis of donations and grants from Metropolitan Bishops Andrei Şaguna
Andrei Saguna
Andrei Şaguna was a Metropolitan bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Transylvania, and one of the Romanian community political leaders in the Habsburg Monarchy, especially active during the 1848 Revolution...
and Alexandru Sterca-Şuluţiu
Alexandru Sterca-Sulutiu
Alexandru Sterca-Şuluţiu, also called Alexandru Sterca-Şuluţiu de Cărpiniş , was an ethnic Romanian Eastern Catholic cleric in Imperial Austrian Transylvania, and the Metropolitan of the Transylvanian Greek Catholic Church...
and Count Imre Mikó. In 1860 the Library of the Transylvanian Museum had been declared "public" and open for the use of citizens, but in 1873/74 it was transferred to the university, being moved to a location near the Central University Library. Although housed in the same building, these two large libraries grew independently of each other for about half a century.
After World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, when Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
broke up and Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
(including Cluj) joined Romania
Union of Transylvania with Romania
Union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia.The national holiday of Romania, the Great Union Day occurring on December 1, commemorates this event...
, a Romanian university was founded in 1920; it used the existing Central University Library (dedicated in the presence of the royal family and renamed the Library of King Ferdinand I University) and the Library of the Transylvanian Museum, still separate institutions. (They merged in 1948, following World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.) The new university was endowed with legal deposit copies and was supported by permanent state grants. Many Romanian institutions (the Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
, the Education Department, the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
) contributed to the rapid development of the Central University Library of Cluj; the Romanian Academy Library endowed it with Romanian publications. The first University Report, issued 10 October 1920, mentioned only the "solemn promises" of the Romanian Academy, but the Report of the 1921/22 school year reported a donation of about 30,000 volumes, most of them offered as gifts by the Romanian Academy Library. On 26 September 1923, another collection of some 4,000 volumes was transferred from the Romanian Academy.
The same specialisation process of both faculty sections and library branches took place within Cluj University (which finally became Babeş-Bolyai University in 1959 after a series of institutional changes) as had evolved in the Bucharest and Iaşi Universities. The collections of the library and its specialised network reached 580,000 volumes in 1938; after World War II it was second only to the two National Libraries, with over 2,000,000 volumes of books and periodicals, reaching 3,600,000 by 2002. Among the library's special collections (set up as a distinct department in 1923, after a collection from the Moldavian boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
Gheorghe Sion was received) are items handed down from the Transylvanian Museum collection, maps, engravings, postcards and rare books, including the incunabulum
Incunabulum
Incunable, or sometimes incunabulum is a book, pamphlet, or broadside, that was printed — not handwritten — before the year 1501 in Europe...
Codex Iustinianus, printed at Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
in 1475, and the set of Gospels printed by Deacon Coresi
Coresi
Coresi was a Romanian printer of the sixteenth century. He was the editor of the first printed books in the Romanian language.-Biography:...
at Braşov
Brasov
Brașov is a city in Romania and the capital of Brașov County.According to the last Romanian census, from 2002, there were 284,596 people living within the city of Brașov, making it the 8th most populated city in Romania....
in 1561.
From its founding until 1909, the library functioned in the main university building. From 1906 to 1908, the current library building was erected following plans by architects Gergely Kálmán and Korb Floris Nándor; books were then moved there in 1908-09. Extensions to the building were added until 1934, and an annex with a capacity of over 2,000,000 volumes was added in 1961.