Printed Books from the Late-17th-Century Library of Zagreb Cathedral in Croatian and Hungarian Collections II.
Recent Results of Research into a Special Type of Book Binding (‘Mikulić Binding’)
Abstract
Around 1692, the old printed books of the library of Zagreb Cathedral – today preserved in the Metropolitan Library of Zagreb (Metropolitanska knjižnica u Zagrebu) – received new, uniform bindings. The bookbinder used fragments of medieval parchment codices, glueing smaller or larger pieces onto the covers of the books in a special way. This distinctive type of binding, which most closely resembles half-leather binding, is referred to in Croatian scholarship as the “Metropolitanski uvez” (“Metropolitan binding”). It differs from the traditional half-leather binding mainly in that the outer sides of the boards are covered not with paper, but with fragments of parchment codices. Although most of these bindings are preserved in the Metropolitan Library of Zagreb, a few have also surfaced in other Croatian and Hungarian collections. Since 2022, I have referred to this particular type as the “Mikulićev uvez” or “Mikulić binding”, in reference to Aleksandar Mikulić, Bishop of Zagreb (1688–1694), who commissioned the rebinding of the collection around 1692.
In the first part of this study, published in Magyar Könyvszemle 2022/4, I gave descriptions of 70 Mikulić bindings identified outside the holdings of the Metropolitan Library. The present paper expands this corpus with ten additional volumes, found beyond the main collection. Among them is a remarkable copy from the Franciscan convent library of Slavonski Brod, which preserves two fragments from the sanctorale of the 13th-century notated Breviarium notatum Strigoniense (BNS II). Of the 274 fragments of this manuscript identified to date, 258 are held in the Metropolitan Library, while 16 are found in other collections.
In light of these new results, future research on Mikulić bindings should focus on Croatian parish libraries where canons of Zagreb served as parish priests between 1700 and 1850. During this period, canons generally had access to the cathedral library, and some of the books they borrowed were never returned to the main collection.
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