Old book collectors

Typographia, 1890 (Volume 22, Nos. 1-52)

The collection of books and manuscripts is contemporary with the history of writing: libraries existed in the most ancient times, during the time of the Romans and Greeks. Later, when there was a decline in culture after the fall of these empires, books and thus libraries naturally became rarer. As a result of the progress made in all fields at the end of the Middle Ages, books became necessary tools, and this increased even more after the invention of printing at the beginning of the modern era, and both public and private libraries multiplied. There were people who collected old books, especially written ones, with the same passion as many people today collect other antiquities, natural history objects, and in many cases even insignificant objects.
The first and most significant book collector in our country was King Matthias I, who founded such a distinguished library that it was second to none in Europe at the time, and each copy of his library that has survived to this day constitutes a real treasure. (....)
The passion of collectors is usually diverse. One eagerly seeks newspapers, another stages, program speeches, there are those whose bookcases are filled only with old books, while a fourth collects confiscated and banned books. Many people like to mock such collectors, although in a certain respect they deserve appreciation, because their collections often shed light on the historical development of literature and public education. The passion for book collecting is the most innocent, and although it often forces a person to spend unreasonably, it brings the person a noble pleasure.