Dragana Rakić
Gradska biblioteka Vršac
draganarakic10@gmail.com

doi: 10.19090/cit.2018.33.38-43
No. 33 (November 2018), p. 38-43

Thirteen Books from the Personal Library of Jovan Sterija Popović

Summary

Jovan Sterija Popović (1806–1856), a classical writer of Serbian literature, an educator and a scientist, had a rich personal library that, unfortunately, has not been preserved as a whole. Only 13 books from this library have been saved. They are identifi ed as Sterija’s property based on his autograph, or the verses Sterija wrote on them with his hand. All 13 books are kept in Vršac, 10 books belong to the City Library, and 3 books are owned by the City Museum. It is assumed that some books with Sterija’s signature could be found in private collections as well. After Sterija’s death (1856), the writer’s wife Jelena inherited his personal library. She sold most of the books to Franco Vettel, a bookshop owner and publisher from Timișoara, so Sterija’s personal library was dispersed quickly after his death. Sterija’s legacy consists of four volumes of the chronicles of Matica Srpska (Letopis Matice srpske), two volumes of Christoph Martin Wieland’s poems (Poetische Schrifte), three issues of Wieland’s magazine The German Mercury (Der teutsche Merkur) bound in leather cover, one annual set of issues of Political Talks of the Dead (Politische Gespräche der todten, fd J. 1792), Basics of Good Science (Anfangsgründe der Schönen Wissenschaften) by Johann Heinfi ch Faber, Catalina and Jugurta (Sallust’s Katilina und Jugurtha) by Gaius Salustius Krisp and History of Slavic Languages and Literature (Chishte der slawischen Sprache und Literatur nach allen Mundarten) by Pavel Josef Šafařík.

Keywords:

Jovan Sterija Popović, personal library, City Library of Vršac, Vršac City Museum, cultural heritage, books

Submitted: 22nd July 2018
Correction to the manuscript: 6th Septembre 2018
Accepted for publication: 15th Septembre 2018

Thirteen Books from the Personal Library of Jovan Sterija Popović by Dragana Rakić is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

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