De bibliotheek van Hendrik Fagel (1765-1838)

maandag 14 januari 2008

Het Trinity College te Dublin heeft bij mijn lezers natuurlijk grote vermaardheid, zij het vermoedelijk om uiteenlopende redenen zoals

- Swift studeerde daar
- het heeft de oudste leerstoel Nederlands (1776) ter wereld
- in de krochten is een door spinnenwebben overdekte Konstschilders van Weyerman te vinden. Dat werk, opengeslagen, toont u zulke papieren roomblanke bladzijden als kwam het vers van de pers.

Het Trinity College verdient aandacht om nog een andere reden. De Nederlandse politicus Hendrik Fagel (1765-1838) werd in 1794 speciale gezant van Willem V in Engeland. Om voor de hand liggende redenen kon hij in de daarop volgende periode niet terugkeren naar de Republiek. Zijn nog steeds niet geinventariseerde gigantische bibliotheek bleef daar achter.
Over die bibliotheek wordt september 2008 een symposium georganiseerd. Herkauwer neemt enkele alinea’s over uit een oproep tot deelname:

‘In 1802, at the height of the Napoleonic War, Hendrik Fagel, Greffier of Holland, was effectively exiled in London, where reduced circumstances eventually forced him to sell the family library. Christie's prepared and circulated an auction catalogue, but Trinity College, Dublin, put in a preemptive bid and acquired the entire collection before the auction took place. At a stroke the holdings of the College library were increased by 40%, from 50 000 to 70 000 volumes. Today the overwhelming proportion of Fagel's books, pamphlets and maps remains on shelf as a discrete collection in the East Pavilion of the magnificent Old Library.

Representing the intellectual and social interests of a wealthy and distinguished Dutch family over a period of some 200 years, the collection also transformed the content of a university library that had until then been dominated by theology. Published in the principal languages of Europe, the newly acquired holdings were particularly strong in such areas as history, politics, law, belles lettres, geography, cartography (everything from cosmography to manuscript plans of dyke systems), natural history and philosophy. The scale of the acquisition is impressive by any standards: lot 7593 was 'A Collection of Historical and Political tracts, in Number upwards of 10,000' and lot 9061 'A fine Collection of Maps and Plans, in Number about 2000'.

However, the existence of the Fagel collection is virtually unknown outside Dublin and the research potential of these resources has been little exploited. Indeed, over the years the overall funding of the library has been such that a substantial proportion of the holdings has not even been properly catalogued.

It is in order to help remedy this situation that the above symposium will be held.’

Wie zou van dit alles niet watertanden?