20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

The Klapka Library – the first lending libraryin the Habsburg EmpireLiana PăunLibrary of the Romanian Academy – TimişoaraDuring the last years of the 18 th century and the first half of the 19 thcentury, the Timisoara citadel – a town counting less than 10,000 inhabitants,very concerned of its prosperity and welfare – impressed favourably,with very few exceptions, the foreign travellers, most of them calling itthe “capital town of Banat” and remarking its bulwark fortifications. TheEnglish traveller William Hunter who spent a few hours in Timisoara in1792 wrote in his diary that the town “is big, well populated and solidlybuilt and its fortifications are the strongest in the whole kingdom”, whilehis compatriot John Jackson, five years later, appreciated that “this localityis a citadel of an outstanding importance”, and mentioned that he talkedwith the general commander in Latin.The German physician F.S. Chrismar, who made a stop in Timisoaraon his way to Constantinople, wrote: the town “seemed to me as a verypleasant halt. Actually, I was amazed by the gentleness and the beauty of thetown’s style… in the coffee shops I could find various periodical gazettesand foreign newspapers; the official announcements and ordinances aredrawn up in Latin…”. Adolf Schmidl, who thought to elaborate a travelguide in several volumes in the Habsburg Empire and the neighboringcountries, makes, in his turn, interesting remarks with regard to the aspectof the town in the first half of the 19 th century: “This free royal town andthis first rank citadel does not look impressive from a distance; it contains1,317 houses, 11,942 inhabitants not counting the garrison and it is one ofthe most harmonious, beautiful and richest towns Hungary’s…”. On theoccasion of some research in Banat, the pharmacist Joseph von Dörner hadthe pleasant surprise to see Timisoara as a “nice, friendly, well-designed