20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

The Klapka Library – the first lending library in the Habsburg Empire 131Two compositors, four typographers and the auxiliary staff worked thereand the monthly paper consumption was 60 rolls. Out of the books thatwere printed at the Klapka printing house, only 43 titles are known to us butin a bibliophile collection in Arad, another 16 titles have been identified.An extremely enterprising spirit, Klapka also had a bookbindery, a bookshop where books brought from the whole Empire were sold, a library anda reading room. At the same time, he was an editor, a typographer and adealer for the Timisoara newspapers and gazettes. In 1809 he edited thepublication “Tagesbericht” whose subscription fee was 7 florins in townand 9 florins for delivery by mail while from the spring of 1827 until theautumn of the following year he edited and published the publication“Banater Zeitschrift für Landwirtschaft, Handel, Kunde und Gewerbe”.All these activities brought him considerable incomes; he enjoyed prosperityand a respectable social position which contributed to his political ascent.However, the more he got involved in his public career, the more declinedhis business. In 1829 he found a business partner in the person of JosefBeichel, also a Bohemian by origin, and who, after only half a yeartook over the entire printing house as Klapka could not cope with all hisduties anymore. After only two years from his settlement into Timisoara,he became a captain in the civic guard and very soon, one of the mostinfluential people in town. Starting with 1819 he was elected and then reelected,14 years successively, as a mayor of the town; he did remarkablethings for Timisoara and then, between 1825 and 1832, he represented histown in the Parliament in Budapest where he distinguished himself for hisliberal views. After he had winded up his business, he retreated in Aradwhere he passed away in 1863. For his merits in the public service, he wasennobled together with his family in 1841.The LibraryThe library was established in 1815, at Klapka’s own expense, afterhaving received the special approval for opening it. The library and readinghall open in one of the houses whose owner he was and in which the printinghouse and the family bookshop functioned, was the first of this kind in theEmpire. He had been managing it for 16 years and then sold it to JosefBeichel. Today, that building is the premises of the Direction for Culture,Religious Affairs and National Cultural Heritage of the Timis County.A minute library regulation was drawn up with the declared objectiveto provide the readers with the best books for instruction and entertainment.The regulation also indicated that such a library was a source of income,