Harald Heppner, Eva Posch (Eds.

)
DAS ACHTZEHNTE JAHRHUNDERT

UND OSTERREICH
t.

Internationale Beihefte
Encounters in Europe's Southeast
LE DIX-HUITIEME SIECLE
The Habsburg Empire and the Orthodox World
ET LA MONARCHIE DES HABSBOURG
in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Collection internationale

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

AND THE HABSBURG MONARCHY

International Series

Herausgegeben von/Sous la direction de/Directed by Contributors:

Mariya Baramova, Milos Dordevic, Wladimir Fischer,

Wolfgang Schmale Dragana Grbic, Harald Heppner, Olga Katsiardi­

im Auftrag der Osterreichischen Gesellschaft

Hering, Peter Mario Kreuter, Benjamin Landais,

zur Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts

Andreas Lyberatos, Ikaros Madouvalos, Marija

au nom de la Societe autrichienne d'etude du dix-huitieme siecle

on behalf of the Austrian Society for Eighteenth Century Studies

Petrovic, Jovan Pesalj, Eva Posch, Ivan Parvev, Andrej

S. Riazhev, Nenad RistoviC, Vaso Seirinidou, Vladimir

Simic, Maria A. Stassinopoulou

Bd. 5/Vo!. 5

© Bochum 2012
 I
~
The Enlightenments within the Enlightenment
Balkan Scholarly Production and Communication in the Habsburg
Empire as Seen Through an Early Nineteenth-Century Private
11 Library Catalogue
e
in VASO SEIRINIDOU
'es
:k­
rz­ Unlike the recommended practice by critical historiography, the impetus for this
:ul­ article was not a historical question or a theoretical reflection, but what we con­
ventionally call an 'unpublished historical source: This was the catalogue of the pri­
vate library of Dimitrios Darvaris (1757 -1823), a Greek scholar living in Vienna at
the end of the eighteenth and in the first two decades of the nineteenth centuries.
The document contained 898 book titles that corresponded to approximately 2,000
book volumes and had the form of an 'inventory after death', taken by the apprais­
ers of the Viennese Magistrate in 1823. 1
I came across the catalogue several years ago during my research for my
doctoral dissertation on the history of the Greek merchant diaspora in Vienna in
the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries. In the bulk of bills of
exchange, promissory notes, balance sheets, trade contracts and other business-re­
lated records that compile the main archival traces of Greeks in Vienna 2, a docu­
ment comprising book titles and some of the most emblematic works of both the
Greek and European Enlightenment could be considered nothing but a 'finding:
Being aware of the ramifications of such a 'discovery' and the potential stories this
j,source could tell, I set out to study the catalogue in the form of a 'historical exer­
cise:
For historians, private library catalogues constitute important tools for re­
constructing the intellectual biography of their owners as well as for charting the
'ntellectual climate of their time. 3 In our case, the search for an intellectual context
o embed our catalogue brought us almost automatically to the conceptual and his­
:oriographical area of the Greek Enlightenment. The owner of the recorded books,
imitrios Darvaris, 'the Campe of the Greeks' according to his contemporaries 4 ,

C;uropean EI/ ~ The catalogue is stored together with Darvaris' death certificate and prohate inventory in the Mu­
nicipal Archive of Vienna: Wiener Stadt-und Landesarchiv [WStLA], Zivilgericht, Fasz. 2, Ver­
lassenschaftsabhandlungen, Nr. 1282/1823.
:. Sp. STAIKOS, 2 On the history of the Greek merchant diaspora in Vienna, see Vaso SEIRINIDOU, 'EUryVE<; (Jrry
es of Schmid's Blevv'I, 180<; -/ie(Ja 190v alwva [Greeks in Vienna, 18th to mid-19th century] (Ae~va 2011).
lAM (eds,), Die 3 See, for instance, the pioneering study of Daniel Mornet about the intellectual climate in pre-rev­
hen Liturgie i Jl olulionary France based on 500 private library catalogues from the Paris region. Daniel MORNET,
)r Greek exam~ Les enseignements des bibliotheques priV/!es 1750-1780. In: Revue d'histoire litteraire de la France
va [Greek bibl i 17 (1910),449-492. For private library catalogues as a tool for intellectual biographies, see indic­
1807 (1. 6, Dim­ atively Peter ELMER, The Library ofDr. John Webster: The Making of a Seventeenth-Century Radi­
efanos OIKOI'''' cal.ln: Medical Hislpry Supplement 6 (1986),15-43.
of ancient geo- 4 See the Greek-speaking literary review Ep/i7J<; 0 /loylO<; [Literary Mercure] (181 I) 77, where Dar­
varis is introduced (possibly by the editor Anthimos Gazis) as the Greek equivalent of Joachim
 Vaso Seirinidou
176
is known for his pioneering work in the field of textbooks and children's litera­
ture in the Greek language. With more than thirty-five books published between
1785 and 1823 (textbooks, moral and pedagogical writings, informational books
for children, most of them compilations from various sources), Darvaris is ranked
among the most productive, though not among the most emblematic scholars of
the Greek Enlightenment. He was a rather moderate, middle-ranking intellectual,
who had not participated vividly in the great philological debates and controver­
sies of the Greek intelligentsia of the time, defined mostly by the leading figure of
Adamantios Korais. 5
To use the library catalogue in order to compile an intellectual biography of
Darvaris, as a case-study of a middle-ranking Greek Enlightenment scholar, would
be a possible option, though of limited interpretative potential. Given the reserva­
tions about the correspondence between book ownership and book reading, the
catalogue gave no information about the times and the ways books came into Dar­
varis' possession, while relevant narrative sources (such as correspondence, or au­
tobiographical memoirs) were missing as well. In the best case, some books in the
catalogue could be identified as sources that Darvaris had used to compile his own
works.
A second, more sophisticated option would be to approach the catalogue as
evidence to explore book ownership and reading cultures in the age of the Greek
Enlightenment. Indeed, the catalogue confirmed the general historiographical
topoi of the Greek Enlightenment, such as the predominance of secular over re­
ligious literature, the important position of the Greek classical literature and the
high percentage of the printed production of the Enlightenment (grammars, dic­
tionaries, translations, natural sciences etc). However, the interpretative range of
these findings was limited by the absence of a cohesive sample of a private library
catalogue that could serve as a point of reference and comparison. In the Greek
case, information about the content of private libraries in the eighteenth and ear­
ly nineteenth centuries is confined to few fragmented and socio-culturally une­
ven cases. 6
Heinrich Campe.
5 For a brief overview of the "language issue" in the context of the Greek Enlightenment, see Micha­
lis KOPlDAKIS (ed.), [aTopia TI'/e; EAAI'/vtKr,e; yAwaaae; [History of the Greek language] (Ae~va
1999),222-234.
6 The number of the known and studied cases of Greek private libraries of the eighteenth and ear­
ly nineteenth centuries is limited to the following studies: Dimitrios S. GINIS, H {31{3AL08r,KI'/ TOV
eWrpiAOV Kawraviae;. (0 nvwlianKOe; KDaIiOe; EVOe; rptAEAEv8EPOV !JEanoTI'/) [1he library of 1he­
ophilos of Kampania. The intellectual world of a liberal bishop]. In: 0 EpavlaT~e; 1 (1963),33­
40. Loukia DROULlA, 0 AavptWTI'/e; liovaxoe; KvplUoe; ano TI'/V naTpa Kat 1'/ {3t{3AL08r,KI'/ TOV [1he
Lavra's monk Kyrillos from Patras and his library]. In: 0 EpavlaT~C; 11 (1974),456-503; Kostas
LAPPAs, 0 KaAa{3pvnvoe; 8(xaKaAoe; Fpl'/YOpLOe; [waVV/DI'/e; Kat 1'/ {3t{3AL08r,KI'/ TaV [1he teacher Gri­
gorios 10annides from Kalavryta and his library]. In: MV~flwV 5 (1975), 157-200. Alexis PoLI­
TIS, TtaaEpte; tDlwnKie; {31{3AL08r,KEe; IiEaOV Tvnov (180e; atwvae;) [Four private library of a middle­
type J. In: NwEAAI'/VIKie; {31{3AL08r,KEe; (170e; - 190e; at.). Mipoe; npwTo [Modern Greek libraries. Part
The Enlightenments within the Enlightenment 177
In searching for an alternative context to locate the catalogue in, attention
has been drawn to the Balkan dimension of Darvaris' social experience and intel­
lectual activity. As a member of a Vlach merchant family from Ottoman Mace­
donia, Darvaris had been socialized within the highly mobile world of the eight­
eenth-century Balkan merchants. The social and cultural characteristics of the Bal­
kan trade - such as migration willingness, geographically extended trade networks
based on family and kinship ties, multilingualism, the common Orthodox faith,
and the cultural hegemony of the Greek language - constituted the framework of
his first experiences.? In 1769, at the age of twelve, Darvaris moved - together with
his elder brother - from his birthplace, Kleisoura in Western Macedonia, to Ze­
mun, a trade town with a Serbian population majority on the southern Habsburg
border, where his father had established a merchant house. There, young Darvaris
attended both the Orthodox and Catholic schools of the town, where he was taught
Slavonic, German, and Latin respectively. He continued with advanced courses in
Slavonic and Latin in the school of the neighbouring town of Ruma, and he was
taught Ancient Greek by a private tutor in Novi Sad. After a seven-year study pe­
riod in the Principal Academy of Bucharest and at the Universities of Leipzig and
Halle, he returned to Zemun in 1785, where he began his writing and publishing
activities. 8
Darvaris' debut in the print production of the Enlightenment coincided
with a period when lingUistic affiliation was replacing religion as a central organ­
izing principle of the Balkan merchants in the Habsburg Empire 9 . In Zemun, he
I] (= Tnpaola Epyaaiae; KNEIINE 9, Ae~va 1987), 131-224. Loukia DROULIA, AOYLOavvI'/ Kat
{3t{3ALOrptAia. 0 L11'/Iir,TpLOe; MoaTpae; Kat 1'/ {31{3AL08r,KI'/ TaV [Scholarship and bibliophilia. Dimitri­
os Mostras and his library]. In: Ibid., 227-265. H {3t{3AL08r,K'1 TOV KWVaTaVTivov-Aya8orppovoe;
NIKoAonovAov aT'1v Avoplraatva. Kanl:Aoyoe; [The library of Kostantinos Agathophron Nikolo­
poulos in Andritsaina. A catalogue J (Ae~va 1987). Maria A. Stassinopoulou, H {3t{3AL08r,KI'/ TOV
KWvaTaVTivov Kovlia [The library of Konstantinos Koumas]. In: Arplipwlia aTOV navEJrwTI'/litaKO
oaaKaAo Baa. BA. LrpvpoEpa ana TOVe; lia8'1rte; TaV [Dedicatory volume to the university teach­
er Vas. VI. Sfyroera] (Ae~va 1992), 169-200. Olga Katsiardi-Hering, H {3t{3AL08r,KI'/ TOV Kvnpiov
Aoyiov [wavvov KapaT(a. LKiV/Ele; yvpw ana ToV nvwliaT1Ko TOV a~ova [The library of the Cypriot
schoiarioannis Karantzas. Reflections on his intellectual axis]. In: Ibid., 201-226; Giorgos KOUT­
ZAKIOTIS, H {31{3AL08r,K'1 TaV K. M'1va M'1vwio'1 ane; LippEe; (1815-1819) Kat 1'/ TVXI'/ TI'/e; [The li­
brary of Minas K. Minoides in Serres (1815-1819) and its fate]. In: 0 EpavlaT~C; 23 (2001),219­
252.
7 See Traian STOIANOVICH, The Conquering Balkan Orthodox Merchant. In: IDEM, Between East
and West: The Balkans and the Mediterranean Worlds, 2 vols. (New York 1992), 1, 39-88.
8 For Darvaris' biography, see Johann B. RUPRECHT, Demeter Darvar. Eine biographische Skizze. In:
Archiv fur Geographie, Historie, Staats- und Kriegskunst 8 (1815),219-222.
9 On the social and ideological fermentations within the ethnically mixed Orthodox merchant
communities in the Habsburg monarchy, see Olga KATSIARDI-HERING, Das Habsburgerreich:
Anlaufpunkt fur Griechen und andere Balkanviilker im 17. -19. Jahrhundert. In: Osterreichische
Osthefte 38 (1996),171-188: Vaso SEIRINIDOU, BahavLOI ElinopOl aTI'/v a'/!{3ovpYIKr, liovapxia
(180e; - liiaa 190v atwva). E8vOT1Kie; TaVTOT'1Ue; Kat EpWvl'/nKie; ali'1xaviEe; [Balkan merchants
in the Habsburg monarchy (18th to mid-19thct). Ethnic identities and researchers' embar­
rassments]. In: Maria A. STASSINOPOULOU, Maria Christina HATZIIOANNOU (eds.), !!.taanopa­
178 Vaso Seirinidou
himself had experienced the conflicts between Greeks and Serbs concerning the
introduction of the Greek language in church liturgy and in schools first hand. 1O
However, his work from the Zemun period did not indicate an exclusive orienta­
tion towards the Greek language. From the six books he published between 1785
and 1795, four were written in Modern Greek, one in German, and one in Slavon­
iC. l1 The latter was a translation of the popular Greek moral book Chrestoetheia
that had been published in the early eighteenth century by Antonios Vyzantios and
since then had been published in many editions. After his move to Vienna in 1795,
Darvaris would publish two more books in Slavonic "in benefit of the Slavoserbian
youth", as he wrote.t 2 However, compared to the Zemun period, his work in Vien­
na was consciously oriented towards the cultivation and promotion of education
in the Greek language in the Greek merchant colonies of the Habsburg Empire.
Confronted with the specificities of language teaching in the multilingual
environment of the diaspora l3, Darvaris used flexible methods for transmitting
knowledge. Unlike other scholars who condemned the linguistic de-'hellenization'
of the young generation in the diaspora l4 , Darvaris - with his Greek-German Di­
alogues published in 1809 - would use the German language as a means to fa-
L'JiKTva-L'JlarpWTlaw'}(;[Diaspora, Networks, Enlightenment] (A8~vo 2005), 53-82. Especially on
the case of the Pest Greek-Vlach community, see Gunnar Hering, Der Konjlikt zwischen Griechen
und Walachen in der Pester orthodoxen Gemeinde. In: IDEM (ed.), Dimensionen griechischer Lit­
eratur und Geschichte. Festschriftfur Pavlos Tzermias zum 65. Geburtstag (Frankfurt a. M. 1993),
145-160.
10 loannis A. PAPADRIANOS, Vasilij KOLAKOVIC, LVllpoA~ aT'1 V IOropia Tl1e £}.Al1vlKlje KOIVOT'1 TO e
rov Lq,AivOV. [IEvTe aVEKOOTa Eyyparpa TOV ETOVe 1793 [Contribution to the history of the Greek
community in Semlin. Five unpublished documents of the year 1793]. In: MOKeoovLKu II (1971),
29-37.
11 Darvaris' publications (1785-1795) in chronological order: fpal'l'aTlKIj yepllaVIK~ aKpl{3 coTaTI1
[...] [German Grammar] (Vienna 1785); Blagonravije ili knizica [ ... ] (BLEvvIl1786); DerStein des
Anstosses, oder Erziihlung aber die Spaltung der griechischen und lateinischen Kirche (BII:vvll 1787);
MlKpa KaTIjXI10le [... J [A short catechesis] (BLEvvll 179 I); Xnpaywyia ele Tl1 v KaAoKayafJiav
[... ] [A gUidance to benignity] (BLEvvll 1791); AOrpaA~e 00'1yia [ ... ] ~TOI GwrppaaTov HfJlKO!
XapaKTljpee [ ... ] [Theophrastus' Moral Characters] (BLEvvIl1795).
12 Kevita Tivjejskago lkona [... ] (Buda 1799); Zercalv christianskoe [ ... ] (Buda 1801). See also the
comments by loannis A. PAPADRIANOS, 01 'EUl1vec rrapolKol TOV Lel'Aivov (lSoe - 190e at.) [The
Greek settlers in Semlin (18 th _19 th ct.)] (EJeaaoAoviKll 1988), 180-186.
13 Aspects of the multilingual condition of the Greek diaspora in the Habsburg empire are discussed
by Maria A. STASSINOPOULOU, BaAKavlKIj rroAvyAwaaia aTl1v aVTOKpaTopia TWV Alf{3ovPYwv TOV
ISo Kat 190 atwva. 'Eva YOI1TWTlKO rpatVOfievo Kat VI OVaKOAiee TWV efJvlKwv IOToplOyparplwv [Bal­
kan multilingualism in the Habsburg empire in the 18 th and 19 th centurie,. An attractive phe­
nomenon and the inconveniencies of the national historiographies]. In: EADEM, HATZllOANNOU,
tllaarropa-L'JiKTVa-dlarpWTIOI'Oe, 17-32.
14 Relevant examples highlights Olga KATSIARDl-HERING, EKrraiOcval1 aTI1 olaarropa. ITpoe I'la
rrau'iela eU'1vlK~ ~ rrpoe "fJeparrela" Tl1e rroAVyAwOaiae; [Education in the Diaspora. Towards a
Greek education, or a "therapy" of multilingualism']. In: NweU'1VlK~ ITatOcia Kal KOlvwvia,
rrpOKTlKU OLE8vouc auvEopiou Oq>LEpWflEVOU aTll ~v~flll TOU K. EJ. llT]flopa [proceedings of the
conference Modern Greek education and society] (A8~vo 1995),153-177; here 159f.
The Enlightenments within the Enlightenment 179
miliarize young pupils with the modern Greek language. 15 Moreover, in his Mod­
ern Greek grammar published in 1806, he would draw examples from the Ger­
man, Slavonic, and Vlach languages in order to make Greek grammar rules under­
standable. 16 Darvaris' attitude towards language was subject more to the utilitari­
an principle of the German philanthropic pedagogical thought that characterized
his whole work than to the promotion of any national project. 17 He underlined the
utility of the Greek language in religious and business matters and he approached
it as a vehicle for the progress of individuals, which in turn contributed to the com­
mon felicity.18 His project was to make teaching and learning of this language fa­
miliar, thereby insisting on the standardization of teaching methods and grammar
types, and also on simplification of the latter. The shift of emphasis to the Balkan
and Habsburg context of Darvaris' activity 'endowed' his private library catalogue
with some new research possibilities. Among them, a particularly challenging op­
tion was the comparison of Darvaris' library with existing catalogues of private li­
braries owned by other Balkan scholars that had lived or sOjourned in Vienna dur­
ing the end of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries. The idea
of such a comparative approach was based on the heuristic hypothesis that a Bal­
kan scholar community existed in the Habsburg Empire, within which the particu­
lar Balkan Enlightenment projects were being developed. Community in this con­
text means a group of people, who share common intellectual agendas and are en­
gaged in similar intellectual projects such as education issues; who are confront­
ed with similar sets of problems, e. g. the diversity of the languages and teaching
methods; and whose communication is not necessarily achieved through interper­
sonal relations, but rather through shared intellectual experiences as experiences
drawn from the cultural centers of the Balkan world and those in Vienna, enabling
15 The title of the book is indicative of Darvaris' project: L'JlaAoyol ypatKoyepl'aVIKOi XaplV TWV
I'IKpWV rratoiwv TWV ev T'1 ertlKpaTeia TOV Kaiaapoe rrapolKovVTWV 0l'oyevwv eKoofJtvTee, rrPOe
WKoAwTEpav l'afJl1Olv Kal KaTaAl1lflv Tl1e KOlVlje TWV fpalKwv OlaAEKTOV [Greek-German dia­
logues, published in favour of the children of the countrymen that live in Cesar's dominion, for
the easier learning and understanding of the common Greek dialect] (BLEvvll 1809).
16 fpal'l'aTIK~ arrAodA'IvlK~ [... ] [Modern Greek grammar] (BLEvvIl1806), 174£.
17 See Hanno SCHMITT, Vernunft und Menschlichkeit. Studien zur philanthropischen Erziehungsbe­
wegung (Bad Heilbrunn 2007). On the influences of the philanthropic pedagogical thought and
practice on Darvaris' work, see Vaso SEIRINIDOU, To epyaaTljplO TOV Aoyiov. Aoyta rrapaywylj
Kal ETrlKOIVWvia aTl1v E1"l0X~ TOV L'JlarpWTlal'0v I'taa ano TiC l'apTvpie e I',ae IOIWTlK~e {31{3AlOfJ~Kl1e
[The scholar's laboratory. Scholarly production and communication in the age of Enlightenment,
through the testimonies of a private library] (forthcoming, A8~vo 2012), 10sff.
18 On the notion of "felicity" in Darvaris' work. see Charalambos N. MELETIADES, LVI'{30AIj aTI1
I'EAtTI1 T'le rrOlOaYWYlK~e aKE'/fI1_ TWV dA~VWV o,arpWTlaTWV (IJI1I'~TPlOe NtKoAaov IJap{3apl1e)
[Contribution to the study of the pedagogical thought of the Greek enlighteners (Dimitrios
Nikolaos Darvaris)]. In: IB' rravdA~vlO laroplKo avvtoplO, rrpaKTlKa [proceedings of the XII
panhellenic historical congress] (EJEaaoAoviKll 1992),219-231; here 229ff; and Anna Tambaki,
IJI1I'~TPlOe IJap{3aPl1e: 01 rrEpi 'l1fJIK~e' ano'/fEle TOU [Dimitrios Darvaris: His viewpoints on 'mo­
rality'].ln: NwdAl1vlK~ rrOl&ia KOl KOlvwvia, 107-120; here 114f.
180 Vaso Seirinidou The Enlightenments within the Enlightenment 181

them to participate in non-personal systems of communication. 19 Ifbook circula­ discussions and controversies concerning the "neugriechisch", "slavisch-servisch';
tion and book markets constitute means par excellence of such an impersonal in­ and "wallachisch" or "romanisch" language. In the quantitative evaluation of the
tellectual communication, then private libraries are sites where this communica­ catalogue presented here, the internal developments of the languages were not tak­
tion is located and can be examined. en into account either.
The comparative approach of the library catalogues pointed to testing the As the table enlisting the linguistic composition of the catalogue books in­
'Balkan scholar community hypothesis; by first examining if there was an inter­ dicates, Darvaris' library was a multilingual one (table I). In the quantitative dis­
nal circulation of the Balkan print production, and second, if there was a body of tribution of the languages in the catalogue, the first thing to be noticed is the clear
texts that could have functioned as the 'canon' or, even more, as the 'paradigm' of predominance of the spoken languages over the ancient Greek and Latin languages
the community. that dominated the scholarly libraries of the seventeenth and the early eighteenth
In the meantime, this comparative undertaking has proved too ambitious. I centuries. We recognize here a general trend seen in most late eighteenth century
succeeded to have partial access to the content of two private libraries, whose own­ libraries, which is connected to the emergence of the national literatures.
ers were located at the edge of the supposed frame of reference. The first was the
Slovene, Bartholomaus Jernej Kopitar (1780-1844), who acted as a mediator be­ Table I:
tween the Balkan scholars and the Habsburg intellectual scene, and the second was Linguistic composition of the catalogue books
the Bulgarian, Ivan Dobrovski (1812-1896), who had sojourned in Vienna in the Language Titles %
middle of the nineteenth century.20 Apart from technical reasons, there were also Ancient Greek 113 12.6
methodological reflections that dictated the modification of the initial proposal as Medieval Greek 13 1.4
it was conceived that the identification of the community through the identifica­
Greek liturgical texts 22 2.4
tion of a common corpus of texts in the libraries led to a static approach of both
Modern Greek 246 27.4
the community and the libraries themselves. It became clear that the identification
Latin 162 18.0
of the common books had a limited interpretative value unless we examine the po­
German 211 23.5
sition of these books within each library system and their relation to other books.
French 47 5.2
Given this situation, Darvaris' private library catalogue was re-evaluated as
Italian 19 2.1
a source for detecting traces of his relation to the Balkan intellectual activity in the
Serbian 42 4.7
Habsburg Empire. But let us see what the catalogue has to disclose.
A quick browsing of the catalogue is enough to indicate the existence of Russian 16 1.8

books "in griechischer Sprache" or of "neugriechische Bucher", as well as of books
"in wallachischer Sprache" and of "slavisch-servisch- und russische Bucher': Apart
from the book format, the only indication of classification found in the catalogue
concerns the languages above. This can be explained by the fact that book titles in
south-eastern European languages were registered in German translation and the
indication of the original language was necessary. The appraisers of the Viennese
Magistrate were not informed about, and surely not interested in, the philological
19 On the concept of "intellectual community" and its expressions in early modern Europe, see An­
thony GRAFTON, Bring Out Your Dead. The Past as Revelation (Cambridge 200 I), chapter III pas­
sim, and IDEM, Worlds made by Words. Scholarship and Community in the Modern West (Cam­
bridge 2009), chapter I passim.
20 Walter LUKAN, Kopitars Privatbibliothek. In: bsterreichische Osthefte 36,3 (1994), 589-705 and
IDEM, Bartholomiius Kopitar (J 780-1844) und die europiiische Wissenschaft im Spiegel seiner Pri­
vatbibliothek. ]ernej Kopitar in evropska znanost v zrkalu njegove zasebne knjiinice (Ljubljana
2000). On Ivan Dobrovski's private library, see Nadia DANOVA, Les livres grecs de la bibliotheque
d'Ivan Dobrovski. In: Etudes Balkaniques 3-4 (1992), 94-102, and EADEM: Ivan Dobrovski a Vi­
enne. (Contribution a l'histoire de Vienne en tant que centre politique et culturel des peuples balka­
niques au XIX sieele. In: Etudes Balkaniques 2 (2003), 3-45.
Rumanian 6 0.7
Spanish 1 0.1
TOTAL 898 100.0
The modern Greek language with 27.4 per cent ranks first and is followed by Ger­
man language books with 23.5 per cent, while the Balkan languages are represent­
ed with only 5.4 per cent. However, this quantitative distribution changes, when we
examine the books of the catalogue that had been published in the first two dec­
ades of the nineteenth century (table II). In this case, the percentage of the Modern
Greek language entails more than 50 per cent, while the percentage of books in the
Serbian and Romanian languages rises significantly (11 per cent). Apparently, this
is connected with the development of the Balkan print cultures and literatures at
the end of the eighteenth century. But for the purposes of this study, it is important
to note that Darvaris, in his most productive phase, appears to have been interest­
ed in and to have followed the Balkan publishing production.
182 Vaso Seirinidou The Enlightenments within the Enlightenment 183

Table II: ideal exhibited through Greek and Latin classical literature, history, and antiquar­
Linguistic composition of the catalogue books, published between 1800 and 1823 ianism. 22
Languages Titles %
Table III:
Ancient Greek 5 2.0
Thematic composition of the catalogue books
Medieval Greek 0 0
Greek liturgical texts 1 0.4 Themes Titles %
Modern Greek 142 57.5 Classical literature (Greek/Latin) 147 16.4
Latin 7 2.8 Language (Grammars, Dictionaries) 101 11.2
German 55 22.3 Philology 56 6.2
French 5 2.0 Religion 161 18.0
Italian 1 0.4 History/Antiquarianism 47 5.2
Serbian 21 8.5 Geography 23 2.6
Russian 4 1.6 Jurisprudence/Politics 41 5.2
Rumanian 6 2.4 Philosophy 56 6.2
Spanish 0 0 Mathematics 30 3.3
TOTAL 247 100.0 Natural Sciences 59 6.5
Medicine 11 1.2
Let us now move to the thematic composition of the catalogue (table III). Histori­ Literature 50 5.6
ans in their attempt to thematically order a library catalogue of the early nineteenth Children's and youth literature 46 5.1
century have to strike a balance between historically different systems of knowl­ Pedagogy 11 1.2
edge classification. 21 This means that the proposed thematic categories are to a Various 59 6.6
great extent conventional. The same applies to the thematic classification of Dar­ TOTAL 898 100.0
varis' library catalogue presented here.
A glance at the facts of the table is enough to reveal some of the typical char­
However, what characterizes this catalogue is not the high representation of the
acteristics of an eighteenth century scholar's library in this catalogue: a consent on
'big' and expected thematic categories, but the percentage of books subsumed in
the encyclopedic ideal with the representation of all the cognitive areas that consti­
the category 'various: Over fifty books cannot be ordered under any of the typ­
tute the traditional body of knowledge in the catalogue - theology, philology, phi­
ical thematic categories of the eighteenth century libraries. Their content varies
losophy, history, medicine, natural sciences, jurisprudence; the predominance of
from travel literature, trade essays, and military science to books on gardening and
secular over religious books; and a strong presence of the humanistic educational
cooking, clairvoyance, texts on phYSiognomy, and almanacs. The relatively high
representation of this category foreshadows a process that will be manifested clear­
1y in the private libraries of the follOWing period. As the nineteenth century pro­
gressed, the size of libraries was reduced and their thematic content multiplied.
21 On this issue see Helmut ZEDELMAIER, Bibliotheca universalis und bibliotheca selecta. Das prob­ The nineteenth century private library lost its precedence as an agent of cultur­
lem der Ordnung des gelehrten Wissens in der Fruhen Neuzeit (= Beihefte zum Archiv fur Kultur­
geschichte 33, K6ln 1992); Paul NELLES, The Library as an Instrument ofDiscovery: Gabriel Nau­
de and the Uses of History. In: Donald R. KELLEY (ed.), History and the Disciplines. The Reclassi­
fication of Knowledge in Early Modern Europe (Rochester-New York 1997),41-57; Donald Mc­
KITTERICK, Libraries and the Organization of Knowledge. In: 711e Cambridge History of Librar­ 22 Renate SCHUSKY, Empfehlungen fur die Einrichtung von Bibliotheken. In: Biicher und Sammler:
ies in Britain and Ireland, 3 vols. (Cambridge 2006), I, 592-614: Stephan WALDHOFF, Von der private und offentliche Bibliotheken im 18. lahrhundert (= Colloquium der Arbeitsstelle 18. Jahr­
rechten Administrierung des Wissensschatzes. Zu Leibniz' Entwurfen einer bibliographisch-bibli­ hundert, HaideIberg 1979), 129-139: Annett VOLNER, Lektiire. Bildung, Wissenskanon: lean-Hen­
othekarischen Sachsystematik. In: Karin HARTBECKER (ed.), Zwischen Furstenwillkiir und Men­ ri-Samuel Formeys Ratsch/age zum Aufbau einer Privatbibliothek im 18. lahrhundert. In: Sandra
schheitswohl. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz als Bibliothekar (= Zeitschrift fUr BibIiothekswesen und POTT et al (eds.), The Berlin Refuge 1680-1780. Learning and Science in European Context (Lei­
Bibliographie 95, Frankfurt a. M. 2008), 159-242. den-Boston 2003),183-206.
184 Vaso Seirinidou The Enlightenments within the Enlightenment 185

al uniformity. In place of the constitutive norms of the preceding centuries, per­ books 'follow' the work of Darvaris, since they reflect more than others the fields
sonal taste and interest emerged as principal criteria in building a private library.23 of his literary production.
The impression of a library in transition is also reinforced by the relative­
ly high representation of a new category - not at all typical of the scholarly librar­ Table IV:
ies of the eighteenth century - that refers to Darvaris' intellectual preoccupation. Thematic composition of the Modern Greek books of the catalogue
It is the category of children's and youth literature which, together with pedagogy, Themes Titles %
occupies a percentage (6.3 per cent) in the catalogue that is equal to or even high­
Classical literature (translations) 11
er than the traditional categories of the eighteenth century libraries, such as his­ 4.5
Language (Grammars, Dictionaries) 37 15.0
tory, jurisprudence, philosophy, mathematics, and natural sciences. If we take into
Philology 9
account that the other area of Darvaris' intellectual activity, the linguistic and phil­ 3.7
Religion 61
ological works, occupies the second highest percentage (17.4 per cent) (after reli­ 24.8
History/Antiquarianism 18
gion) in the catalogue, then we realize that in our case the transition from the uni­ 7.7
Geography 10
versal to the specialized, scientific library, a watershed in the library history of the 4.1
modern era, is in an embryonic stage. 24 Jurisprudence/Politics 5 2.0
Philosophy
However, not all languages represented in the catalogue contribute to the 19 7.7
scheme of the 'library as a laboratory', namely of a library specialized in the cog­ Mathematics 9 3.7
nitive areas where the intellectual activity of its owner is concentrated. For exam­ Natural Sciences 12 4.8
ple, the majority of the books in Russian are liturgical texts, or most of the Italian Medicine 8 3.3
books belong to the category 'various: whereas literature occupies a fair portion of Literature 26 10.6
the French books. The thematic range of the Modern Greek books corresponds to Children's and youth literature 14 5.7
the general trend, although in the quantitative distribution of the categories some Pedagogy 2 0.8
variation from the average is to be noticed (table IV). As expected, the representa­ Various 5 3.4
tion of religious books is higher here, while the representation of history and liter­ TOTAL 246 100.0
ature, which together with the linguistic works occupy a third of the Modern Greek
books of the catalogue, is significantly increased. The representation of children's
Table V'
and youth literature remains considerably high.
Thematic composition of the Serbian books of the catalogue
Although their number is limited, the Serbian books of the catalogue pre­
Themes Titles
sent a thematic structure that corresponds more than others to the scheme of the %
Language (Grammars, Dictionaries) 6 14.3
library as a laboratory (table V). The category of children's and youth literature
Religion 8
ranks first and, together with pedagogic and linguistic works, occupies almost half 19.0
History 2
of the total number of items. There is, therefore, a reciprocal relationship between 4.8
Darvaris' work and the Serbian books of the catalogue. Not only does Darvaris Philosophy /Ethics 4 9.5
follow Serbian publishing activity in the fields of his interest, but also the Serbian Natural Sciences 2 4.8
Literature 5 11.9
Children's and youth literature 9 21.5
23 See Yoshiko YAMANOUCHI, Burgerliche Lesekultur illl 19. jahrhundert. Eine sozialgeschichtliche
Calendars and almanacs 3 7.1
Untersuchung am Beispiel Wiens (Wien 1998),94; 149.
24 For the first stages of this process, see Gerhard STREICH, Die Privatbibliothek als Handwerkzelig Various 3 7.1
des Gelehrten im 18. jahrhundert, dargestel/t am Beispiel Gottingens. In: Paul RAABE (ed.), 6ffen­ TOTAL 42 100.0
tliche und private Bibliotheken im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert. Raritiitenkammer, Forschungsinstru­
mente, oder Bildungsstiitten (Wolfenbiittel 1977),241-299; Siegfried SUDHOF, Die Privatbiblio­
thek eines Philosophen und Literaten: der Buchbesitz Friedrich Heinrich Jacobis. In: Bucher und I will complete the quantitative evaluation of the catalogue with some observations
Sammler, 141-147. On the formation of the institutional scientific libraries in the nineteenth cen­ concerning the places of publication of the children's books. It is well known that
tury, see John SYMONS, SCientific and Medical Libraries: The Rise of the Institution. In: The Cam­ during the last quarter of the eighteenth century Vienna had become the head­
bridge History ofLibraries in Britain and Ireland, II, 388-404.
186 Vaso Seirinidou
quarters for the print and publishing production of the Greek Enlightenment. 25
Living in Vienna, Darvaris himself had easier access to the books that had been
published there. However, these facts are not enough to explain the minimal pre~­
ence of the Venetian publishing production among the Greek children's books of
the catalogue, despite the existence of a lively Modern Greek scholarly and pub­
lishing activity in this field in the city (table VI). Venice is represented in the cate­
gory by two early and traditional works, while the most recent and popular 'Vene­
tian' examples of the genre, such as the Greek translation of Magasin des enfants by
Madame Leprince de Beaumont and the etiquette book Children's gUidance by Di­
onysios Pyrros, are absent. 26
Table VI:
Places of publication of the Greek children's books in the catalogue
Place of publication Titles % TOTAL 14
Venice 2 14.3
Vienna 10 71.4
Budapest 2 14.3
14 100.0
TOTAL
In the field of children's and youth literature in Modern Greek the catalogue dis­
plays a one-sided orientation towards books published in Vienna by Darvaris him­
self and by a small circle of scholars engaged in matters of Greek education in the
Greek merchant colonies of the Habsburg empireP As a place of publication, Vi­
enna also ranks first in the total number of the children's books in the catalogue
(table VII). Compared to the previous table, the noticeably increased representa­
tion of Budapest here is due to books in the Serbian language. Instead of a dialogue
between the two main Greek publishing centers, the tables VI and VII indicate an
25 See Emanuel TURCZYNSKI, Die deutsch-griechischen Kulturbeziehungen bis zur Berufung Kanigs
Otto (= Siidosteuropaische Arbeiten 48, Miinchen 1959), 116-125; 139-147; Georgios LAIOS,
Die griechischen Zeitungen und Zeitschrifterl (1784-1821). Quellenmaterial, hauptsiichlich auS den
osterreichischen Staatsarchiven gesammelt und zusammerlgestellt. In: Johannes IRMSCHER, Marika
MINEEMI (eds.), Probleme der neugriechischen Literatur (= Berliner Byzantinische Arbeiten 15,
Berlin 1960),4 vols., II, 110-195; Konstantinos Sp. STAIKOS, Die in Wien gedruckten griechischen
Bucher (1749-1800) (Athen 1995).
26 Spyridon VLADIS (trans!.), All08t1K17 TWV llai8wv, t1Tot 8uUoyol I'fTa(v aorpov 8t8aaK'Uou Kat
81arp6pwv wyevwv auTO V l'a817Twv [Le Magasin des enfants, ou dialogues entre une sage gouver­
nante avec ses eleves] 4 vols. (EvET[~alv 1788-1793); Dionysios PYRROS, Xelpaywyia TWV llai8wv,
t1 TOt llpaYl'areia llepi xpewv TOU av8pwllou [Children's gUidance, or treatise on human's duties]
(EvETI!]alv 1810).
27 For example, Polyzois KONTOS, nOIKiA17 oloaaKaMa (... ] [Various lesson] (BIEVV!] 1806); Mi­
chael GEORGIOU, All08t1K17 TWV llai8wv [... ] [Children's magazine] (BIEVV~ 1809); Kyriakos and
Emmanuel KAPETANAKI (trans!.), EtKOVoAoyia llalolK'l [... ] [Friedrich Bertuchs Bilderbuch fUr
Kinder] 9 vols. (BIEVV!] 1810-1812).
The Enlightenments within the Enlightenment 187
orientation towards the German and the Balkan production within the Habsburg
Empire.
Table VII:
Places of publication of the children's books of the catalogue
Place of publication Titles %
Venice 2 4.3
Vienna 22 47.9
Budapen 10 21.8
Leipzig 3 6.5
Paris 2 4.3
Prague 2 4.3
Various German cities 5 10.9
100.0
Speaking about the intellectual communication and relationship between the Bal­
kan Enlightenments, historians usually stress the importance of the common Ot­
toman context and of the social and cultural experiences in store for the subordi­
nate Orthodox populations. Nevertheless, regarding the specific relation between
Darvaris' intellectual activity and the Balkan publishing production found in the
catalogue, we ought to acknowledge the primary importance of experiences re­
lated to the Habsburg environment. First of all, Vienna was the phYSical meeting
point of scholars from all parts of the Balkans. Darvaris most probably personal­
ly knew some of the authors and editors whose works are included in his library
catalogue. 28 The 'Zum weiBen Wolf: an inn in the 'Alter Fleischmarkt'-quarter,
only a few blocks from Darvaris' residence, was known as a haunt of Balkan mer­
chants and scholars. One of the inn's regulars was Bartolomaus Kopitar, the phi­
lologist and censor of Slavic and Modern Greek books in Vienna, who could have
acted as a mediator for Darvaris' acquaintance with the Balkan intellectual scene
in the city. 29
28 For example, there is evidence of a personal acquaintance between Darvaris and Dimitrije
DavidoviC, who was the editor (together with Dimitrije Frusic) of the Serbian newspaper Novine
Serbske iz carstvujuscega grada Vienne (I 813 -1822). See GERTRAUD MARINELLI-KoNIG, Buchge­
schichte der Sudslaven. Eine Einfuhrurlg und eine Forschurlgsbericht. Weil wir uns auskennert .... In:
Mitteilung der Gesellschaft fiir Buchforschung in Osterreich I (2006),27-66; here 55-56.
29 For an overview of the scholarly network of Kopitar, see Ingrid MERCHIERS, Cultural Natiorlalism
in the South Slav Habsburg Lands in the Early Nineteenth Century: The Scholarly Network ofJemej
Kopitar (1780-1844), (Munich 2007). On Kopitars' relation with the Greek intellectual activity
in Vienna, see Polychronis K. ENEPEKIDES, Kopitar und die Griecherl, In: Wiener Slawistisches
Jahrbuch 3 (1953),53-70; also, Max Demeter PEYFUSS, Aromunen um Kopitar. In: Bartholomaus
(Jernej) Kopitar, 439-453. In Kopitar's private library catalogue there are eight book titles by Dar­
varis, see LUKAN, Kopitars Privatbibliothek, 641-642.
188 Vaso Seirinidou The Enlightenments within the Enlightenment 189

However, the importance of the Habsburg context for the communication form of German in the Habsburg lands and served as a model for the compilation
of the Balkan Enlightenments was not primarily of a spatial nature. What con­ of grammars of the spoken Slavic languages in the empire. 36
nects, for instance, Darvaris and Dositej Obradovic (1742-1811), who is repre­ Was Darvaris' Modern Greek Grammar a response to the intellectual chal­
sented with three books in Darvaris' library catalogue, is that both expressed the lenges of the educational reform? The prospect of Darvaris attempting to integrate
cultural universe and the social values of the Orthodox elites (Greek and Serbian Greek education in the new Habsburg school system 37 has already been stressed
respectively) living in the Habsburg Empire. 30 Their work constituted a codifica­ and the findings in his library catalogue reinforce this hypothesis. They urge us to
tion of the norms and values of the multi-ethnic Habsburg bourgeois society that transfer Darvaris' work from the margins of the Greek Enlightenment scene to the
emerged in the transition from the eighteenth to the nineteenth century. maelstrom of the Habsburg school reform, as the Greek contribution to the broad­
The Habsburg school reform in the 1770s and 1780s, in turn, created new er intellectual project that was developed in Vienna and other cultural centers of
spaces of intellectual practice and communication for Balkan scholars. The plan­ the Habsburg Empire with the participation of scholars from different ethnic and
ning of a homogeneous school system throughout the Habsburg lands, through the linguistic groups. Moreover, they urge us to detect the dynamic of smaller scholar­
standardization of school programs, teaching methods and textbooks, called forth ly circles in the bodies of the ethnic enlightenments, in other words, to identify the
the production of textbooks in non-German languages based on the model of Jo­ enlightenments within the enlightenment.
hann Ignaz Felbiger's German textbooks. 31 In Darvaris' library catalogue, there are
none of the early Serbian textbooks that had been printed in Johann Kurzbi:ick's
press in Vienna and that bore the signature of Teodor Jankovic (1741-1814), who
was the main exponent of the school reform in the Banat.32 Yet, it comprises two
books by Avram MrazoviC (1756-1826), director of the Orthodox schools in the
Backa-Baranya and the Arad Orthodox diocese and founder of the first training
courses for Serbian teachers in his native city of Sombor (1778).33 The first book
is the Slaveno-Serbian translation of Magasin des enfants by Madame Leprince de
Beaumont, published by Mrazovic in three volumes between 1787 and 1800 34 ; the
second one is the Slavic grammar Rukovodstvo kb slavenstej grammatice (Buda
1800). The grammar, which is referred to as the first in the Slaveno-Scrbian lan­
guage, was initially published in Vienna in 1794 and was intended for school use.
It was based on Russian grammars, while following the structure and method of
Ignaz Felbiger's school grammar Verbesserte Anleitung zur deutschen Sprachlehre
(Vienna 1779).35 The latter attempted to address the lack of a standardized written

30 See Wladimir FISCHER, Dositej Obradovic als burgerlicher Kulturheld. Zur Formienmg eines ser­
bischen burgerlichen Selbstbildes durch literarische Kommunikation 1783-1845 (Frankfurt 2007),
99; 129; 131; 181. On Darvaris' function as an 'organic intellectual' of the Greek entrepreneurial
diaspora in the liabsburg empire, see SEIRINIDOU, To <pyaar1Pta YOU ),oyiou, 68-70, 118- 119.
31 See Karen LAMBRECHT, Tabelle und Toleranz. Johann 19naz von Fe/bigers Reform der Volksbildung
in Ostmitte/europa. In: Martin SCHEUTZ, Wolfgang SCHMALE, Dana STEFANOVA (eds.), Orte des
Wissens (= Jahrbuch der bsterreichischen Gesellschaft zur Erforschung des achtzehnten Jahr­
hunderts 18/19, Bochum 2004),153-167
36 Paul ROESSLER, Sprache zur Erziehung - Erziehung zur Sprache. Fe/bigers Grammatiken und
32 Philip A. ADLER, Habsburg School Reform Among the Orthodox Minorities, 1770-1780. In: Slavic
die schriftsprachliche Reform in Osterreich in der zweiten Hiilfte des 18. Jahrhunderts. In: Das
Review 33 (1974), 23-45; here 30-37.
achtzehnte Jahrhundert und Osterreich 10 (1995), 55-72; here 60-61; Helmut KEIPERT, Das Tyr­
33 Ibid, 35-38.
nauer Slovakisch-Lehrwerk von 1780 und seine deutsche(n) Quelle(n). In: Reinhard LAUER (ed.),
34 Avram MRAZOVIC, PouCitelnij magazin za dew k preosvesceniju razuma [... ], 3 vols. (Bec 1787­ Deutsche ulld slovakische Literatur. Beitriige von einem Komparatistischen Symposium 28. bis
1800). 29. Januar 1995 in Gottingen (= Opera Slavica 35, Wiesbaden 2000), 11-31.
35 Edward STANKIEWICZ, Grammars and Dictionaries of the Slavic Languages from the Middle Ages
37 See Maria A. STASSIONOPOULOU, EuvaolufJc'x{ovru<; YO Emayo),c'xpto YOU ,1'If''1rpiou ,1c'xpfJap'1
up to 1850 (Berlin 1980), 94. More extenSively, see Helmut KEIPERT, Vuk Karadiic und Avram
[Rereading Darvaris' Epistolario J. In: NWrA.A.'1VIKt/ EmarO),OYPu<pia (J 6o(-190( 01.), lIPUKTlKU
Mrazovic. Zu den Quellen der 'Pismenica serbskoga jezika'. In: Zeitschrift fur Slavische Philologie ElIlaT'lfloviKOU aUfllIoaiou [Proceedings of the conference Modern Greek Epistolography (16th _
52 (1992),104-127. 19th ct.)) (~ MEaulwvlKU Km Ntu E,\,\J]VIKU 8, Ali~va 2006), 169- 180; here 176-177.