LIBRARIANSHIP

 

Being a city with rich cultural history, Bitola has a long tradition in the field of librarianship. The most distant roots of this activity should be looked for in the distant 9th and 10th century, when the mission of Slavic enlighteners, Thessalonica brothers St. Cyril and Methodius could be fell in these regions. It is known that the initial steps of Slavic literacy had been made in this part of west Macedonia also, including the region of Bitola and its surroundings. The commenced great education deed was continued by their disciples St. Clement and Naum, who came from and worked in Ohrid and Kutmichevica region (which is considered to be located on these geographical areas) for a long time.

Cyril and Methodius brothers shape the Slavic alphabet, create Slavic literature language into which they translate from Greek into Slavic the most necessary religious and other books, so that they can successful realize their epochal work. Their newly created alphabet was, the so-called Glagolica – a completely new and creative letter, very different from the Cyrillic. The holy brothers also codified the first literary Slavic language, known under the name Old Slavic or Old Church Slavic. The basis of that language was the south Macedonian dialects of the Thessalonica villages: Suho, Zarova, Visoko etc. This language existed until the 12th century. Some traces of it are found in preserved writings on: Bitola Plate, Bitola Leaves, Bitola Triod ect.

After the death of brothers, Cyril (869) and Methodius (885) their most distinguished disciples were Clement of Ohrid and Naum of Ohrid. In 886 Clement founded the famous Ohrid Literary School, in fact the first Slavic University, also known as Klement’s University, which had about 3.500 students. He used Glagolic alphabet in this school as heritage of his teachers Cyril and Methodius. Naum was present in East Bulgarian Preslavic School for a while, where Cyrillic letter was nourished, and then returned to Ohrid. Traces of this letter could be seen in west Macedonia as well. From 6th century onwards, the Glagolic alphabet gives way to Cyrillic one Apart of Ohrid, Bitola was in the center of these cultural and educational events, which is witnessed by a great number literary monuments.

Simultaneously with the educational and literary activity in their school, Clement and Naum developed wide activity for opening of many churches and monasteries in a lot of places. Later their followers did the same. All these temples were not used only for religious purposes, but they became centers of our written word, literacy, art and cultural. The reason for these activities is clear – the Slavic and orthodox belief were under an immense temptation. Probably a result of that were those about several churches and monasteries in Bitola by the end of 15th century. In them there was a plead of creators, big libraries, artists, zographs and wood-carving artists, topmost transcript schools, prominent translators and polyglots, gifted musicians etc. Many powerful middle-age states fought bloody wars for dominance. In such conditions the church and religion play an important role in preserving the identity of our nation.

The richest literary activity was developed during the strong Macedonian kingdom of Samoil by the end of 10th and the beginning of the 11th century. Bitola was one of his residential seats. During this time Ohrid Archbishopric was founded, which aside its church authority, took care of the cultural development of its ethos. After the fall of Samoil’s kingdom, through the long slavery that were to follow, Macedonian nation found enough strength to preserve at least a part of its literary heritage. A great deal of it had been robbed and taken to foreign countries, destroyed or hidden. But, the part that has been preserved or the origin of which is known, clearly speaks of its great value. So, with centuries, the book being the best witness of time, was created with special care and piety by some, and destroyed by others. However, at least in one part of the people common sense prevailed. Caring about it started in order to preserve it for the generations to come.

Bitola has a very long, with centuries known, tradition to be nourishing place of written word, of written heritage, topmost librarianship. Its roots should be traced in the numerous church and monastery libraries even in middle ages. In those dramatic historical times, during which most of the things were measured by the curse of blood shed, of Macedonian monument of self-discovery, violent or natural, influences of other cultures were present: late Roman, early Byzantine, Palelogical, Komnen, Bulgarian, Serbian, Islamic etc. The basic reason for such an attitude was the dominance of Christianity from the East and political interests of certain rulers to see their interest in propagating of mutual spiritual life, which could not but be seen in monastery written heritage as well. This does not mean absence of strife in our people for emphasizing of their ethnic, lingual and religious orientation. From today’s code time distance, despite lingual editorials, those interests should be taken into consideration.

Bitola middle age and later librarianship, and written tradition in general, could not avoid this period. In the dark monastery scriptoriums, our transcripts writers and creators of original pieces, regardless to their nobleness, probably faced great difficulties in overcoming these obstacles. One of the most famous monasteries, which had a rich library, is the one in village Bukovo, St. Preobrazenie Gospodovo, on the outskirts of the city. It is mentioned in the Zograph monument from 1527-1728 and it was rebuild in 1837.

In 1855 Jordan Hadgi Konstantinov-Ginot passed through Bukovo. He noticed that there were more than 20 piles of books, Slavic transcripts in the monastery but the were destroyed by some priest. Also in 1865, Russian Slavicist, monk, archmandrite, and a learned man Antonin. Kapustin passed here. He wrote that hidden on the monastery’s attic he saw the following books: four books of gospel - written on parchments, Prologue for September, November and December, Minei about March from 16th and 17th century. Minei about November and octoich printed in 1589.

A bit father away from Bitola, at 30km distance, is the monastery “St. Jovan Pretecha – Slepche” nearby the same village, in Demir Hisar region. It had been built on previous, old foundations in 14th century. It is known to be one of the most important cultural centers in this part of Macedonia. It had a big library, an active scriptorium and a lot learned monks. Most of those books can be found today in biggest world libraries, being the most valuable literary monuments (Moscow, Sanct Petersburg, Sofia, Zagreb, Belgrade, Kiev, Plovdiv etc.) The renown Slepche Apostle from 12th century belongs here discovered in 1845 the Russian Slavicist Victor Grigorovich in this very monastery. Some of its parts are kept in the already mentioned cities in Russia, Bulgaria and other places. A lot of literary workers were active here, namely: Visarion of Debar, Pahomij of Slepche, Matej of Slepche etc.

    Other monasteries around Bitola such as the ones in villages: Trnovo, Magarevo, Dragosh, Paralovo, Capari etc. possessed valuable transcripts. Of course this does not exhaust the list of the written heritage of Bitola. Starting from the time of St. Clement of Ohrid, onwards, this treasure was systematically grabbed, destroyed, moved, sold and taken to their countries by various antiquity collectors even famous Slavicists. It is considered that there are many Macedonian valuable books in foreign libraries and individuals as well, and a considerable number of those originate from Bitola and its surroundings. Among this priceless treasure, there are works that belong to the treasury of world art heritage.

It took almost one millennium, and from the second half of the 19th century, when Bitola merchants started sending their sons in European metropolis, there was a more strongly expressed national sense of the need of forming our own cultural identity, including the written heritage and the book as well, as something worth paying attention to. The long slavery during the previous centuries did not give an opportunity for this treasure to come to the surface.

The interest about book was not unknown in Bitola, as it was a famous administrative and military center since the Turkish time. Some facts point out that even in distant year of 1430 the first Ottoman library was situated here containing valuable theological books and precious scripts.

Jewish settlers to Bitola also paid a lot of attention to librarianship. It is known that each Jewish community and synagogue had a library. The first books were from Portugal and Spain. They were mainly religious books. The Talamud was read from earliest ages. Some original works were also written. The Bitola rabbi Joseph Ben Lev (1502-1588) was a renowned writer. His works were printed in Istanbul, Venice and Amsterdam. Other writers appeared later: Jakob Ben Jehida, shatibai Sada, shelomo Morsa, Jakob Isosor Israel etc.

    In the last century Bitola had a really organized librarianship. Almost all the countries which had consulates here, organized public libraries: the French, English, Jewish, Greek, Bulgarian, Serbian library etc. the first Slavic reading-room started functioning on 8 June 1860. Macedonian enlighteners, teachers and revolutionaries open their first library in 1894. The interest about the book grew exceedingly. There were many private libraries in the city as well. New social, political and cultural conditions enabled the Macedonian middle-class wider space for cultural activity among the masses. Newly opened libraries and reading-rooms were immensely visited. Thus they became centers of Macedonian culture and education. They were the only places where foreign books, newspapers could be read. Out of the foreign countries, the French catholic mission was especially active in Bitola. Even as early as 1856 it opened a boys’ school, and the school for girls was opened in 1903. Children of all nationalities and confessions studied there. The book was popularized through these institutions, including the French language, which was widely accepted in the city.

 Due to the known political reasons, till the World War II Bitola libraries and reading-rooms lost the role they used to have in the previous century. Their number was insignificant. The few that existed only served the purposes of foreign propaganda. However, even in such unfavorable conditions, the developed citizens from Bitola never stopped fighting for their own cultural progress, through the book.

Only other the liberation of Bitola in November 1944 that is after finishing the World War II, a new period for our city could start. This resulted in a rapid development of librarianship being inseparable from such a cultural environment as Bitola was. On 25 March 1945, with a decision of the City national committee – Bitola, the first National library after the war was established with only 300 books. That small literary fund was soon enriched Simultaneously with the supply of books, newspapers and magazines, starting from 1954, the City library gained other functions, that is started operating as depository library. This legal responsibility obliged the publishers to deposit to the library one edition of each published book, thus significantly and continuously enriching its literary fund, monographic and periodic as well as other types of library materials. On the course of time the City library continuously develops in organizational sense as well. A Children library, a mobile and regional libraries were founded in bigger municipalities’ centres: Bistrica, Novaci, Kururechani, Capari, Bukovo and other rural settlements, as well as in the city districts: “Jeni Maale”, “Stevo Patako”, “Kocho Desano”, “Chinaro” etc. A significant step in the development of this cultural institution was made in 1960. The first law concerning the libraries in SR Macedonia was brought then. With it the City library was transformed into a Basic library. That was another big step forward in spreading of library network and also the responsibilities that Bitola librarians were faced with: professional supervision in all libraries, professional development of librarianship cadre, mutual exchange, supply and professional processing of materials, bookkeeping etc. the mobile library also gave its contribution in enriching the library activity, enabling the book to get to the most distant readers. In order to avoid the possibility of being forgotten with the time, the locations and the buildings the library was housed in, as well as the space conditions this famous cultural institution of Bitola functioned, we will mark that part of its development, under the respectful time order it was located in: first, in “Turist” hotel opposite the Culture centre; then the building of the primary school “Kliment Ohridski”, today’s “Goce Delchev”, the removal to “Royal” restaurant followed, opposite the “Korzo” restaurant and the bookshop “Kultura”; during one period (till 1954) it was in the building of that time Pioneer Center, that is the present location of Cultural Center; from 1954 to 1974 in the building of today’s Municipal Sindicate; from 1974 till the autumn 1982 in the adapted surgical department in the Old Hospital. Meanwhile, additional adaptation of the existing and some construction works on the new part were carried out, which solved the problem with the space issue, on the pleasure of all the book fans and admirers of Bitola cultural. Another more years should be noted down, namely the year of 1980, when Bitola University was established. It became University library then.

            Today, the Basic and University Llibrary “St. Clement Ohridski” – Bitola suffices all the needs and criteria of modern librarianship: computer system highly professional processing of the literary fund, connection to Internet, a possibility to perform quality preservation, reprography etc. In fact BUL (Basic University Library) is a modernly shaped librarian information center organized in accordance with the current world standards in this area. The complete professional processing of funds is automated. The library contains 160.000 monograph publications, over 1.400 periodical publications 400 out of which are hard copies and the remaining 1.000 are put on CD-ROM bases. This is a part of the identity card of this very important institution, so significant in the development of the cultural and spiritual life in Bitola in general.