Bosnian and Hercegovinian Collections

British Library Slavonic and East European Collections

The British Library Slavonic and East European Section acquires material across the spectrum of the humanities and social sciences. It is responsible for obtaining and making available material published in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and for material in the languages of those countries published anywhere in the world. This page provides an overview of the Bosnian and Hercegovinian Collections, illustrated by specific examples.
Copyright © 1997, The British Library Board The three last things: death, judgement and afterlife, facade of a stećak from Donja Zgošća, Kakanj, 14th-15th centuries

Contents

An overview of the Bosnian and Hercegovian Collections | Catalogues and printed guides |
Other resources | Bosnian and Hercegovinian material elsewhere in the British Library
Further information

Collections

In the following text, codes which appear in square brackets after references ([C.38.e.40]) indicate British Library shelfmarks.

The British Library holdings covering Bosnia and Hercegovina include material written in Serbo-Croatian, Turkish and Hebrew languages. Books written in Turkish and Hebrew are in the Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections. The Department of Western Manuscripts holds the original of the Firman of Selim Khan written in Church Slavonic and a copy of Pontifical (1706) written in Serbian Church Slavonic.

The beginning of literary activity in Bosnia and Hercegovina is linked with the name of Matija Divković, author of Nauk karstianski and Sto čudesa (1611) [C.38.e.40], who started a significant new era of the Bosnian Franciscan printed book in the vernacular (Bosančica).

The literary and cultural activities of the Bosnian Fransiscans and the Serbian authors reached their climax in the 19th century at the same time as the Illyrian movement. Their works were published outside Bosnia and Hercegovina in Zagreb, Belgrade, Osijek, etc. The following items held by the Library are representative of this period: Frano Jukić and Grga Martić's Narodne piesme bosanske and hercegovačke (Osijek, 1858) [11585.cc.40], Grga Martić's Pjesnička djela (1888-93) [11586.c.18], Aleksa Šantić's Pjesme (1911) [012216.de.1/135], Jovan Dučić's Pesme (1908) [012216.de.1/113], and Vasa Pelagić's Slavenska unija i Trojna unija Evrope (1891) [X.989/3323(3)] and Istorija bosansko-hercegovačke bune (1953) [09136.m.2]. The collections contain many other works by Bosnian and Hercegovinian authors.

From 1945, the Library obtained a large proportion of materials from Bosnia and Hercegovina and special efforts were made to acquire academic publications, historical material, newspapers and material covering the arts. Particular attention has been paid to the acquisition of material covering the Balkan Crisis since 1990.

Recently, the Kur'an, translated into the Bosnian language by Enes Karić and published in Sarajevo in 1995, was donated to the Library.

Since 1990, the British Library has acquired material relating to the war in Bosnia and Hercegovina. Currently, the Library aims to acquire material from the geographical area of Bosnia and Hercegovina, regardless of its ethnic, religious or linguistic provenance. Similarly, material about Bosnia and Hercegovina will be treated evenhandedly, regardless of the author's origin or its place of publication.

Catalogues and printed guides

• The Balkan crisis, 1990-: catalogue [Part 1], compiled by Sava Peić and Magda Szkuta [2719.k.2515]
• The Balkan crisis, 1990-: catalogue [Part 2], compiled by Sadie Morgan-Cheshire and Magda Szkuta [2719.k.2515]
• Cyrillic books printed before 1701 in British and Irish collections: a union catalogue, compiled by R. Cleminson, C. Thomas, D. Radoslavova, A. Voznesenskij (London: The British Library, 2000) [HLR011.440947]
• Church Slavonic entries from the British Library General Catalogue [prepared by Brad Sabin Hill] (London: The British Library, 1992) [2725.g.1675]
• Church Slavonic entries from the British Library General Catalogue [prepared by Brad Sabin Hill] (London: The British Library, 1992) [2725.g.1675]

Other resources

• Balkan Crisis, 1990-
• Bosnian and Hercegovinian internet resources
• South-East European studies: reference sources
• Index to the Slavonic and East European pages
• Integrated Catalogue
• Union list of Slavonic and East European newspapers in British libraries

Bosnian and Hercegovinian material elsewhere in the British Library

• Manuscripts are held by Manuscript Collections
• Newspaper holdings are held in the Newspaper Library at Colindale
• Official and government publications are held at the Social Policy Information Service (SPIS)
• Social sciences and scientific serials and conference proceedings are available from the Document Supply service
• Scientific monographs are held by Science Technology & Business (STB)
• Audio materials are held by the Sound Archive
• Other Slavonic material is held in the Map, Music and Philatelic Collections

Further information

For further information on the Bosnian and Hercegovinian Collections please contact Milan Grba:

Slavonic and East European Collections
The British Library
96 Euston Road
London NW1 2DB
United Kingdom
e-mail: slavonic@bl.uk