Museums at Night 2016 at PAN Biblioteka Gdańska
LIBRARY AS A GARDEN
The leading theme of Museums at Night 2016 (May 21st, 2016; 7.00 pm-1.00 am) at PAN Biblioteka Gdańska (http://bgpan.gda.pl/) is mainly concentrated on flowers and plants perpetuated in various library materials – manuscripts, early printed books and botanical illustrations. Flowers are one of the most popular motifs in art and literature. Plants and especially herbs were found in ancient botanical books - herbals were among the first books to be printed. The floral motif was used for different purposes – as a decorative element on the margins of a manuscript, as a filling of an illuminated initial, on the surface of a bookbinding, in a printer’s device as an decorative or symbolic element. Last but not least plant motifs were applied for practical uses in handwritten and printed herbals. A considerable collection of herbals (treatises dedicated to the medicinal or utilitarian plants) and florilegia (books dedicated to ornamental plants) which once belonged to the Gdańsk patricians (15-18th c.) have survived in the PAN Biblioteka Gdańska. The books contain beautiful illustrations of herbs and flowers – they can be examined today as research records, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, as evidence reflecting bygone art and craft of drawers, woodcutters, engravers and painters. The vanitas motif has not been used in the display. One of the purposes of Museums at Night 2016 at PAN Biblioteka Gdańska is to emphasise certain qualities of nature – variability, pulsing, movement, flow of energy, periodical changes, circulation of energy, metamorphosis – mainly with the use of various library materials. Flowers and plants hidden amongst the herbals and florilegia, and the books themselves, have their metalanguage, thanks to which they communicate with us – it is the universal language of art, form, creativity, imitation, aesthetic experience and above all it is the language of beauty. The library’s botanical collections reflect the interests of Gdańsk patricians and especially their fascination with local and exotic nature. The books can also inspire us to undertake new activities in various fields.
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