The fate of Tippu Sultan's Library

Sultan Fateh Ali Tippu (1750-1799), Tippu Sultan, known also by the English as the Tiger of Mysore

He was the son of Haider Ali, ruler of Mysore and Fakhr-un-Nissa and died fighting the English, being considered a national hero in India for his long time struggle against the British colonial forces in India who aimed at subduing and eventually annex his states.
A capable administrator, poet and military leader and a devout Muslim, Tippu Sultan was an example of tolerance towards other religions, protecting Hindu temples and having built the first Christian church in Mysore.
Tippu Sultan died in battle defending his capital Srirangapattana.
Detailed biographies can be found at The Sword of Tippu Sultan, by Dr. K. L. Kamat and in the Website dedicated to Tipu Sultan and at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipu_Sultan.

Tippu Sultan left a splendid library rich in manuscripts and books on government, law, religion and the sciences which was plundered by the British army after his defeat at Srirangapattana (more... in Lost treasures - Seema Alavi - Assistant Professor, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi).

It is also known that «Tipu used to put his signature and stamp on every book he read. Most of the books in his library bore his signature and stamp. He used to put his signatures in an artistic and intricate style. First, he used Tipu Sultan as his name ‘Nabi Malik’. According to Kirk Patrick, the British supervisor of the library appointed by the Company, his wittings were superior to others and exceptionally lucid and compact» (quoted from http://taher.freeservers.com/tipuSultanLibrary.htm).

On the whereabouts of Tipu Sultan’s library, see:
«Oriental & India Office Collections (OIOC) section of the British Library in London - The nucleus of the collection itself was from the private Library of Tipu Sultan of Mysore, who had built it from the treasures of various Indian rulers conquered by himself and his father Hyder Ali. After the British defeated Tipu Sultan, this library of 2000 manuscripts was divided between the Cambridge and Oxford Universities in Britain and the College of Fort William in Calcutta. Meanwhile Robert Orme, the historiographer of the East India Company had collected a large number of manuscripts, books and letters during his career and requested the East India Company to create ‘a repository for Oriental Writings.» (quoted from http://taher.freeservers.com/tipuSultanLibrary.htm);
A Guide to Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Urdu Manuscript Libraries in India, by Omar Khalidi - Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and
Towards a database of the Arabic manuscripts in The British Library: a case history, Colin F. Baker, The British Library, London, United Kingdom.

The Library of the Duke of Aumale

Association de Sauvegarde de Chantilly et de son Environnement

Henri d’Orléans, duc d’Aumale (1822-1897)

The son of Louis-Philippe d’Orléans, king of the French, the duke of Aumale was a distinguished bibliophile having formed an amazing collection of rare books which became one of the best private libraries of the XIXth century.

Aumale’s Library and vast fortune was based on the inheritance from the last of the Condés – Prince Louis-Henri-Joseph, duke of Bourbon (1756-1830) who died without children in rather mysterious circumstances.
The princes of Condé possessed a very rich Library, which included a superb collection of manuscripts, confiscated by the Revolution in 1792, on account of the then prince of Condé, Louis-Joseph (1736-1818) anti-revolutionary activities in exile. Chantilly’s precious collections was sent to the Louvre, the estate was ravaged the château and other buildings were sold and partially demolished.
Fortunately, the library and other collections were partially returned to the prince in 1815, after the Restoration of Louis XVIII. The prince of Condé son, Louis-Joseph, duke of Bourbon, saw his heir and son – the duke of Enghien, being executed by order of Napoleon at the instigation of the infamous Talleyrand at Vincennes in 1804 and decided to leave his vast fortune to his grand-nephew and godson the young duke of Aumale.
After a brief career in the Army, having fought in Algeria, the duke had to leave France with his family after the Revolution of 1848 which put an end to the Orléans July Monarchy. They went to England where they lived from 1848 to 1870, and it was then that he started building his collection through acquisitions all over Europe and at the important auction sales of books that luckily for him took place in the second half of the century. Illuminated manuscripts, including precious XVth century Book of Hours, and incunabula merited his particular attention (see, an on-line presentation of the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, which belongs to the duke of Aumale collection).
After his return to France, the duke had the château and park (designed by André Le Notre, by command of Louis II de Bourbon-Condé (1621-1686) - the Grand Condé) rebuilt, and in order to properly house his Library ordered architect Honoré Daumet to build a Cabinet des Livres, which still today can be visited and admired.
Contrary to the usual destiny of private Libraries formed by wealthy bibliophiles, we owe to the duke of Aumale having prevented this by donating his Library and the château de Chantilly to the Institut de France. The year after the duke’s death the Condé Museum was open to the public (see, Bibliothèque du château de Chantilly).
Links:
to Bibliothèques privées, bibliothèques de collectionneurs at the Google Group – Forum Livres Anciens (in French)
Short biography at the Académie Française website
Château de Chantilly (in English)

Matthias Corvinus Library

The Library of Mathias Corvino, King of Hungary (1443-1490)

Matthias Corvino (1443-1490), crowned King of Hungary in 1458 upon the death of Ladislaus V and in 1469 king of Bohemia and ruler of Moravia, Silesia and Lusatia. Second son of the legendary Hungarian national hero János Hunyadi (c.1385-1456), leader of the resistance against the Turks, regent of Hungary after the disastrous Battle of Varna, and the victor of the Turks at the battle of Belgrade in 1458, which postponed the Turkish menace over central Europe for seven decades.
Apart from his military successes and conquests, Matthias formed one of the best Humanist Libraries of XVth. Century Europe, second only in number of volumes, to the Vatican Library. Many reputed scholars were called to Buda from Naples, Florence and other Italian cities.
His second marriage, in 1476, to Princess Beatrice of Aragon (1457-1508) daughter of Ferdinand King of Naples, who also had an important library, was a landmark in the development of the king’s library. She was to marry secondly, Wladyslaw / Ulaszlo II (b.1456), who succeeded as king of Hungary (1490-1516).
For a detailed account of the origins and development of this fabulous library see, the Bibliotheca Corviniana Digitalis Website (in Hungarian and Italian) – an ambitious international project aiming to digitally rebuilt the former King Mathias Corvino Library.
For a scholarly analysis on the history of the Bibliotheca Corviniana see also, Csaba Csapodi’s paper at: Bibliotheca Corviniana: The library of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, Shannon: Irish University Press (1969)
In 2002-2003 a major exhibition took place at the Biblioteca Estense Universitaria, at Modena, Italy, with a catalogue that includes important papers on the subject, see, NEL SEGNO DEL CORVO, libri e miniature della biblioteca di Mattia Corvino re d’Ungheria (1443-1490), Modena, Biblioteca Estense Universitária, 15 novembre 2002 - 15 febbraio 2003, Modena, Il Bulino edizioni d’arte, 2002 (in .pdf).