The first century of printed books in Estonia Kaspar Kolk’s doctoral thesis examines the first century of the printed book in Estonia, focusing on the period from the mid-15th to the mid-16th century. This study was a result of years of practical experience and research, based on Kolk’s work with collections of old historical books held in the libraries of different Estonian memory institutions. Over the course of about ten years, he studied essentially all the known 15th-16th-century books located in Estonia, also visiting the collections of old historical books at Riga, Uppsala and several other European libraries. The research focused on the spread of the printed book, the development of libraries and the formation of readership in medieval Livonia. The work was based on surviving volumes and archival sources, including the Tallinn inventories, which provided a rare opportunity to understand the size and contents of lost libraries. Libraries that operated before and after the Reformation – especially the collections of the Dominicans and the Church of St. Olaf – turned out to be the key collections in the early history of Estonian books. It became clear that monasteries were the largest owners of books until the end of the Middle Ages, and that printed books reached Tallinn quickly and in large numbers. Kolk’s research also highlighted some previously overlooked phenomena: the Tallinn school of late Gothic bookbinders, the Franciscan collection of Counter-Reformation printings, and the movement of books from Western European printing houses to Estonian cities. By the mid-16th century, a new group of readers had emerged – the urban bourgeoisie – among whom a smaller but significant circle of secular readers developed, whose books were predominantly in the German language. The dissertation offers the first comprehensive overview of the first century of the printed book in the Estonian cultural space and creates a solid foundation for further research on the book trade, bookbinding, reading culture, and the role of the printed word in pre- and post-Reformation Estonia. The online edition of the doctoral thesis is available in the TÜ digital archive ADA.
Kaspar Kolk (Mon,) studied this question.