Re-cataloguing the Varnhagen Collection : a proposal of a new description scheme and its application to the selected material

The article presents a proposal of re-cataloguing the Varnhagen Collection, one of the largest and most important European manuscript collections of the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. This collection is part of the former Prussian State Library in Berlin, and is currently kept in the Jagiellonian Library in Kraków. This proposal is a response to the postulate of creating a systematic, possibly complete and error-free catalogue of this collection, which will enable full use of its resources. The article develops a theoretical scheme of description, tested in practice in teamwork and with archival units of various volumes and structures. The scheme takes into account the archival strategies used in the collection, the tradition of research on the collection (Ludwig Stern’s catalogue) and refers to modern solutions (the electronic Kalliope database and the printed catalog of Alexander von Humboldt’s papers from 2019). After a short historical outline of the collection (relocation during World War II and the post-war situation) and the reconstruction of the history of its creation and character, the article presents in detail the description scheme and its use on the example of the legacy of the writer Helmina von Chézy (178–1856) belonging to the collection. The full application of the scheme will be found in the currently prepared catalog of parts of the collection, which can be used as a starting point for its comprehensive cataloguing.