The Defurovy Lažany Manor Library – the Collection of Otokar Kruliš-Randa

Abstract

The article deals with the Defurovy Lažany manor library, which used to comprise the collection of the prominent Czech industrialist Otokar Kruliš-Randa. The private collection of this bibliophile began to be formed during his studies and reached its zenith in the 1930s. This period is documented by a number of archival sources described in this article. In the 1940s, Kruliš-Randa moved his collection to the newly purchased manor, Defurovy Lažany. After the Second World War, the property of Otokar Kruliš-Randa, including his library, was confiscated. First, a part of it was placed in the State Agriculture and Forestry Archives in Horšovský Týn. Subsequently, according to a decision of the National Cultural Commission, it was moved to the Study and Research Library of the Pilsen Region, with the exception of the volumes of reference works, which remained in the archives. A part of the manuscript collection is deposited in the National Museum Library, where most of the manuscripts had been donated by Otokar Kruliš--Randa before the confiscation. Kruliš-Randa’s original collection has been kept in these institutions to this day. Despite its confiscation, the Defurovy Lažany manor library has been preserved more or less as a whole without greater losses.