Opening hours:
Tuesday - Sunday: 10:00-18:00
Opening hours:
Tuesday - Sunday: 10:00-18:00

EXPLORE

WE'RE GOING ON OUR OWN

The virtual exhibition We're going on our own presents seven independent cultural institutions in Maribor with common roots. They are the backbone of Maribor's institutional cultural activity. In addition to the Maribor Regional Museum, the exhibition also presents the Maribor University Library, the Maribor Regional Archive, the town's main Art Gallery, the Museum of National Liberation, the Maribor Synagogue and the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage the Maribor Regional Unit.

The exhibition We're going on our own was created to celebrate the 120th anniversary of the Maribor Regional Museum as part of the project of the same name.

University Library Maribor

Maribor University Library building, photo Branimir Ritonja
The preservation and conservation of the cultural heritage of the Maribor University Library (UKM) is 120 years old. The founders of the Historical Society for Slovene Styria set it as their central task as early as 1903. The rich collection of manuscripts, legacies and rarities that has accumulated in the library since then is proof of its successful realisation. Today, the UKM is the central library of the University of Maribor, a research library for the town and beyond, an archive library for all library materials produced in the Republic of Slovenia and a regional home science library for Maribor and north-eastern Slovenia.
Reading Room of the University Library Maribor, photo Branimir Ritonja
It holds more than one million books, documents and manuscripts. Much of the material is old, valuable, unique and original for several reasons. It may be of interest to the local community because of its mission, its home-lore or its physical or visual form in general. These are the rarities of the Maribor University Library that distinguish it from other libraries. In terms of content, the material draws attention to the broad cultural component of this space. Among them is the oldest work held by the UKM in the Manuscript Collection.
The oldest work held by the UKM in the Manuscript Collection

The oldest work held by the UKM in the Manuscript Collection is a transcript of the Four Books of Sentences, a 12th-century transcription of Lombard's original work. It was copied in the second half of the 12th century. It consists of an introduction and four books, started by five multi-coloured initials with ornaments and figures. It consists of 210 parchment leaves and is richly illuminated.
The manuscript book was donated to the library by the Museum in Maribor in 1931. According to the Slovenian theologian and philosopher Prof. Dr. Edvard Kovač, the Latin manuscript book is in fact the first university textbook with commentaries and glosses, and represents the symbolic beginning and early source of the University of Maribor.
The material has been digitised and is available in the Digital Repository in the UKM Treasury collection.

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