Personal libraries, book collections and book ownership marks in Šiauliai region in the 16th-20th centuries

The first part of the study covering the period of the 16th to the 21st centuries is presented to the readers. In written sources the first personal libraries in Šiauliai were mentioned already in the 16th century. The books were also accumulated during the press ban period. In the 16th–17th centuries the clergy were the first to have personal libraries in Šiauliai. In Šiauliai and Šiauliai region in the 18th–19th centuries landowners, clergy, traders, lawyers, officials, teachers, physicians and even ordinary city dwellers, small traders and artisans had significant personal or private libraries. In the personal libraries of Šiauliai residents dominated the religious and historical type of literature, but they also accumulated and read fiction in the Lithuanian, Polish, Russian, English, French, German, Latin and other languages. In the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century Šiauliai residents having personal and private libraries also had deeper bibliophilic and book lovers’ or consumers’ interests