Theatrical scripts of the National Theatre from the 19th century in the National Széchényi Library. Cataloguing theatrical scripts as unique documents

Abstract

The study presents the special requirements and process of cataloguing theatrical scripts held at the National Széchényi Library Collection of Theatre and Music, on the example of 19th-century theatrical scripts from the Hungarian National Theatre. These scripts are unique documents from the point of the history of both theatre and books, thus they cannot be catalogued based on the rules for traditional books and book series. The solutions applied by the librarians of the National Theatre and the National Széchényi Library are presented. The unified cataloguing rules elaborated for the case of theatrical scripts (mostly manuscripts) within the integrated library system are described. The handwritten notes deserve special attention from librarians doing cataloguing and researchers alike. The study emphasizes the importance of these notes not only for research, but also for cataloguing, and draws a line between bibliographic description and research on book history.