1778–1853 · 1839 · 1858 The clerk who collected fifty thousand booksÚradník, ktorý nazbieral päťdesiattisíc kníh

Vavrinec Čaplovič (born at Jasenová on 5 August 1778, died in Bratislava on 25 December 1853) was a county official who spent his salary and most of his life on books. In 1839 he gave the whole collection — around fifty thousand volumes — to Orava county, on condition that it be kept together and made available to readers. That condition is the whole point: private libraries of this size were normally broken up and auctioned off the moment their owner died. A society was formed in 1858 to look after it, the county eventually built a hall for it in Dolný Kubín from 1914, and it is still one of the largest historic libraries in Slovakia. A poor northern county thus ended up with a research collection it could never have bought.Vavrinec Čaplovič (narodený 5. augusta 1778 v Jasenovej, zomrel 25. decembra 1853 v Bratislave) bol stoličný úradník, ktorý na knihy minul plat aj väčšinu života. V roku 1839 daroval celú zbierku — asi päťdesiattisíc zväzkov — Oravskej stolici s podmienkou, že zostane pokope a bude prístupná čitateľom. Práve tá podmienka je jadrom veci: súkromné knižnice takejto veľkosti sa po smrti majiteľa bežne rozpredali po kusoch. V roku 1858 vznikol spolok, ktorý sa o ňu staral, stolica jej v Dolnom Kubíne od roku 1914 postavila vlastnú budovu a dodnes je to jedna z najväčších historických knižníc na Slovensku. Chudobná severná stolica tak získala zbierku, akú by si nikdy nebola mohla kúpiť.