Drago Novak, physician, radiologist, traveller and passionate map admirer and collector, died in Čakovec on March 26, 2011

Dubravka Mlinarić

Mlinarić, Dubravka

Hrčak - Portal of scientific journals of Croatia

200KiG 2011, 15In MemoriamIn memoriamDrago Novak (1933–2011)Drago Novak, physician, radiologist, travel-ler and passionate map admirer and collector, died in Čakovec on March 26, 2011.Drago Novak was born in Đurđevac in 1933. He went to schools in Đurđevac and Koprivnica and graduated medicine in Zagreb 1957. He also studied comparative literature at the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb and spe-cialised radiology in Hamburg in 1971. Drago Novak passed the specialist exam in Zagreb. He prepared for a private assistant professor in 1972. He worked at University Clinics in Munich and Hamburg and became a radiolo-gy professor at the University of Hamburg in 1977. From 1976 to 1980, he was the Direc-tor of the Central Institute for Radiology of the Clinic in Ludwig-shafen, and subsequently the Director of the Janker Clinic in Bonn. He worked at his own Institute for Radiology Diagnos-tics and Nuclear Medicine in Bonn from 1984 to 2001. Dr. No-vak was a guest professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Osijek.As a co-author of twenty professional books, he also pub-lished over 120 papers related to radiology. He participated in more than 140 scientific conferences. Drago Novak was the founder and editor of the Medizin im Bild Journal and Editori-al Board member of several medical Journals in London, Za-greb and Osijek. He admired collected works of modern Croatian artists, namely painters. Items from his private collection were often exhibited. He also had a diverse and extensive library com-posed of books from many fields of his interest; from medicine and cartography, art history and literature to children books. His books were embellished with ex-libris made by some of the most prominent artists. He also collected these miniature art pieces with great passion.Drago Novak was a member of the New York Academy of Sciences, The Academy of Political Science New York, Roy-al Society of Medicine London, American Roentgen Ray Soci-ety, Radiological Society of North America, Society of Urora-diology, Gyneco-radiology Society, Deutsche Röntgen Gesell-schaft and European Society of Radiology. During the war in Croatia, he actively collected humanitarian aid and promoted Croatia abroad. He was a member of the World Association of Croatian Physician – (WACP) and was the initiator, found-er and first secretary general of the World Croatian Congress, the umbrella association of Croatian Diaspora.In addition, Drago Novak was a passionate collector of old maps, charts and Adriatic isolarii, and panoramic views of Cro-atian cities. He acquired his first map of Croatian lands a very long time ago, when such old maps were interesting to very few collectors. By doing that, he founded the exquisite Novak Collection. He collected more than 450 single map sheets and certain number of old atlas reprints. His life of socially engaged intellectual separated from his own homeland marked the Col-lection significantly. A crucial collecting criterion of each map was its geographical determination to at least some part of Cro-atian lands, at the time mostly under the sovereignty of one of neighbouring imperial giants. These maps also vary in scale. The second criterion was the Croatian origin of either cartographer or initiator of map pro-duction. The Novak Collection was catalogued according to bibliographical standards in 2000, when an extended catalogue was also pre-pared. An extensive publication, Five Centu-ries of Old Maps and Charts of Croatia, was published in the meantime, co-edited by Drago Novak and illustrated mainly with maps from the Novak Collection.One of the long-term research efforts in cartography was oriented towards identifica-tion and collecting of portolan charts by Vincen-tius Demetrius Volcius. D. Novak document-ed 22 portolans by Volcius from various world archives and libraries. His preliminary report was presented at the IMCoS Symposium in Dubrovnik in 1988. He even organ-ised an exhibition about Volcius at the XIX International Con-ference on the History of Cartography in Madrid in 2001. His cartographic researches were published in numerous national and international journals, from the IMCoS Journal to Cartog-raphy and Geoinformation.Drago Novak had a very active social life closely related to maps and cartography. He was the initiator and one of the or-ganisers of the International Map Collectors' Society (IMCoS) symposium held in Zagreb and Dubrovnik in 1988. He also orga-nized the round table at the Yugoslavian Academy of Sciences and Arts in 1991 on Maps as Historical Documents and Maps, Wars and Borders. He participated in following exhibitions with a selection of geographic maps: Five Centuries of Geograph-ic Maps of Croatia (Muzej za umjetnost i obrt, Zagreb, 1988), Croatian Borders on Maps from the 12th to the20th Century (Muzej za umjetnost i obrt, Zagreb, 1992) and Dalmatinska za-gora – Unknown Land (Galerija Klovićevi dvori, Zagreb, 2007). He was a long-time member of the International Map Collec-tors' Society (IMCoS) and the Croatian Cartographic Society.Drago was open-minded. In addition to his passionate love of nature and travelling, he really enjoyed music, visual arts, sculpting and photography. He used to be pleased with find-ing traces of elite cultures in unexpected places, small villag-es and stylish interiors or open landscapes he loved so much. The home of “Picok” Drago and his wife Zlata in Čakovec was very often a meeting point of various peoples and cultures. It was perfectly tailored to suit a world traveller aiming to under-stand not only people, but also their homelands. I can recall the visit of Prof. Isao Koshimura from Tokyo, who was accompa-nied by his colleagues from the University of Zagreb who were looking for cartographic motives for an animated movie of the Dalmatian history. Even then, the conversation easily crossed from historical-cartographic themes to gastronomic and horti-cultural phenomena and the tradition of his adored Međimurje and Podravina regions. Drago Novak was an extraordinary man by many stan-dards, namely according to his vitality, creativity and commu-nication skills. He was one of very few existing polymaths, al-most a “renaissance” one, having in mind the variety of his in-terests and the fields he successfully participated in. We will always remember him for this. Dubravka MlinarićKiG 2011, 15201In memoriamIn memoriamDrago Novak (1933–2011) U Čakovcu je 26. ožujka 2011. umro Drago Novak, liječnik rendgenolog, putnik i zaljubljenik u stare karte. Drago Novak rođen je 1933. u Đurđevcu. Osnovno i gimna-zijsko obrazovanje stekao je u Đurđevcu i Koprivnici a studij medicine završio u Zagrebu 1957. godine. Studirao je i kompa-rativnu književnost na Filozofskom fakultetu u Zagrebu. Spe-cijalizirao je rendgenologiju 1971. godine u Hamburgu. Speci-jalistički ispit položio je i u Zagrebu. Habilitacijom je postigao zvanje privatnog docenta 1972. godine. Radio je na Sveučiliš-nim klinikama u Münchenu i Hamburgu. Godine 1977. imeno-van je profesorom rendgenologije na Sveučilištu u Hamburgu. U razdoblju od 1976. do 1980. godine bio je direktor Central-nog Instituta za rendgenologiju Klinike u Ludwigshafenu, a po-tom i direktor Janker Klinike u Bonnu. Od 1984. do 2001. ra-dio je u vlastitom Institutu za rendgensku dijagnostiku i nukle-arnu medicinu u Bonnu. Bio je gostujući profesor na Medicin-skom fakultetu u Osijeku.Uz suautorstvo na dvadesetak stručnih knjiga objavio je više od 120 radova iz područja rendgenologije. Sa priopćenji-ma je sudjelovao na više od 140 znanstvenih kongresa. Ute-meljio je i bio dugogodišnji urednik časopisa Medizin im Bild te član Uredništva stručnih medicinskih časopisa u Londonu, Zagrebu i Osijeku. Drago je Novak posebno cijenio i sakupljao radove suvre-menih hrvatskih umjetnika, a posebno je bio sklon slikarstvu. Primjerci iz njegove zbirke umjetnina često su izlagani. Tijekom života sakupio je i vrlo bogatu biblioteku, u kojoj su zastuplje-na raznolika područja njegova interesa, od stručnih radova iz medicine i kartografije, preko monografija iz povijesti umjetno-sti do beletristike ili dječje književnosti. Primjerci njegovih knji-ga opremljeni su ex-librisima koje su izradili neki od najreno-miranijih hrvatskih i stranih umjetnika, a također su predstav-ljali dio velike kolekcionarske strasti Drage Novaka.Bio je član New York Academy of Sciences, The Acade-my of Political Science New York, Royal Society of Medicine London, American Roentgen Ray Society, Radiological Soci-ety of North America, Society of Uroradiology, Gyneco-radio-logy Society, Deutsche Röntgen Gesellschaft i European So-ciety of Radiology. U vrijeme domovinskog rata sudjelovao je u sakupljanju materijalne pomoći u inozemstvu ali i u promo-ciji Hrvatske. Bio je član Zbora hrvatskih liječnika u dijaspori (World Association of Croatian Physician – WACP) te pokre-tač, utemeljitelj i prvi glavni tajnik Svjetskog hrvatskog sabora (World Croatian Congress), krovne udruge hrvatske dijaspore. Uza sve to, Drago je Novak bio strastveni zaljubljenik u stare karte i kolekcionar zemljovida, pomorskih karata i izola-ra Jadrana te veduta hrvatskih gradova. Vrlo je rano, dok su stare karte hrvatskih zemalja zanimale malo koga u kolekcio-narskim krugovima, nabavio prvu kartu i time utemeljio Zbirku Novak. Skupio je preko 450 pojedinačnih kartografskih listo-va kao i određen broj reprinta starih atlasa. Upravo je život in-telektualca daleko od svojeg zavičaja dao temeljni pečat Zbir-ci Novak. Temeljni kriterij za uvrštavanje u zbirku bio je da kar-ta prikazuje barem dio hrvatskih zemalja, kroz dugu povijest najčešće pripojenih nekom susjednom imperijalnom carstvu. Karte variraju od onih krupnog mjerila do karata na kojima su hrvatske zemlje tek djelomično ili jedva vidljive. Drugi kriterij na-bavke karte je bio da ona predstavlja kartografski ili pak idejni proizvod autora hrvatskih korijena. Kartografska Zbirka Novak je katalogizirana prema suvremenim bibliografskim standardi-ma 2000. godine, od kada je u pripremi za tisak i opsežni ka-talog Zbirke. U međuvremenu je 2005. godine izišla i opsežna publikacija Pet stoljeća geografskih i pomorskih karata Hrvat-ske, kojoj je Drago Novak bio suautor i koja je ilustrirana veći-nom kartama iz Zbirke.Jedan od dugoročnih znanstvenih zadataka iz područja kartografije koji su ga posebno zaokupljali bio je identificiranje i prikupljanje dokumentacije o portulanima Vicka Dimitrija Vol-čića. Uspješno je dokumentirao čak 22 različita Volčićeva por-tulana, rasuta po svjetskim arhivima i knjižnicama. O prvim re-zultatima svojeg istraživanja izvijestio je još 1988. godine na simpoziju IMCoS-a u Dubrovniku, a izložbu prikupljenih repro-dukcija priredio je i predstavio na 19. Međunarodnoj konferen-ciji o povijesti kartografije, održanoj u Madridu 2001. godine. Radove iz različitih kartografskih područja objavljivao je u broj-nim domaćim i inozemnim časopisima, od IMCoS Journal-a do časopisa HKD-a Kartografija i geoinformacije.Drago Novak bio je vrlo aktivan i u društvenom životu veza-nom za i uz karte. Inicirao je i bio jedan od organizatora simpo-zija IMCoS-a (Internationl Map Collectors' Society), održanog u Zagrebu i Dubrovniku 1988. godine. Organizirao je okrugli stol u JAZU 1991. godine na teme Zemljovidi kao povijesni doku-menti i Zemljovidi, ratovi i granice. S izborom geografskih ka-rata sudjelovao je i na izložbama: Pet stoljeća zemljopisnih ka-rata Hrvatske (Muzej za umjetnost i obrt, Zagreb, 1988), Gra-nice Hrvatske na zemljovidima od 12. do 20. stoljeća (Muzej za umjetnost i obrt, Zagreb, 1992), Dalmatinska zagora – ne-poznata zemlja (Galerija Klovićevi dvori, Zagreb, 2007). Bio je dugogodišnji član Međunarodnog društva sakupljača karata (IMCoS) i član Hrvatskog kartografskog društva.Drago je bio čovjek vrlo širokih pogleda, a osim istinske za-ljubljenosti u prirodu i putovanja volio je umjetnost, glazbu, li-kovnu umjetnost, kiparstvo, fotografiju. Pronalazio bi zrnca „vi-soke“ kulture i u najmanjim mjestima, čemu je svakako dopri-nosila i ljepota prostora, kako interijera tako i eksterijera u ko-jima je boravio. Čakovečki dom supruge mu Zlate i „Picoka“ Drage Novaka nerijetko je bio stjecište različitih ljudi, kultura i civilizacija. Bio je baš po mjeri velikog putnika koji je doslovno proputovao cijeli svijet, nastojeći dobro upoznati ljude i kraje-ve. Prisjećam se posjeta sveučilišnog profesora iz Tokija, Isao Koshimure, koji je u društvu nekoliko zagrebačkih kolega tra-žio kartografske motive za vlastiti animirani film o povijesti dal-matinskog zaleđa. Tom prilikom je razgovor sa povijesno-karto-grafskih tema glatko skliznuo na međimurske i podravske ga-stronomske ili hortikulturne teme.Drago je Novak po mnogo čemu bio izuzetan, između osta-log i po svojoj vitalnosti, kreativnosti i komunikacijskim vješti-nama. Bio je jedan od, u današnje vrijeme rijetkih erudita, go-tovo „renesansni čovjek“ sudeći po raznolikosti interesa koji su ga zaokupljali odnosno područja u kojima je djelovao. Upravo po tome ćemo ga uvijek pamtiti.Dubravka Mlinarić

In memoriam Drago Novak (1933–2011)

Drago Novak, physician, radiologist, traveller and passionate map admirer and collector, died in Čakovec on March 26, 2011.U Čakovcu je 26. ožujka 2011. umro Drago Novak, liječnik rendgenolog, putnik i zaljubljenik u stare karte

In memoriam Drago Novak (1933–2011)

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