Joachim Lelewel

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Portrait of Joachim Lelewel

Joachim Lelewel (Warsaw, March 22, 1786 — May 29, 1861), was a Polish historian and politician, from a naturalized Polish family of Prussian background. His grandparents were Heinrich Löllhöffel von Löwensprung (1705-1763) and Constance Jauch (1722-1802), who later polonized her name to Lelewel.

Joachim was educated at the University of Vilna, where he became teacher of history from 1814, with a brief sojourn at Warsaw, 1818-1821, where he joined the Society of Friends of Science. His lectures on Polish history created great enthusiasm, shown in some lines addressed to him by Adam Mickiewicz, that led to his removal by the Russians in 1824. Lelewel returned to Warsaw, where he was elected a deputy to the Diet in 1829. He joined the November Uprising with more enthusiasm than energy, though Tsar Nicholas I distinguished him as one of the most dangerous rebels. On the suppression of the rebellion he made his way in disguise to Germany, and subsequently reached Paris in 1831. The government of Louis Philippe ordered him to quit French territory in 1833 at the request of the Russian ambassador. The cause of this expulsion is said to have been his activity in writing revolutionary proclamations. He went to Brussels, where for nearly thirty years he earned a scanty livelihood by his writings. He died on 29 May 1861 in Paris, whither he had removed a few days previously.

His literary activity in Polish and, to a more international audience in French, was enormous, extending from his Edda Skandinawska (1807) to his Géographie des Arabes (1851). One of his most important publications was La Géographie du moyen âge (5 vols., Brussels, 1852-1857), with an atlas (1849) of fifty plates entirely engraved by himself, for he attached such importance to the accuracy of his maps that he would not allow them to be executed by anyone else.

His works on Polish history are based on minute and critical study of the documents; they were collected under the title Polska, dzieje i rzeczy jej rozpatrzywane ("Poland, her History and Affairs Surveyed"), in 20 vols. (Posen, 1853-1876). He intended to write a complete history of Poland on an extensive scale, but never accomplished the task. His method is shown in the "little history" of Poland, first published at Warsaw in Polish in 1823, under the title Dzieje Polski, and afterwards largely rewritten in the Histoire de Pologne (2 vols., Paris, 1844). Other works on Polish history which may be especially mentioned are La Pologne au moyen âge (3 vols., Posen, 1846-1851), an edition of the Chronicle of Matthew Cholewaski (1811) and Ancient Memorials of Polish Legislation (Księgi ustaw polskich i mazowieckich). He also wrote on the trade of Carthage, on the geographer Pytheas of Marseille and two important works on numismatics (La Numismatique du moyen âge, Paris, 2 vols., 1835; Etudes numismatiques, Brussels, 1840). While employed in the university library of Warsaw he studied bibliography, and the fruits of his labors may be seen in his Bibliograficznych Ksiąg dwoje (A Pair of Books on Bibliography) (2 vols., Vilna, 1823-1826).

The characteristics of Lelewel as an historian are great research and power to draw inferences from his facts; his style is too often careless, and his narrative is not picturesque, but his expressions are frequently terse and incisive.

He wrote an autobiography (Adventures while Prosecuting Researches and Inquiries on Polish Matters) printed in his Polska. A room is named in his honor at the Vilnius University library.