Załuski Library

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Załuski Library

Załuski Library in 1752
Building information
Town Warsaw
Country Poland
Architect Melana[1]
Client Józef Andrzej Załuski,
Andrzej Stanisław Załuski
Construction start date 1621[2]
Completion date 1736-47 (rebuilt)
Style Rococo

The Załuski Library (Zalusciana, Biblioteka Załuskich) was built in Warsaw 1747–1795 by Józef Andrzej Załuski and his brother, Andrzej Stanisław Załuski, both Roman Catholic bishops. The library was open to the public and indeed was the first Polish public library, the biggest in Poland and one of the first and biggest libraries in the world.[3][4] After the Kościuszko Uprising, the Russian troops acting on orders from Czarina Catherine II looted the library and dispatched them to Petersburg, where it became a nucleus of the Imperial Public Library. In the 1920s, the Soviet Union government returned most of the collection to Poland, yet it was destroyed by Nazi Germany during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.

[edit] History

The greatest passion of the Załuski brothers were books. Józef Andrzej Załuski together with his brother Andrzej Stanisław Załuski obtained the collections of such earlier Polish bibliophiles as Jakub Zadzik, Krzysztof Opaliński, Tomasz Ujejski, Janusz Wiśniowiecki, Jerzy Mniszech and Jan III Sobieski. From 1730s they planned the creation of a library and in 1747 the brothers founded the Załuski Library (Biblioteka Załuskich). Located in Daniłowiczowski Palace in Warsaw.[4] the library had two storeys (the large reading room was on the second floor) and was topped with a small tower, in which an astronomy observatory was placed.[4]

It was considered to be the first Polish public library[5] and one of the largest libraries in the contemporary world.[4] In all of Europe there were only two or three libraries, which could pride themselves on having such a book collection.[6] The library initially had about 200,000 items, which grew to about 400,000 printed items, maps and manuscripts[4][7] by the end of the 1780s. It also accumulated a collection of art, scientific instruments, and plant and animal specimens.

This library was open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:00 to 19:00. On the doors hung regulations demanding quiet and asking that prayers be said for the intention of the Załuski brothers before starting to read, as well as a ban on taking books outside the library. Unfortunately the last point of these regulations was systematically broken. In the end, the two bishops even turned to the pope for help. Pope Benedict XIV published a papal bull in 1752 which threatened excommunication to anyone stealing books from this library. But this failed to resolve the problem.[6]

After their death, the newly formed National Education Commission took charge of the library, renaming it the Załuski Brothers Library of the Republic.

Załuski Library in about 1790
Załuski Library in about 1790

Twenty years later in 1794, in the aftermath of the second Partition of Poland and Kościuszko Uprising, Russian troops, on orders from Russian Czarina Catherine II, plundered[4][8] the library and took its collection to St. Petersburg, where the Imperial Public Library was formed a year later[4][9] Parts of the collections were damaged or destroyed during the plunder of the library and the subsequent transport.[6][4] According to the historian Joachim Lelewel, the Zaluskis' books, "could be bought at Grodno by the basket".[4]

The collection was subsequently dispersed among several Russian libraries. Some parts of the Zaluski collection came back to Poland on three separate dates: 1842, 1863.[4] In the 1920s, in the aftermath of the Polish-Soviet War and the Treaty of Riga[10][7] the Soviet Union government returned around 50,000 items from the collection to Poland,[4] yet it was destroyed by Nazi Germany during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.[6] Only 1800 manuscripts and 30,000 printed materials survived.

The Polish National Library (Biblioteka Narodowa), formed in 1928[4] sees itself as a successor to the Załuski Library.

[edit] References

In-line:
  1. ^ (Polish) Skarby rokokowej Warszawy. swiadectwo. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  2. ^ (Polish) Dom pod Królami. warszawa1939.pl. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  3. ^ (English) S.D. Chrostowska. Polish Literary Criticism Circa 1772: A Genre Perspective. utoronto.ca. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l (English) Maria Witt (September 15 and October 15, 2005). The Zaluski Collection in Warsaw. The Strange Life of One of the Greatest European Libraries of the Eighteenth Century. FYI France. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  5. ^ (English) The The Bygone Warsaw. polbox.pl. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  6. ^ a b c d (English) Lech Chmielewski. In the House under the Sign of the Kings. Welcome to Warsaw. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  7. ^ a b (English) (1977) Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science. ISBN 08-24720-20-2. Retrieved on 2008-02-17. 
  8. ^ (English) Katarzyna Czechowicz (August 14, 2007). The 260th anniversary of opening the Załuski Library. eduskrypt.pl. Retrieved on 2008-02-17.
  9. ^ (English) Nicholas A. Basbanes (2003). A Splendor of Letters: The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World. ISBN 00-60082-87-9. Retrieved on 2008-02-17. 
  10. ^ (English) Jonathan Rose (2001). The Holocaust and the Book: Destruction and Preservation.. ISBN 15-58492-53-4. Retrieved on 2008-02-17. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

  • FYI France Essay The Strange Life of One of the Greatest European Libraries of the Eighteenth Century: the Zaluski Collection in Warsaw
  • Welcome In the House under the Sign of the Kings