Bolko II the Small the Duke of Świdnica and Jawor and the Order of Cisterians

The article is devoted to the relations of the Duke of Świdnica and Jawor, Bolko II the Small, ruling from 1326 to 1368 with the Cisterians. Basing on source analysis, the author has described the Prince’s bestowals as well as acceptances of various transactions made by the Cisterians of Krzeszów, the village under his rule. Additionally, the relations between the Prince and the monasteries in Lubiąż and Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, possessing land within the Duchy of Świdnica and Jawor, have also been presented. A conclusion may be drawn from this analysis, that Bolko II was taking care of the monastery as it was the burial site for his ancestors’. The other abbeys had been less of interest to him. What is also visible is that the Prince was reluctant to new transfers of land, he was more willing to accept the monks’ transactions.

Key words: Cisterians, Bolko II the Small, Duchy of Świdnica and Jawor, Silesia

The beginnings of the Great Emigration. Poles in Besançon in 1832–1833

The presence of Poles who emigrated after the November Uprising in Besançon and the Franche-Comté region definitely deserves the historians’ attention. Although the Poles stayed in the city and surrounding areas for only a little longer than a year, they made a mark in the history of the region. At the beginning, Besançon was meant to be just a point for the emigrants to receive necessary help during their journey to Avignon and Châteauroux. Only a significant inflow of Polish migrants resulted in the establishment of a new dépôt. In the first period of their stay in the city, the Poles received an enthusiastic welcome, but as time went by, their presence was getting more and more troublesome for the inhabitants. Unlawful abandonment of the dépôt to participate in the Frankfurt Expedition, resulted directly in the dissolution and sending the Poles to Normandy and Brittany in 1833. Attention should be given to the fact that thanks to the current availability of French archives, the research on the Polish emigration community may be extended by a new feature of the Great Emigration phenomenon – from the point of view of the French Government and local authorities.

Key words: Great Emigration, 1832–1833, Besançon, Franche-Comté region

Mikołaj Wisłocki (1821–1886). An excerpt from “Diary of a journey from Naples to Africa and a trip from Cairo to Upper Egypt as far as the borders of Abyssynia” (1844/1845)

The subject of the article is a small excerpt from the “Dziennik” by Mikołaj Wisłocki, covering the journey from Naples and arrival in Alexandria in November 1844. The author describes in an interesting manner the sea journey and his fellow passengers, as well as the greatest attractions of the La Valleta during the stopover on Malta. The next lap was Alexandria, however his coverage ends here. The paper discusses also the travel documents applicable in the Ottoman Empire of that time, which constitute an important addition. The excerpt has been given for printing by Maciej Podgórski (1938–2009), the author’s great grandson. The text has been edited by Joachim Śliwa.

Key words: Mikołaj Wisłocki (1821–1886), Maciej Podgórski (1938–2009), Poles in Egypt 1840-1850, Polish 19th-century travelogues

Eustachy Wołoszczak’s contribution to the botanical research in Carpathians

Eustachy Wołoszczak was one of the most prominent botanists who contributed to the research on plants in Carpathians and worked for the Botanic Section of the Physiography Commission of the Academy of Learning in Krakow. A passionate taxonomist and florist, he devoted some of his papers to the Carpathian plants, from Vistula up to Cheremosh. Among his achievements there are numerous pieces on taxonomy, including descriptions of new species, as well as floristic and phytogeographical works. The phytogeographical border drawn from Łupków Pass to the North, along the Osława and San rivers, proposed by him, is, with some modifications, the one which is still approved. During the long years of floristic research, he would critically investigate numerous difficult and little known types of plants. Not only was his contribution to the critical research on the types of willow (Salix), hawkweed (Hieracium), Citysus, Butterworts (Pinguicula), Rosaceae and some other species, tremendous, but he also discovered some new species. His name is famous in the field of plant geography for his synthetic study of the plants of the Western-Eastern Carpathian border. The fieldwork he conducted resulted in perfectly collected and meticulously edited herbaria as well as dissertations and academic notes printed mainly in the “Sprawozdania Komisyi Fizyograficznej” magazine. He spent the last years of his life in Vienna as an active member of the Zoological-Botanical Society, where he devoted his very last moments to floristic research and organizing his great herbarium, the huge part of which has been bequeathed to the Physiography Commission of the Academy of Learning

Key words: history, Academy of Learning, Carpathians, botany, Eustachy Wołoszczak

Was it worth it? The Krakow Agreement of September 18th, 1891

The history of the Polish Library in Paris does not only mean the history of the Emigration but it also shows what was and still is the idea of shared thinking of history, taking action to preserve Polish institutions in a foreign land. It is the oldest non-French library in Paris, the oldest Polish library abroad. On November 24th 1838, at the request of Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, the Polish Literary Society and its Historical Department and the Department of Statistics together with the Scientific Aid Society decided to combine their collections in order to set a national library. After years of efforts, the festive opening of the Library took place on March 24th 1839, on the anniversary of the oath taken by Tadeusz Kościuszko on the Krakow Main Square. Since 1854, after its relocation to the Île Saint-Louis, the Library has been sharing its collections uninterruptedly. In late 1890s, firstly in the form of non-binding questionnaire, a survey was started regarding the prospect of the Library to be continued in cooperation with a national institution. Talks on possible agreement have been initiated with the Academy of Learning in Krakow. Finally the Krakow Agreement was signed in 1891, under which the custody over the Library, its building and the gathered collections was taken over by the Academy of Learning and a research station was established.

Key words: Polish Library in Paris, Polish Historical-Literary Society, Academy of Learning, Great Emigration

Donors and their donations to the Academic Society of Krakow, the Library of the Academy of Learning, the Library of PAU and the Scientific Library of PAU and PAN in Krakow.

The article is a preliminary research on the body of bookplates by Stanisław Dawski (1905–1990) – an artist, graphic designer, painter, professor and the rector of the State College of Fine Arts in Wrocław (currently the Academy of Fine Arts). The Graphic Collections of the Scientific Library of PAU and PAN keeps 383 plates (some of them used two-sidedly) with 409 matrices used for graphics, mostly bookplates; Dawski produced c. 505 bookplates. The collection was donated to the Library in 2009 by Lech Kokociński.

Key words: Dawski, matrices, exlibris, Kokociński

The matrices by Stanisław Dawski (1905–1990) in the Scientific Library of PAU and PAN in Krakow collection

The article is a preliminary research on the body of bookplates by Stanisław Dawski (1905–1990) – an artist, graphic designer, painter, professor and the rector of the State College of Fine Arts in Wrocław (currently the Academy of Fine Arts). The Graphic Collections of the Scientific Library of PAU and PAN keeps 383 plates (some of them used two-sidedly) with 409 matrices used for graphics, mostly bookplates; Dawski produced c. 505 bookplates. The collection was donated to the Library in 2009 by Lech Kokociński

Key words: Dawski, matrices, exlibris, Kokociński

Antoni Teslar – unknown facts from the renowned chef’s life

Antoni Teslar had been working in the kitchen of the Potocki Family in Krzeszowice for five years. Starting his professional career at the age of thirteen, as a kitchen boy, he could not have imagined that he would end up as one of the most famous Polish chefs of the turn of 19th and 20th centuries. Leaving the service, he wrote down the recipes he used, as if a will, which got published in 1910 as a book titled the Polish-French Cuisine. After his career as a chef ended, he settled down in Krakow, working in trade and selling land. Living a typically bourgeois life, he was soon forgotten as a cook, and today he is sometimes recalled of by the amateurs of culinary history as a French who used to cook for the Potocki Family.
During his service for the Potocki Family, Antoni Teslar did not confine oneself to work only for his employers. He was involved in the life of the culinary environment, used to participate in contests and win prizes at culinary exhibitions, take actions to professionalise and centralise the occupational group of chefs, organise it and initiated its activity, as well as bring up and teach the beginners.
His life, so little known today, is a combination of love for cooking, strong attachment to the Potocki Family, and fondness for social, political and business activity.

Key words: Antoni Teslar, Potoccy, culinary history, chef, Krzeszowice, Polish cuisine, cook book, culinary arts

Anna Treider’s “Kabaret pod Zdechłym Kornikiem

The presented text is the 1963 edition of the work by Anna Treider nee Ogrodzińska (1921–1982), an art historian who had been working in our Library for many years and was also a director of its Special Collections Department. After taking up the job in 1952, she shortly became one of the Polish most acclaimed experts in the field of European Graphics and also a lecturer at the Jagiellonian University and the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, as well as the author of numerous graphic exhibitions.
This forgotten text titled “Kabaret pod Zdechłym Kornikiem”, preserved among her personal documents, is currently included in our Library manuscripts (signature 13 066). It is a humorous piece written under the pen name Akwatinta Kolofon. The characters are both the author’s library colleagues and visitors as well as the principal, Zbigniew Jabłoński. The text contains some elements of the now forgotten work reality of that time, and records the atmosphere of an institution of culture in the times of the Polish People’s Republic. It is also an interesting testimony of the librarians’ intellectual formation, e.g. the passion for K. I. Gałczyński’s poetry or reading the “Przekrój” magazine. It not only proves the author’s learning and sense of humour but also demonstrates her literary skills: Anna Treider’s brother, Władysław Ogrodziński, was a respected essayist and writer.
To recall the profile of Anna Treider at the centenary of her birthday, the text of “Kabaret…” has been excerpted from the manuscript, prepared for print, the biographic introduction written and the footnotes added by Karolina Grodziska.

Key words: Cracow, Scientific Library of PAU and PAN in Krakow, Anna Treider, poems,
literary games

„Zabawki poetyckie niektórych kawalerów (i dam) Akademiey”. Humorous works by some employees of the Scientific Library of PAU and PAN in Krakow from the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.

Funny poems, humorous pseudo-biographies, cartoons – one may sometimes encounter them among private collections or the library and national archives resources. Written for namesday, farewell, Saint Nicolas Day or Women’s Day, they were of ephemeral nature and were quickly forgotten together with their author or recipient. As time went by, the profiles and situations were getting less and less recognisable. It is a pity, as sometimes these small pieces represented their author’s skill and contained an interesting picture of customs present in particular society.
In this paper we present two such works related to the employees of Library, one written in 1967 and the other – probably – in 1982. The first one is a funny bibliography of academic and literary pieces allegedly written by them, containing references to their works, interests, sometimes real-life problems, looks or personality. In 1967, when the text was read on the occasion of Prima Aprilis, despite the efforts, the author remained unknown. Today, after more than 50 years, professor Jerzy Zdrada, a respected historian, then a dissident and minister, admitted the authorship. At that time, he was a young librarian at the Cataloguing Department.
The author of the second work remains unknown. These are 23 small poems in which 23 female library employees have been described on the occasion of Women’s Day. They are also full of humour and accurate professional allusions, sometimes attempts to catch person’s traits of character.
Both typescripts are currently included in our Library Manuscripts Collection. The texts have been prepared for print, the introduction written and footnotes added by Karolina Grodziska and Jerzy Zdrada. To him, as the author of the Bibliography, shall also be credited the identification of some hidden phrases as well as reminding of numerous interesting events from the history of the Library.

Key words: Krakow, Scientific Library of PAU and PAN in Krakow, customs, literary games, parodies