This work discusses the trade of bound books in 16th century Poland. Its first part presents some insights into this topic based on extant archival sources, including earlier studies. In the centuries following the invention of the printing press, books were generally sold in the form of loose sheets, and binding was to be  commissioned by the buyer. Those trading in books – booksellers, printers and bookbinders – could also have the books bound before offering them for sale. So far this topic has not received broader attention, though numerous remarks about books being bound for sale appeared e.g. in the works of Monika Jaglarz (Księgarstwo  krakowskie XVI wieku, Kraków 2004) and Edward Różycki (Z dziejów książki we Lwowie w XVII wieku, Katowice 1991). The primary sources of information are here 16th century booksellers’ inventories, preserved in the Krakow City Archives, such as those of Piotr Reismoller, Maciej Szarfenberg and Zacheusz Kessner bookshops. Next to unbound copies, those inventories list between 10 and 20 percent of bound books (ligata). There are also records of cooperation between bookbinders and booksellers, who probably commissioned the binding of some copies for sale (e.g. contracts between the publisher and bookseller Jan Haller, and the bookbinders Piotr Walde and Henryk Süssmund). Such cooperation is also evidenced by large quantities of waste paper used in the bindings, coming from a single printing house, which hints at collaboration of the printer Łazarz Andrysowicz and the bookbinder Jerzy Moeller. Traces of bound book trade have been found not only in Krakow, but also in Lwów, Poznań and Warszawa. Bound books were also sold by bookbinders, as witnessed by the 16th century inventories of Maciej Przywilcki and Stefan Terepetka, listing the prices and types of bindings of the copies being offered for sale. The second part of this work presents two copies of the Polish translation of the Bible, published in Krakow in 1599, which had probably been bound before sale. Of special interest among the decorations on the bindings are the titles Biblia impressed with a woodcut block, an empty oval cartouche with room for a coat of arms, and a quote from the Book of Joshua, pressed onto the front cover.

This study discusses an important aspect of a political message conveyed by Stanisław Pachołowiecki’s map, published in 1580 by G.B Cavalieri’s printing house in Rome as part of The Atlas of the Principality of Polatsk – Descriptio Ducatus Polocensis. The message in question is one of the paratexts, presenting a detailed historical note on Polatsk and the Principality. The main goal of the study is to prove a double hypothesis, first that the note on Polatsk was a key argument legitimising the rule of Stephen Báthory – contested by Tsar Ivan the Terrible – not only over the small territory under dispute but over the whole Great Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and second, that the decision to aim the first Polish-Lithuanian military offensive in the 1577–1582 war at Polatsk was motivated by political rather than military or strategic considerations.
In section I, preliminary assumptions, theses and research methods are presented. Then, in section II, the context of the propaganda campaign, as Pachołowiecki’s map ideological framework, is introduced. This is followed by a critical analysis of the historical note, based on Polish and Ruthenian-Lithuanian sources (III.1). The next section (III.2) demonstrates that Polatsk held a central place in the Muscovite political discourse. Having proclaimed himself a heir to the throne of the Great Duchy and to the crown of Poland, Ivan the Terrible seized the land of Polatsk, and the efficient Muscovite diplomacy started to assert the tsar’s alleged dynastic claim to Lithuania and Poland. In this way, the manipulated history of the “recovered Polatsk”, Polotia recepta, argued to be a historical part of Lithuania, can be seen as a reply to the Muscovite discourse of power drawing on dynastic claims to a non-existent duchy, and the key matter is the legitimisation of elective monarchy as opposed to hereditary one. Having discussed the theatrical and iconic form of the Polish triumph over Ivan the Terrible (III.3), the author highlights the long life of the political myth of the Polatsk statehood and its sign ificance for today’s Belarusian identity discourse.

The article focuses on the Polish rendition of De civilitate morum puerilium – that is, a translation from Reinhard Lorich’s (Hadamarius’) catechismal version of Erasmus’ of Rotterdam treatise. The main goals of the text are: first, to understand the presence of the text (the Polish title: Dworstwo obyczajów) among works of such a talented author as Sebastian Fabian Klonowic; second, to reconstruct the publishing history of the Polish De civilitate; third to argue that forgotten bestsellers, such as Dworstwo, can help to better understand both early modern literature and book market in the first centuries of printing. The article summarises current knowledge about Sebastian Fabian Klonowic (ca. 1545–1602), a prolific poet, but also an author of textbooks and handbooks used to teach Latin and morals, as De civilitate was used as well. It analyses Klonowic’s translation practices and discusses his enthusiasm for Erasmus’ output. It also suggests that the Polish text was written with school usage in mind, probably for students of the newly opened academy established by Polish Brethrens in Raków. Next, the text moves on to describe the publishing history of De civilitate – Erasmus’ manual, its adaptations and translations. The author concentrates on the Polish translation, but the scarce evidence available for this title and its editions in the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania is interpreted in the wider context of the Latin and vernacular editions of De civilitate printed in other European lands. The survey combines information offered by the unique copies preserved in the library collections and the evidence found in archival sources to reconstruct the reasons for the success of the handbook, and to explain why the majority of copies multiplying the text once enormously popular with printers and readers alike were bound to perish.
Edition of Dworstwo obyczajów presents the Polish text of Klonowic. It is based on a printed unique copy of about 1603 (held at Ossolineum Library in Wrocław).