SZKICE O DZIEJACH BIBLIOTEKI ZAŁUSKICH

AN ESSAY ON THE HISTORY OF THE ZAŁUSKI LIBRARY
Summary
The aim of the book is to present the social role of the Załuski Library
(1747—1795) as a centre which organized the scientific and literary life of the
epoch, and around which many men of learning and book-lovers grouped. This
point of view makes the essay different from most earlier papers on the Załuski
foundation which presented the Library from the point of view of bibliology. By
extending the scope of problems and taking into account some unknown sources,
it is possible to revise the view, according to which there was little response to
the founding of the Library by Andrzej Stanisław Załuski (1695—1758) and Jozef
Andrzej Załuski (1702—1774). It appears that it was contrariwise. Though the
founders thought the Library did not arouse satisfactory interest, the collections
of its books could not have grown at a higt rate, nor could its publications have
been printed quickly without the support of scholars.
The period covered by the essay is: 1742 (the year of J.A. Załuski's return to
Poland after years spent in Rome and Lorraine) — 1773 (death of J.A. Załuski on
7th Jan., 1774); the territorial range has been restricted to the Polish Republic.
The model for the brothers Załuski — and particularly for J.A. Załuski, whose
influence was stronger, was the broad movement in the humanities initiated in
the 17th cent. by the French school of erudition. According to J.A. Załuski's plan,
the Library was to be one of the most splendid institutions, 'republique des lettres'
in Europe, and at the same time the main centre around which a scientific environment
would from in Poland.
In the introduction the sources used by the author are presented: letters and
biographic, as well as autobiographic materials of the brothers Załuski, local, Warsaw
newspapers and foreign scientific journals, accounts of foreigners on their
visits to Poland, dedication letters and prefaces to the Library's publications, files
of the Warsaw University Library and of the National Library in Warsaw. Next
the role and objectives are presented of J.A. Załuski's publication entitled Programma
litterarium ad bibliophilos... (1732, 1742, 1753 , in which the writer presented
his own programme for building up library stock and publishing bibliographies
and sources for the history of Poland. In the above-mentioned paper Załuski announced
the opening of a public library and appealed to hommes des lettres for
help and cooperation in his project.
Chapter one of this book discusses the following problems: ways by which
the owners of the foundation tried to find out how big home and foreign library
collections of books are, and obtain cooperation (public appeals for help and
cooperation, questionnaires on the state of science and libraries in Poland, scientific
trips, setting up networks of book agents and scientific correspondents); gathering
books from other collections (donations, exchange, purchase from printers and
book-sellers, participation in auctions, copying printed materials, manuscripts and
the like); facilities — book-lending (to be read on the spot or taken out — to