ABOUT THE JOURNAL
Polish Libraries is an English-language peer-reviewed academic journal published yearly by the National Library of Poland and addressed to foreign library milieus. It is included on the Ministry of Education and Science’s official List of Ranked Scholarly Journals with 100 points. It is also indexed by Scopus and ERIH PLUS.
It aims at presenting issues related to historical and current challenges facing Polish libraries and library and information studies, including their ancillary and related sciences. The articles published in the journal cover a broad scope of topics and research fields, such as history, with history of libraries in particular, theory of bibliography, cataloguing, archival science, museology, manuscriptology, codicology, bookbinding studies, conservation and restoration, library statistics and sociology, readership studies, art history, musicology, and literary studies.
All of the articles published in the journal are peer reviewed by experts who do not know the identity of authors and vice versa (double-blind reviewing process). The reviewers are acknowledged external specialists, that is, they are not employed by the publisher. The editorial board of the Polish Libraries has been gradually increasing the number of reviews prepared by scholars affiliated to foreign research institutions. Not only does it help improve the academic quality of the articles, but it also aims at raising the awareness of the existence of the journal abroad. read more About the Journal
CURRENT ISSUE
CREDITS / TABLE OF CONTENTS, p. 1–3
ARTICLES
Painting Treatise Ars de Omnibus Coloribus from Manuscript BJ Rkp. 778 III (the Jagiellonian Library, Around 1425). A Critical Review of Recipes as Seen against Other Technological Sources, p. 6–129
Ars de omnibus coloribus treatise from the manuscript 778 III of the Jagellonian Library from ca. 1425 is a unique source discussing Polish miniature painting technology. The author or the inspirator of this original treaty was Jan of Dobra, a doctor and a professor of the Jagiellonian University and the owner of the original manuscript. The article is a broad, multi-aspect deal on this interesting piece of writing. It contains 65 recipes dealing mainly with pigments and painting dyes, various goldening techniques used then in book ornamentation. Recipes contained in the treaty are supported by commentaries detailing technological issues. These comments also pointed out potential analogies to other texts of similar character. Multi-disciplined comparative studies made it possible to point out archetypes or sources of inspiration for many recipes and, as a consequence to determine sources of artistic influences on the treaty author. It was also possible to determine that the text is not only a creative compilation of muti-sourced recipes, but it contains original recipes of no substitute in any known technological texts.
The State of the Art of Selected Writing Materials: a Comparative Study Based on 19th-century Sources and Contemporary Knowledge, p. 130–160
The paper aims to present and compare the state of knowledge in selected writing materials based on 19th-century sources and contemporary news examples. The paper cites an excerpt from the written examination for director of the Jagiellonian Library, relating to writing materials, of Józef Muczkowski in 1836. The course of the entire examination and the committee’s work on its preparation are also outlined. The article also elaborates on selected discoveries of ancient papyri, parchments and clay tablets between the 19th and 21st centuries. These included documents found during excavations carried out in: Herculaneum (at the Villa of the Papyri), Tebtunis on the outskirts of the Fajum oasis, Sheikh Abd el-Gurna, Nineveh, Dura Europos, Qumran and Ein-Gedi. Aspects of their preservation and dissemination, as well as digitisation, are addressed. The tasks carried out in opening and reading the contents of the various manuscripts without risking their destruction are also described.
De La Plume au Clavier ou Comment un Centre D’archives Peut-Il Affronter la Transition Numérique, p. 161–178
The digital transitions of archival centers such as the Archives and Museum of Literature in Brussels present unprecedented challenges in terms of the collection, preservation, and enhancement of literary heritage. The management of born-digital archives requires tailored protocols and a revision of traditional methods. The volatility and intangible nature of digital archives demand greater vigilance to ensure their integrity and authenticity. Digitization and online initiatives, like those undertaken by the AML, highlight the opportunities offered by digital technologies to make literary heritage more accessible, while underscoring the need for innovative solutions to sustainably preserve and enhance these new types of documents.
Shared Care for Library Collections. The Role of the Maurits Sabbe Library (Ku Leuven) in Preserving Religious Library Collections, p. 179–192
In the past 50 years the physical survival of book and manuscript collections in certain convent and abbey libraries in Flanders has become very precarious. Religious houses are closing down or divesting themselves of part of the buildings; there is often no Staff left to take on the responsibility of managing the collections. Since its founding in 1974 as the library of the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, the Maurits Sabbe Library has defined the preservation of the precious collections owned by religious orders and congregations as one of its core tasks. Over the past five decades, contracts have been signed with more than 80 ecclesiastical institutions or religious orders and congregations. These agreements were mutually beneficial: the Maurits Sabbe Library and KU Leuven in general guaranteeded the religious partners, through substantial investments, a professional preservation, disclosure and valorisation of their endangered collections, but in its turn, thanks to this collaboration, KU Leuven has again acquired a heritage collection with international stature, after the disastrous losses of its collections caused by two world wars. In this article the origins and history of the cooperation between the Maurits Sabbe Library and Flemish religious institutions are discussed together with the way in which the preservation, disclosure and valorisation of these collections was and is handled.
Travel Diary of the Duchess of Sagan Dorothea from a Jagiellonian Library Manuscript. Description and Edition: Expectations and Challenges, p. 193–211
The paper presents the description of the manuscript Reiseerinnerungen 1852–1853 [Travel Memoirs 1852–1853] written in German by Dorothea de Talleyrand-Périgord, Duchess of Sagan (1793–1862), as perceived from the perspective of expectations and challenges connected with its planned edition. The richly ornamented handwritten neo-Gothic volume, currently in the collection of the Jagiellonian Library (BJ Rkp. 7424), records the Duchess’s sevenmonth journey to Italy. It is interesting both in view of the author’s personality, its content, and the visual layer. A well-known representative of the European aristocracy, Dorothea de Talleyrand-Périgord played an important role in Polish culture. The account of her Italian journey reflects her elite connections and interest in art. The description of the manuscript in the present article is to expose expectations and challenges implied by the planned critical edition to be conducted by an interdisciplinary team composed of a historian and a literary scholar.
L’Archivio di Alba de Céspedes: Processi Creativi e Reti Intellettuali, p. 212–231
Researching on writers’ archives makes possible for their papers and their historical context to communicate with each other. It also allows us to reconstruct more precise authors’ biographical pictures, or to interpret from new points of view literary works and their reception. This is the aim of the present article, which investigates the archival collection of the writer Alba de Céspedes in order to highlight its connection with the process of composition and publication of the novel Prima e dopo (1955): a personal story but also an account of an entire generation of young people who had participated in the Resistance and who, in the aftermath of the Second World War, were faced with a disappointing reality.
Recensioni Epistolari: Ennio Flaiano e Paolo Milano Lettori dei Racconti di Herling, p. 232–249
The article concerns the early reception of Gustaw Herling-Grudziński’s oeuvre in Italy, with particular attention to epistolary reactions following the publication of the collection of short stories Pale di altare (Silva, 1960). Analysis is focused on correspondence preserved in the Gustaw Herling-Grudziński Archives in Naples: attention was given particularly to the epistolary reviews of the book, contained in the letters of Ennio Flaiano and Paolo Milano. A contrast of the reactions of the two Italian writers makes it possible to observe different qualities and issues worth addressing in Gustaw Herling-Grudziński’s short stories in Pale di altare and their Italian translations.
The Clandestine Educational and Self-Education Movement in Warsaw in the Late 19th Century: The Subscription Library and Reading Room, Czytelnia Naukowa, as Reflected in Memoirs and Press Materials, p. 250–286
The paper presents the results of research into the history of lending libraries and reading rooms in Warsaw between 1890 and 1906. These institutions offering periodicals and scholar books were created by members of a clandestine self-education and educational movement. Political repression from the authorities of Tsarist Russia made them work in two dimensions: officially, as commercial lending libraries with reading rooms and clandestinely, as grassroots self-help initiatives. My research has focused on Czytelnia Naukowa [Scholarly Reading Room], whose resources became the nucleus for the Warsaw Public Library created in 1907. Due to its partly underground character there is a shortage of archival material related to the Czytelnia Naukowa. The research has made use of memoirs written by members of the self-education and (general) educational movement, as well as announcements, advertisements and articles in the Warsaw newspapers from the studied period. Copious press materials have allowed to suplement and verify information found in the memoirs. The research has confirmed the hypothesis that the women’s self-education movement, especially its organizers and students of clandestine academic courses for women, called the Flying University, played a significant role in the creation of reading rooms equipped with non-fiction scholarly books.
Promotion of Provincial Educational Libraries in Social Networks (2004–2023), p. 287–323
The quantitative research aimed to determine the dynamics of the development of promotional activities of provincial pedagogical libraries in Poland in the form of activities on social networking sites, including the number of newly created accounts and services in particular years, on which they were set up. The websites of the libraries subjected to the research, their official accounts on social networking sites, as well as scientific and professional literature in this field, were used as the source material. As a result of the research, the activity of libraries or their central units on the following websites was noted: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. In the analysis of the collected data, all libraries or their central units today (2023) have Facebook accounts (100% of the 47 voivodeship pedagogical libraries in Poland). Underrepresented in the remaining services are: YouTube (87% of libraries have accounts on it), Instagram (64%) and Twitter (28%). The following methods were used to achieve the set goals: analysis of social networks and websites, critical analysis of the literature on the subject, statistical and comparative. The results of the analysis of the collected data can serve practising librarians and, above all, those in managerial positions, leading teams of educational institutions and pedagogical provincial libraries. It is not excluded that they will also become an inspiration for directors of all types of libraries, researchers dealing with the indicated issues, and lecturers in the Library and Information Science field.
REVIEWS AND MATERIALS
Regine Dehnel, Übernommen, weiterverteilt, zerstreut. Die Zentralstelle für wissenschaftliche Altbestände und NS-Raubgut nach 1945. Unter Verwendung von Vorarbeiten von Hannah Neumann, mit einem Geleitwort von Achim Bonte, Frankfurt am Main, Klostermann, 2024, 1022 s., ISBN 978-3-465-04633-2, p. 326–332
Literary canon formation as nation-building in Central Europe and the Baltics. 19th to early 20th century, ed. by Aistė Kučinskienė, Viktorija Šeina, and Brigita Speičytė, Leiden – Boston 2021, p. 333–344
Coat of Arms Bookplate of Johann Philipp Breyne from the Gdańsk Collection. Communication, p. 345–355