Libri Polonici A collection of c. 1,600 volumes purchased in 1850 from Hirsch Edelmann on the recommendation of Mr Asher a ‘then well-known Jewish bookseller of Berlin’. The greater part of the collection belonged to Józef Tukaszewicz (1797-1873), classicist, historian, author of books on the history of education and pedagogy and the history of the Church in Poland, particularly the Reformation, teacher of the Polish language, etc. The collection consists of books about Poland written by Polish and foreign authors, depicting a short period of Polish cultural history in relation to the Church and the Reformation, with an emphasis on the development of education, pedagogics and trends in Polish teaching. It contains examples of almost all notable 16th century printers, and also Polish books printed abroad. There are in total 252 16th century titles, 1231 17th and 18th century titles, and 309 19th century titles up to 1840. Most of the books are in Polish, Latin, French and German, a few in Czech. 200 vols. were incorporated into the collection in 1883 which did not belong to Tukaszewicz. The main categories of books are: Polish history; Polish law; political journalism; history of the Church in Poland, a large part of the collection, including Catholic and non-Catholic translations of the Bible and the New Testament, Psalters, lives of the saints, sermons, ecclesiastical regulations, and theological studies and polemics, particularly of the Reformation period; history of education and pedagogics in Poland; and Polish language and literature (belles-lettres).
Z. Florczak, ‘Libri Polonici, a special collection in the Bodleian Library’, BLR, XIV, 3 (October 1992) 207-27.
Polonica from the Bodleian’s Pre-1920 catalogue. 1993.
Macray, p. 353.
Craster, p. 76.