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This article presents a little known book, discovered in the collections of the Jagiellonian Library by its former head Karol Estreicher the Elder. The Chronicle of the Jagiellonian University Library is a comprehensive report covering the period between 1811 (the beginnings of the modern university library go back to the early 19th century) and 1905, the year when its author retired. The Chronicle’s Appendix contains additional information about Hugo Kołlataj’s reforms in the late18th century and records of the step-by-step amalgamation of the book collections which belonged to individual Colleges into a single stock. The Chronicle recounts the history of the Library when Cracow was part of the the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Jagiellonian University functionned as an Austrian institution. Another, later Appendix, probably written by Fryderyk Papee, covers the period of World War I and the early postwar years (until 1925). It was then that it was renamed Jagiellonian Library, a name fi rst introduced by Karol Estreicher. The Chronicle is a unique record of the work of its librarians as well the contribution of its author. It documents the support it received from an impressively large number of contemporary Polish scientists, art and book collectors, patrons of the arts, activists, patriots, politicians, civil servants and members of the clergy of all denominations. The network of the Library’s benefactors extended to Galicia, other parts of Poland, and Polish expatriate communities in Europe and overseas. Thanks to the data in the Chronicle we are able to fi nd out about a community of librarians, whose work and names would otherwise have been obliterated by time. Finally, the Chronicle also brings information about important acquisitions, chiefl y books, and their donors, as well as rare books and periodicals purchased by Karol Estreicher. |
