Department of Printed Books

Polish Books

By H. Swiderska

FALIMIRZ, Stefan. O ziolach y o moczy gich,etc. [Cracow:] Florian Ungler, 1534. 4°: ff.[36], 156, 23, 42, 59, i i 9 [ + i ] .

[On herbs and their efficacy.]The first popular encyclopaedia of medicine

and the natural sciences in Polish, compiledfrom various Latin horti sanitatis, with someoriginal material added by the author.

The book is in five parts and has no propertitle. The title-page lists the thirteen chapters itcontains, the title of the first being generallyaccepted as the general title. The subjectscovered include herbs and herbal medicines;the medicinal virtues of birds, animals, andfishes; precious stones and minerals; obstetricsand infants' ailments; blood-letting, surgery,etc.

The book is profusely illustrated (over 550woodcuts, many of them original). Whethercopied from other sources or made specially forthis Herbal, the wood-blocks were made inCracow to the printer's order.

Elorian Ungler ran a printing office inCracow in 1510-16 and 1521-36 and producedsome 246 titles in Latin, Polish, Greek, andHungarian, Of all his books, the Herbal is themost lavishly illustrated. He took a specialinterest in mathematics and natural science andthe Herbal was one of his favourite publica-tions. As Ealimirz says in the preface, 'my dearElorian did not grudge great expense and tookevery care to decorate and adorn this Polishbook in the best manner with new types andwonderful pictures'.

About Falimirz very little is known. He camefrom Ruthenia and was a courtier of Jan

T^czyriski, voivode of Podolia. He compiled theHerbal on the encouragement of his friendsincluding Ungler and Hieronim Spiczyriski,Cracow councillor and physician. It was one ofthe most popular books of the period, with theinevitable result that all the twelve copies nowrecorded in Poland are imperfect, some verymuch so. The best copy belongs to the NationalLibrary in Warsaw but even this lacks severalleaves including the title-page. The BritishLibrary copy is perfect. It has a well-preservedsixteenth-century binding made in Cracow andit once belonged to Zachariasz Bart (Barthius)of Poznah, philosophiae et medicinae doctor,author of D^ epidemia (Posnaniae, 1598), whoseautograph appears on the title-page.

C.i85.a.i.

SociNUS, Eaustus. De Iesu Christi Filii Deinatura sive essentia . . . Disputatio, aduersusAndream Volanum, etc. [Cracow: AleksyRodecki,] 1588. 8°: pp. 272.

1578/8111(1).

De vnigeniti Filii Dei existentia, interErasmum Iohannis & Faustum Socinumdisputatio, etc. [Cracow: Aleksy Rodecki,]1595- 8": PP- 191-

1578/8111(2).

Two Antitrinitarian pamphlets by FaustusSocinus, subsequently the leader of the PolishArians (Unitarians) dating to the earlier periodof Arian printing before its establishmentat Rakow. Rodecki's printing office sufferedharassment by the Catholic mobs, to avoid

1 0 2

Ufatiftmm

0 ptacHtli/tj c v

Stefan Falimirz, 0 ziolachy o moczygich, 1534. Title-page to part four: 'On living creatures usefulin medicine'

Krzysztof Dorohostajski, Hippica to test o koniach xi^gi, 1603. One of the plates (C^) not included inthe facsimile edition of 1979

which his publications often appeared withoutthe imprint.

Arian literature was obnoxious to bothCatholics and Protestants, with the result thatonly seven and five copies respectively of thesetwo books survive in Poland.

There are four preliminary unnumberedleaves (including title-page) in the first of thesebooks, eight in the second.

DOROHOSTAJSKI, Krzysztof. Hippica to iest0 koniach xi^gi. W Krakowie: w drukarniAndrzeia Piotrkowczyka, 1603. fol: x'*, A'̂ '-I'*,A^-Ct, two leaves [R^]

[Hippica, or book on horses.]One of the finest Polish books of the begin-

ning of the seventeenth century, reprinted in1620, 1647, 1700, and C.1730 as the mostpopular comprehensive handbook on horse-breeding and training. It is divided into fourparts, the third of which (second sequence ofsignatures) consists of full-page illustrations ofhorses and/or horse-bits, with short commentson the latter.

The first edition, to which this copy belongs,was very small. As the author wrote to PrinceKrzysztof Radziwill on 29 September 1603,'they [the printer] have managed to squeezeout one hundred copies because they do nothave printers skilled enough for engravings'(National Library MS. IV. 4848, fol. 245).

The author (1562-1615) was the GrandMarshal of Lithuania and played an active rolein contemporary political life and in the warswaged by the Polish kings against Muscovy andSweden. The illustrations were made bythe Radziwills' engraver Tomasz Makowski

The popularity of this book must account forthe fact that only eight copies of the first editionare recorded in Poland, probably none of themperfect, since the facsimile edition issued inWarsaw in 1979 was made from an imperfectcopy owned by the National Library. Out of thetotal of twenty-four engravings of horses the

British Library copy lacks three: E^ F^ (sup-plied in facsimile), and F* (missing also fromthe facsimile edition) and includes two (C andC )̂ not found in the facsimile edition.

Ci85.b. i .

ORWELL, George. Folwark zwierz^cy. Przelo-zylazangielskiegoTeresaJeleriska. [Warsaw:]Niezalezna Oficyna Wydawmcza [1979]? PP-104. 14 cm.

[Animal Farm.] Reduced size facsimile of theedition published in London by Odnowa in1974, with a new title-page and added illustra-tions by Andrzej Krauze.

Sol.244.

Folwark zwierz^cy. Przelozyla TeresaJeleiiska. Ilustrowal Jan Lebenstein.[Cracow:] Oficyna Literacka, 1985. pp. 48:plates. 30 cm.

onwe

FOLWOPKzwierzeoy

[Animal Farm.] This is a luxury edition amongbooks produced by the clandestine presses inPoland; hard cover and large format, printed onmuch higher quality paper than most samiz-dats. Includes ten coloured plates reproducedfrom lithographs by Jan Lebenstein, a distin-guished Polish painter and graphic artist livingin Paris. The artist originally issued them in1974 as a portfolio entitled 'Animal farm. Tothe memory of George Orwell.'

S0I.257.

1984. [Gracoiv:] Wydawnictwo KOS, andABG [imprint added], 1981.

A slightly enlarged facsimile, with a new title-page, of the miniature edition published inParis in 1979 by the Instytut Literacki fordistribution in Poland.

S0I.250.

Three of the large but unspecified number ofclandestine editions of George Orwell's worksindicative of the Poles' enthusiasm for theauthor. Copies of such books are rare in theWest since smuggling them out of Poland isdangerous. These three have been presented tothe British Library as a result of the 'Works ofGeorge Orwell in the Languages of EasternEurope' exhibition held in 1984-5.

BERNHARD, Thomas. Die Ereignisse. Prosa. . . Zdarzenia. Grafiki Zbigniew Janeczek.Lddz., 1981. Portfolio: 33 cm.

The portfolio includes five folders givingparallel German and Polish text with illustra-tions by Zbigniew Janeczek. This is no. 24 outof an issue of 100 copies signed by the artist.

S0I.253.

GEORGE

T06

Czeslaw Mibsz

. KTORY S K R Z Y W D Z I L E S

Ktfiry skrzywdzileS cz)omeka prostegDSmiechem nad knyH g y

Gromad? t.t^zniw ttofo siebie /Na pomieszanie dobrego i zlego.

Chodbv przed tobg W57v3cv s"; sklonilicnole i mgdrosc tobie pr^vpisui^c.Zhie medale na tv^o;^ czesd kuigc.

Ratizi ze leszcze dzien jedc.'i

Nie bgdi bezp'eczny Poets pami^ta.Mozesz go zab'fi — narodzi si§ nowy.

Spisane bqdg czyny ' rozmowy

Lepszy dia Ciebie byltiy y^i t zimowyi sznur i galgi pod ciezarem zgi^ta.

Polski, 1981. Opening for February

J A S K U L A , Zdzislaw. Wieczor autorski. GrafikiAndrzeja Graczykowskiego do wierszy Zdzis-lawa Jaskuly. Lddz, 1981. Portfolio: 25 cm.

Poems by Z. Jaskula illustrated by AndrzejGraczykowski. Two volumes and two foldedsheets in a portfolio. The volumes are entitledin the author's hand 'Wiersze' and 'Poematy'respectively. One of the sheets gives biographi-cal notes on the author and the artist togetherwith two poems by the former in French andGerman, and the other with a note on theCorrespondance des Arts. No. 58 out of anissue of 100 copies signed by the author, withsome of the illustrations signed by the artist.

S0I.205.

KAMIEI^SKA, Anna. Pierwszy snieg.—Swiad-kowie. Wiersze Anny Kamiehskiej. LinorytyLeslawa Miskiewicza. Lodz, 1983. Portfolio:25 cm.

Poems by A. Kamienska with illustrations byLeslaw Miskiewicz. The portfolio contains twovolumes transposed front to front and signed bythe author and the artist. No. 34 of thefifty-three copies published.

Sol.249.

K R Y N I C K I , Ryszard. Niewiele wi^cej. JanuszPawel Tryzno: grafiki. [Lddz, 1985.][44 PP-] 36 cm.

A volume of poems by R. Krynicki with

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illusti-ations by J. P. Tryzno in a portfolio. No.31 out of an issue of 100 copies signed by thepoet and the artist.

S0I.254.

Artur. Ptaki. (Wiersze zlat 1968-1970.)—I nie ma ciebie dawnego.(Wiersze z lat 1976-1981.) Grafiki A. Graczy-kowski. w Lodzi, 1981.Portfolio: 33 cm.

Two volumes of poems by A. Mi^dzyrzecki in aportfolio. The illustrations by A. Graczykowskibear his signature. No. 11 of fifty copiespublished.

Sol.251.

ROK PoLSKi. Grafiki Andrzeja Graczykow-skiego, Zbigniewa Janeczki i Janusza PawlaTryzny do wierszy poetow polskich, etc.Lddz, 1981.Portfolio: 35 cm.

[The Polish year]: poems by nineteenth totwentieth-century Polish poets with illustra-tions by A. Graczykowski, Z. Janeczek, andJ. P. Tryzno. The portfolio, one of an issue offifty copies, includes thirteen folded leaves,each with a poem and a print illustrating the'Polish year' of thirteen months. This is no. 12out of seventeen copies signed by Czesiaw

Milosz, winner of the Nobel Prize for literaturein 1980. The leaf for February, with one of hispoems made popular by Solidarity, bears hisautograph.

Sol.200.

ScHULZ, Bruno. Z 'Traktatu 0 manekinaeh',etc. Lddz, 1984.

A box (29 cm.) containing a volume of selectedtexts from the short story Sklepy cynamonowe[Cinnamon shops] by Bruno Schulz in Polish,English, French, and German, together withseparate title-pages in these languages. Illustra-tions by J. P. Tryzno, A. Graczykowski, K.Wawrzyniak, and Z. Janeczek, some signed bythe artists. No. 35 of fifty numbered copies.

Sol.252.

A collection of books published by the Corres-pondance des Arts, a group of poets and artistsbased on the Higher School of Fine Arts inLodz. The group was founded in the late 1970swith the object of producing fine bibliophileeditions of Polish and foreign authors inissues of no more than 100 copies. It works'unofficially'. These books do not reach thebookshops and are distributed through thegroup's personal contacts. Up to 1986 theypublished seven titles, and several are inpreparation.

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

PETER BARBER: Senior Research Assistant in the Department of Manuscripts.M. L. EVANS: Assistant Keeper (Fine Art) at the National Museum of Wales.F. J. H I L L : Formerly chief editor of the Subject Index.H I L T O N KELLIHER: Assistant Keeper in the Department of Manuscripts.

BARBARA M C C R I M M O N : Librarian and author, of Tallahassee, Florida, specializingin the history of the British Museum library.

D. E. RHODES: Formerly Deputy Keeper in the Department of Printed Books.

H. SWIDERSKA: Assistant Keeper in the Department of Printed Books.

C. J. W R I G H T : Senior Research Assistant in the Department of Manuscripts.

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