Officina Plantiniana in Leopold Jan Szersznik’s library. A provenance study

Abstrakt

The article is based on the research conducted for the BA thesis “Officina Platiniana in the book collection of Leopold Jan Szersznik: A bibliological study”^[1]. The library developed by the former Jesuit Leopold Jan Szersznik (1747–1814) from Cieszyn is the oldest and most explored collection in the Cieszyn Library. It includes 51 works from Christophe Plantin’s (1520–1589) publishing houses. Taking into account the ex-Jesuit’s fondness for antiquity, the author decided to focus her studies exclusively on the works of Greek and Roman classical authors, published by Officina Planiniana. There are 16 such units in this library, among which the author selected seven best-preserved and most corresponding to the research topic. For the purpose of the study presented here, the material was expanded to include nine more titles, thus all works by ancient authors were analysed. The provenance method appropriate for library science research was applied in the project, to trace the paths of individual copies based on ownership marks left inside, i.e. ex-librises, stamps, and signatures.