Sources to the history of libraries in the collections of the Theological Seminary in Sandomierz

Abstract

The author begins with presentation of the book collecting movement in the 19^th century, which started just after Poland lost its independence. Next he underlines that books from monastic collections made a fundament of many private book collections developed in that time. Obviously, monastic libraries were also taken over by other Polish institutional libraries, either secular or cleric. Briefly discussing history of monastic libraries in the 18^th-19^th centuries, the author pays attention to the fate of libraries from dissoluted monasteries in the Kingdom of Poland. Fragments of these collections were moved to the Library of the Theological Seminary in Sandomierz (in the years 1819, 1864-1866, 1893), which became an important source to the history of monastic libraries in the region of Kielce. It is proved by either registers (and inventories) of the books coming from monastic collections preserved in this library, or provenance studies of the Author, who himself identified books from the collections of (among others): the Piarists, the Bernardines, the Franciscans, the Benedictine nuns, the Dominicans, the Pauline Fathers, the Canons Regular. The Seminary Library is also an important source to the history of other institutional (school) and private libraries, in particular of clergy men.