Natan Glücksberg’s letter to Tadeusz Mostowski of October 4th, 1820

Abstract

The article is the edition of one of the documents related to the Warsaw bookseller Natan Glücksberg (1780-1831). This is the letter of October 4^th, 1820, written in French, and maintained in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, in the collection of correspondence of the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Education of the Kingdom of Poland Stanisław Potocki (1755-1821), to the Minister of Internal Affairs and the Police Tadeusz Mostowski (1766-1842). The letter includes N. Glücksberg’s request to plead for him to the Russian Tsar to grant him citizen rights. The Jews in the Kingdom of Poland were not only bereft of a voting right, but also the law limited their rights to property, to economic activity, and to participation in public life. That hindered printing, bookselling and publishing activity on a book market. N. Glücksberg gradually enlarged his potential, but the full citizen rights would facilitate development of his company. That could have been done only by the Parliament’s act, N. Glücksberg’s letter could not bring a positive result. Nevertheless, the document is interesting, as it presents personal and social situation, as well as the activity of the first in Warsaw bookseller, printer and publisher, who was a Jew. The article consists of two parts: a large, critical introduction and the letter itself.