Book collections of the nobility in south-eastern territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Charts from the history

Abstract

The author analyses the content of book collections (different in size) of gentry and nobility of the 16^th-18^th centuries, including those of Jan Aleksander Daniłowicz (approx.. 120 books in 1658); Hieronim Orzechowski (approx.. 130 titles in 1727); Jerzy Stanisław Dzieduszycki (3585 works in 1731); Joachim Potocki (approx.. 830 volumes in 1765); Władysław Łuszczowski (more than 80 works in 1763); Wojciech Siemieński (approx  60 books in 1765) and a noblewoman Abundancja Dąbrowska, owning 93 volumes in 1739. The latter is one of the very few lists of books belonging to women, which has been preserved in court books of south-eastern territories of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The author concludes that there were quite large (as for Polish situation) libraries of gentry and nobility in the studied territory, amounting to several hundred to several thousand books in the 18^th century. So-called middle nobility owned from a dozen to several dozen volumes. Representatives of poor nobility did not possess any book at all or individual copies of prayer books and hagiographies.