Stanisław Lisowski and the Restitution of Incunabula of Monastic Provenance under the Treaty of Riga (1921)

Abstract

The Treaty of Riga is considered one of the most important documents of the first half of the twentieth century for Eastern Europe. Few studies, however, address the question of the restitution of library and archive collections. The restitution of Polish cultural heritage was included in the Riga peace negotiations as one of the most important issues to be settled. The reconstruction of the restitution processes is important for the history of the collections of Polish libraries and archives as well as their contemporary holdings. Official documentation on the process of restitution burned down in 1944 during the Warsaw Rising. Therefore, unpublished archival material is an important source for reconstructing restitution processes. The papers of those who participated in the works of the Mixed Special Commission are an example of this type of material. The article draws on the papers of Stanisław Lisowski and his notes on the restitution of incunabula of monastic provenance (above all the libraries of Sieciechów and Czerwińsk)