Marulić\u27s Books in Polish Libraries

Abstract

The first step towards a study of the reception of Marulić in Poland should be the question of the presence and provenance of Marulić’s printed works in Polish collections. This article puts forwards the results of research in two Polish collections, those in Krakow and in Warsaw. Krakow University Library, and other Krakow monastic libraries belonging to the oldest orders, where the greatest number of Marulić’s works has been collected (as many as 16) have a relatively uninterrupted history, unlike those from the other libraries (university libraries in Warsaw and Wroclaw and the national library), whose collections are composed of works taken over from private and monastic collections in the 19th century. The holdings of the Academy’s library started to be formed at the same time as the Academy itself (1364) and were created thanks to the generosity of patrons and professors and pupils; in this manner Marulić’s works also entered the libraries. The Jagiellonian Library is able to give a more complete record of the readers of old, of their taste, erudition or the fashions that affected them. According to the central catalogue of the National Library in Warsaw, twenty five Polish libraries hold 79 specimens of Marulić’s books: 29 copies of the Evangelistary, 31 of the De Institutione, and, counted separately, 12 copies of Op-era Omnia, as well as one copy each of a French and a German translation of the De Institutione and two copies of an Italian translation, and three copies of Parabolae. Northern editions prevail - most of them from Cologne (33), then editions from Antwerp, seven from Basle and five from Venice. The oldest book is the Institutione of Venice of 1506, and the youngest is from 1686 - a celebrated Palaestra Christianarum virtutum. The appearance of Marulić’s texts in Polish culture in the 16th century oc-curred via these northern editions and belong to the time in which the Renaissance was being endorsed in Polish literature, that is, the period of activity of the first generation of completely mature Polish-Latinist poets (about 1510 and 1543), at the same time the period of religious issues and problems about the Reformation, the new theology and Biblical Humanism, and finally the time of the great Church schisms. It is precisely among readers interested in the new departures of Humanism, people who were also not indifferent to the revival of the Church, that potential readers of Marulić should be looked for. The changes that occurred are manifested in the sphere of the church hierarchy as well as among the professors of the Academy and at the royal court