Lists of private book collections in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Royal Prussia, 1680-1830
ENThe primary aim of this chapter is to present an overview of available resources on early modern Polish (private) book collections. A reasoned bibliography of works relevant to the subject of inventories of private Polish collections from the period 1680–1830 can be found at the end of the chapter. The first part of the chapter discusses the dominant themes in the research carried out on Polish libraries and their inventories, while the second section seeks to extend the scope of existing research by proposing new methodological approaches. I will specifically focus on minor Enlightenment thinkers’ collections, as well as on the questions of multilingualism and the dissemination of foreign literary models. I will also consider the material and textual shape of private library catalogues by studying the rhetoric used in these documents. [Extract, p. 269]
