Józef Ignacy Kraszewski’s Library catalogue

NOTE:
Old prints from Józef I. Kraszewski’s Library were computerized. Their descriptions are available in the online old prints catalogue.

Search system
The alphabetical catalogue of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski’s Library is divided into two parts:

    1. an alphabetical catalogue of old prints, which includes books and magazines published up to and including 1800;
    2. an alphabetical catalogue of new prints, which includes books and magazines published from 1801 onwards.

The catalogue does not include the descriptions of books and magazines which were singled out from Józef Ignacy Kraszewski’s Library when the collection of the Historic Branch of the Silesian Library was being rearranged. These books and magazines, along with similar items singled out from other historic collections belonging to the Historic Branch, were merged into separate repositories of non-serial publications and magazines. Alphabetical catalogues of both the above-mentioned repositories are available in a digital version (book catalogue; magazine catalogue).

The alphabetical catalogue of J. I. Kraszewski’s Library was prepared by Ludwik Brożek in the 1920s. It was drawn up by hand, on library cards measuring 14 x 17.5 cm. It contains descriptions which were created irrespective of cataloguing standards. There are many errors, gaps and inconsistencies. However, despite all these faults, this catalogue is still the main searching tool for 19th century serial and non-serial publications from Józef Ignacy Kraszewski’s Library. Old prints from this book collection have already been described in accordance with current cataloguing norms and can be found in the digital Cieszyn Library database. As the process of cataloguing the resources of Cieszyn Library goes on, the remaining descriptions of books and magazines from J. I. Kraszewski’s Library will be gradually entered into catalogue databases, namely book and magazine databases.

Call marks of books and magazines included in this library are made up of the number entered under “numer inwentarza” (“inventory number”). Above this number, there is a numeral which comes from the printed catalogue of J. I. Kraszewski’s Library that was drawn up by Michał Pawlik.

Description components

    • main heading
    • title
    • statement of responsibility (often incomplete)
    • publisher’s name and publication place and year (usually only publication place and year)
    • list of volumes

Also, references to Estreicher’s bibliography were added to most descriptions. In some descriptions, there is information about dedications. Some descriptions have cross references to personal entries or titles of works which were co-published or bound in one volume.
The basis for the alphabetical arrangement is the author entry under “Autor” (“Author”) or the first word of the title which constitutes the title entry. Some catalogue cards bear signs of corrections, additions or underscores which were added later. In such cases, it is the entry under “Tytuł dzieła” (“Title of the work”) that serves as the valid entry. In other cases, the main entry is the underlined word.

Essential literature
Pawlik: Katalog księgozbioru, rękopisów, dyplomów, rycin, map, atlasów, fotografji, jakoteż osobistych dyplomów, adresów, itp. pozostałych po śp. Józefie Ignacym Kraszewskim, Lwów, 1888; H. Karpińska: Ciekawostki w książkach biblioteki J. I. Kraszewskiego, (in:) “Cieszyński Rocznik Muzealny”, 1970-1971, pp. 143-150; J. Jarowiecki: Księgozbiór Józefa Ignacego Kraszewskiego – warsztatem pracy pisarza i historyka (in:) “Zeszyty Naukowe Uniwersytetu Szczecińskiego. Prace Polonistyczne”, 1991, No. 3, pp. 69-92; A. Gojniczek: Biblioteka Józefa Ignacego Kraszewskiego, (in:) “Pamiętnik Cieszyński”, Vol. 10, Cieszyn 1995, pp. 47-65.

Książnica Cieszyńska