Fr. Stanisław Grochowski, Poems and Other Selected Writings. Volumes One and Two [1859]

Title: Poems and Other Selected Writings. Volumes One and Two.

Author: Rev. Stanisław Grochowski (1542–1612) [canon and custodian of Kruszwica, occasional poet of the Vasa era, follower of Jan Kochanowski]

Edited by: Kazimierz Józef Turowski

Publisher: Published by the Polish Library Publishing House. Main distribution for the Kingdom of Poland and the Russian Empire at the bookstore of Gustaw Gebethner & Co. in Warsaw and Kraków

Year of publication: 1859. Series: Biblioteka Polska. Series for the year 1859, issues 26 and 27.

Format: 22 cm.

Number of pages: 160.

Binding: Paperback, paper cover, publisher’s edition.

"Poems and Other Selected Writings" was published in 1859 as issues 26 and 27 of the "Biblioteka Polska" series—edited by Kazimierz Józef Turowski. The first and second issues presented here are part of Volume I of the edition “Poems by Rev. Stanisław Grochowski” (1859); the title page for the entire volume was not included until the end of Issue II, hence the separate title of this volume. “Biblioteka Polska” was a large-scale publishing project in 19th-century Galicia—a series of reprints of Old Polish literature that, in the form of inexpensive booklets, made old Polish works available to readers, including those that were already difficult to obtain at the time. The main distribution center for the Kingdom of Poland and the Russian Empire was operated by the Warsaw bookstore of Gustaw Gebethner and Company.

Stanisław Grochowski, born in 1542 in Mazovia to a poor noble family, the Wierzbowskis (known as the Grochowskis after the village of Grochy), used the Bończa coat of arms as his personal seal. From 1571, he attended the Jesuit College in Pułtusk at the expense of Primate Jakub Uchański, where he attended lectures by Jakub Wujek; around 1573, he was ordained a priest; in 1577, he became a canon at Uniejów, later at Kalisz and Łowicz, as well as the custodian of Kruszwick and the royal secretary. He was active in Kraków, where he died on January 30, 1612. His body of work includes the polemical poem “Babie koło” (c. 1600), the political “Songs of the Slovenian Calliope” (1588)—for which the lutenist Krzysztof Klabon composed the music—and “Rytmy łacińskie dziwnie sztuczne” (1606), reprinted via photooffset in 1976, as well as occasional works, hagiographic texts, dumy, and Marian songs, and translations, including “Church Hymns” (1598).

Provenance: on the last page, a stamp reading “Library of the Central Institute of Culture. Inv. No. 5891,” indicating the piece’s former library registration; on the cover, a handwritten numerical notation (5871).

This item is of interest to researchers and collectors of Old Polish literature, historians of nineteenth-century publishing, and bibliophiles seeking uncut blocks for artistic binding.

The piece is entirely uncut—in the condition in which it left the printing press. The block is intact; the paper has minor natural spots. The paper publisher’s cover shows significant damage: damage to the edges and spine, water stains, and soiling.

Catalog ID: 10667-22-A-X