Listy Tomasza Tretera do biskupa Szymona Rudnickiego w sprawie introligatorów i księgarzy braniewskich Hansa i Tobiasa Bretnerów (1606, 1609)
Tomasz Treter’s Letters to Bishop Szymon Rudnicki Regarding Hans and Tobias Bretner – Bookbinders and Booksellers from Braniewo (1606, 1609)

Summary/Abstract: The central part of the article is an edition of two letters written by Tomasz Treter (1547–1610) to Szymon Rudnicki, Bishop of Warmia. The letters are stored in the Archives of the Warmian Archdiocese in Olsztyn and in the Princes Czartoryski Library (a branch of the National Museum in Cracow). In these letters, Treter pleaded the cause of the booksellers and bookbinders from Braniewo, Hans and Tobias Bretner; thus, they are an archival source which can shed light on the history of books in Warmia. As indicated in the introduction to the letters, they reveal, among other things, the behind-the-scenes measures taken by Warmian booksellers, who fought against competition from Gdańsk and Königsberg merchants, and they list the types of publications for which the Bretners wanted to maintain a commercial monopoly. Treter’s letters also shed light on the author’s network of social connections – a Warmian canon, draughtsman, engraver, and writer who remained in the service of Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius for many years.

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