Sum Fricii
Sum Fricii

A Fragment of the Lost Library of Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Found during the Reconstruction of the Book Collection of the Jesuit College in Poznań

Author(s): Jakub Łukaszewski
Subject(s): Cultural history, 16th Century, 17th Century, 18th Century, History of Art
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski; old prints; marginalia; 16th century Polish book collections; Jean Calvin
Summary/Abstract: During works on the reconstruction of the book collection from the Jesuit College in Poznań in the Poznań University Library, the author came across four volumes. Following an analysis of their provenance and marginal notes included in the works, it was possible to establish that the first owner of the volumes had been Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski. The discovered volumes include a total of eight works by: Martin Bucer, Jean Calvin, Joachimus Camerarius, Johann Cochlaeus, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Otton Körber, and Erasmus Sarcerius. Particular attention should be given to the edition of J. Calvin’s Institutio Christianae religionis (Strasbourg: W. Rihel 1539) with numerous hand-written marginal notes added by Modrzewski. This article contributes to the knowledge of the previously unknown books from Modrzewski’s private collection. It also serves as an opportunity to present the fate of the private book collection of this Polish reformer and supporter of Protestantism and its further fate in a Catholic environment. The text is complemented with an Annex containing a catalogue of the discovered works, including their bibliographic description and copy-specific information (provenance, binding).

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