Metadata: Baworowski Library
Collection
- Country:
- Ukraine
- Holding institution:
- Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv. Manuscripts Department
- Holding institution (official language):
- Львівська національна наукова бібліотека України імені В. Стефаника. Bідділ рукописів
- Postal address:
- Stefanyka St. 2, 79000, Lviv, Ukraine
- Phone number:
- +38 (032) 236-80-28
- Email:
- manuscr@lsl.lviv.ua
- Reference number:
- F. 4
- Title:
- Baworowski Library
- Title (official language):
- БІБЛІОТЕКА БАВОРОВСЬКИХ
- Creator/accumulator:
- Baworowski Library
- Date(s):
- 1512/1934
- Language:
- Latin
- Polish
- German
- French
- Arabic
- Extent:
- 1,859 storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
-
Both of the fond’s inventories contain particular files and file fragments that pertain to Jewish history and culture.
Op. 1 includes a set of handwritten documents, original and copied, among them an essay by an anonymous author titled “A New Jewish Blasphemy against Christian Truth, Refuted" (Polish: “Nowe bluznierstwo zydowskie prawda chrześcijańska wywrócone”), written in the form of a disputation between a Christian and a Jew; a manuscript by an unidentified author, partially copied by A. Batowski, titled “The First Rights of the Jews” (Latin: “Jura primova Judaeorum”), which includes information on Jewish history and quotations from the Bible (early 18th c.); a copy of The History of the Lwów Archbishopric (Latin: Leopoliensis achiepiscopatus historia) by Jan Tomasz Józefowicz, which covers relations between Jews and Christians in Lwów, including mention of pogroms against Jews (latter half of the 18th c.); a manuscript by Dominik Zawrocki titled “A Description of the Bloody Massacre between the Haidamaks and Polish and Jewish Homeowners that devastated the Bracław Voivodeship in 1768" (Polish: “Opisanie awantury rzezaniny przez haydamaky y domownikow, Polakow i Zydow wyniszczaiacych w Wojewodstwach skim y Braclawskim w r. 1768”); etc.
There are also notes and extracts from various sources on the history of Jews in Poland and Ukraine, including studies by Wincenty Skrzetuski and Mikołaj Zalanowski on the privileges granted to Jews by the Polish ruler Bolko I of Opole; on the “dispute between Frankists and Talmudists”; etc. (1820s); extracts from old Polish and Hebrew manuscripts containing references to ancient Greek and Roman sources on the history and topography of Jerusalem (1840); etc.
Op. 2 includes correspondence of Jewish cultural figures, in particular, the brothers K. and M. Levy, who were Paris booksellers (1876-77); Herman Diamand (1905); and others.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Baworowski Library (Polish: Biblioteka Baworowskich) used to be one of the largest Polish libraries in Lemberg/Lwów. Founded in the mid-19th c. by Count Wiktor Baworowski, a prominent bibliophile, collector, and translator of works by Lord Byron and Victor Hugo, it was located in the Baworowski palace in Lwów. The original library consisted of about 60,000 volumes and an art collection. The most significant part consisted of valuable topographical maps, historical documents, and early printed books and manuscripts. Over time, the library received about 7,000 volumes from the collection of Count Zygmunt Czarnecki and 8,000 First World War-era volumes from the Supreme National Committee, as well as 15,000 engravings and 10,000 drawings from other libraries. As of 1944, the library’s holdings included about 38,000 engravings, thirty incunabula, 1,254 manuscripts, 285 oil paintings, and 11,000 sketches.
After the Soviet annexation of Eastern Galicia, the library’s holdings were partially dispersed across various Soviet institutions. During the German occupation (1941-44), the Baworowski Library was reopened under the direction of Prof. Mieczysław Gębarowicz, who, upon the westward advance of the Red Army in early 1944, donated some of its artworks to the National Library in Krakow.
- System of arrangement:
- The fond contains two inventories without any apparent systematization of files.
- Finding aids:
- Inventories are available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
