Wrocław’s libraries and archives – a very short practical introduction (wersja polska poniżej)

Wrocław is super important for my research. University Library’s collection from 19th century onwards was gradually incorporating smaller collections from all over Lower Silesia. It owns more early printed books (from before 1800) than any other library in Poland (!), about 317 000 titles, which were never fully catalogued. There is no single catalogue of these, but rather a couple of them, which differ in scope, precision and method of description. All are digitized, accessible from the library’s website and explained there as well.

But there are more resources available at place, only one has to put in some extra effort in order to find them: firstly, there is a manuscript database of Silesian printers, prepared by Germans before the war and supplemented afterwards. It presents an invaluable source for those studying a specific printing shop (like myself). Secondly, there is a German catalogue of the so-called ‘genealogies’ (genealogie). It consists of cards ordered according to names of people for whom a given work, e.g. an epithalamium or a funeral speech, was composed. Both catalogues are ‘generally’ not to be used by visitors, but it proves doable after all.

The University Library has three separate buildings: at św. Jadwigi street (so-called ‘na Piasku’) – with early printed books, manuscripts and a reading room where they can be accessed (Czytelnia Zbiorów Specjalnych); at Karola Szajnochy street – with more or less all the rest; and finally a new location at Fryderyka Joliot-Curie street, where collections from the two former spots are to be gathered eventually. This reorganisation is in progress right now, which affects the normal working hours of the library, including Czytelnia Zbiorów Specjalnych (the reading room at św. Jadwigi). So, one should definitely CHECK THE CURRENT OPENING HOURS before planning this kind of trip to Wrocław.

It is worth-mentioning that the library is pretty well equipped with the secondary literature on the subject of book history. One can get an idea about this part of its holdings thanks to the catalogue of reference collection at Czytelnia Zbiorów Specjalnych, as well as a digitized catalogue of bibliological collections, which is available here: http://www.bu.uni.wroc.pl/2c/22c/katsys/22c-sys.php?k=biblsys.

Window view of the University Library's courtyard

A five minutes walk from św. Jadwigi street will take one to Ossolineum. The historic library has little to do with Lower Silesia, of course, yet it’s good to know that, already after the war, it incorporated two interesting Silesian collections: that of the Cistercian monastery in Krzeszów and that belonging to the Schaffgotsch family at Warmbrunn (Cieplice). So, Ossolineum is though significant for research in Lower Silesian history, at least more than one would originally think.

It is worth-mentioning that there are some auxiliary catalogues at the Ossolinski Library which prove especially useful to a book historian: the provenance register (in two parts – 16th and 17–18th centuries) and a catalogue of non-polonica organised according to places of publication (again, further separated chronologically). Apart from that, an indexed catalogue of polonica was published in 1997.

Just one more tip – Ossolineum’s address, as stated on the library’s website, is Szewska 37, but entry for visitors can be found at the bank of Odra river (as one learns at entering the door at Szewska).

Again nearby (Szewska 51), the University Archive (Archiwum Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego) is located. The only warning I can give to potential users of this institution is that no part of any master or doctoral thesis can be copied in any form due to copyright regulations. I didn’t use other types of archival documents, though.

Finally: the State Archive (Archiwum Państwowe). There is no need to know in advance what documents exactly we are looking for, as the collection is neatly organised into smaller entities (according to regions of Lower Silesia) and quite precise registers including a concise description of each document are made accessible to users. Deciphering old handwriting will be a challenge to those who had previously little experience with archives. But this is manageable after a little practice. I developed a quick method of improving my skills in paleography – one can namely check a modern edition of a given document where the latter seems illegible. As to this particular archive, such transcripts (also 17th century ones, despite what is suggested by the title) can be found for example in the following publication, available in the institution’s library: Quellenbuch zur Geschichte der Universität Breslau 1702–1811, ed. N. Conrads, M. Müller, C. Rabe, Köln–Weimar–Wien 2003.

In the close vicinity of the Archive, there is a restaurant called ‘Dobra Karma’ which I can highly recommend as a place to spend one’s subsistence budget. You leave the building behind, immediately turn left from Pomorska street and there it is. Even the strangest looking dishes from the menu which changes every day (as, for instance, cold soup made of strawberries, watermelon, rhubarb and feta cheese) taste really delicious. Being so amazed with the quality of food there, I asked a waiter once who is this exceptionally talented cook, and his answer made everything clear: ‘My sister cooks here; actually, we decided to open this restaurant for this very reason’.

Visiting Oleśnica (wersja polska poniżej)

It seems that Lower Silesia is rarely chosen as a travel destination in comparison with other parts of Poland. My impression is that Lower Silesian monuments, many of them of highest quality, aren’t particularly well-known, be it Kamieniec Ząbkowicki with its impressive romantic residence by Schinkel, quite unique „Churches of Peace” in Świdnica and Jawor, or a highlight of Silesian baroque architecture – Cistercian monastery of Krzeszów. Although, as a school-girl, I was lucky enough to travel to these places, I had no idea about Oleśnica’s interesting heritage. Most of the valuable objects there are gathered in the church of Saint John the Evangelist. More about them can be found here: http://olesnica.archidiecezja.wroc.pl/start/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=72. Sadly, the church remains closed most of the time – I suppose the best idea would be to go there at half an hour before the Eucharist or right afterwards. For this reason, I managed to take only few pictures of the interior, and I didn’t even take a closer look at the supposedly most valuable object thereof – a mannerist pulpit by an accomplished Dutch artist, Gerhard Hendrik (more on that in a monograph by Piotr Oszczanowski, Złoty medalion oprawiony czterema diamentami. Rzeźby Gerharda Hendrika z Amsterdamu z początku XVII wieku w Oleśnicy, Wrocław 2012). Worth-visiting is also the chained library, one of only few similar ones in Europe. Also this I haven’t seen yet, but now I know that there are appointed tours every two weeks for which one can subscribe by calling the local museum (Oleśnicki Dom Spotkań z Historią, http://muzeum.olesnica.pl/en/) at +48 71 716 52 23.

A detail from decoration of an organ matroneum with putto serrounded with musical instruments and an inscription "Lobet ihn mit Pauken" ("Praise Him with drums"), Ps. 150

I can recommend visiting the latter as well. It is a small museum making use of new technologies which apart from creating a general positive image allow for example to browse nineteenth century postcards from Oels in a perfect resolution. Bored children can be entertained with e.g. playing a video game action of which is set in medieval Oels – parents know how valuable such an activity can be at some point of a tiring day. The objects displayed come largely from a private collection of Krzysztof Dziedzic, editor in chief of „Panorama Oleśnicka” and an expert on the local history. I find it quite special in and of itself. Controversial yet interesting to an extent is a part of exhibition devoted to Oleśnica’s post-war history. A commentary from an outsider’s point of view is almost non-existent, the only testimony to those hard times give memoires written in the 60s by Polish settlers from right after the war and now read out loud by actors. Many parts of these texts are strongly influenced by the propaganda language of the time. It is hard to determine to what extent that propaganda formed authors’ real personal views, and in how far its presence had to do with the context in which the memoires were written down – they were created specifically for a literary contest, organised in the 60s by a local library.

'From Oels with love' - an old postcard with a visible date: November 5, 1899

A streetlamp decorating the interior of a local cafe (!)

If we leave the strict historic centre, we will soon reach the remnants of the modernist German architecture saved from the devastation WWII brought to the city. For me, the rich iconographic programme of the former evangelical school (in Słowackiego street) was particularly interesting – see couple of pictures below.

Owl as a symbol of wisdom - decoration of the former evangelical school

Bees as a symbol of hard work - decoration of the former evangelical school

Motto decorating the former evangelical school - "No pain, no gain"

The backdrop of my one-day trip to Oleśnica was very poor bus communication between the city and Wrocław where I was staying. I found numerous connections on the internet but the reality was different. Two buses in a row didn’t come (although they ride under a private company) and altogether I had to wait almost two hours for transport. So it wouldn’t be advisable to count on the last bus to Wrocław but rather come to the station a little earlier, just in case, or best – go by car instead.

Ideology, Gallus Anonymus and the so-called ‘Regained Territories’ (polska wersja poniżej)

Why study early modern culture? I am often faced with this question, which seems to me indeed a lot more justified than an analogous one posed to specialists in contemporary culture. For it is plainly natural that we want to know more about things close to us and concerning us directly. Therefore, it seems, experts in the field of contemporary culture much more often study their favourite part of it, e.g. their favourite poet, who has been personally important to them in their lives. No wonder they want to dig deeper into the topic.

But why early modern culture? As far as I’m concerned – because it’s exotic. In the same way as the culture of Far East or India is exotic. Remoteness in time is linked to the same strangeness as remoteness in space; and strangeness is often appealing. But that’s not all. The older culture is a kind of asylum among research topics. I’m really glad that I don’t have to take a stance in contemporary disputes on issues historical, political or social, or at least I’m forced to do it to a much lesser extent than someone dealing with, let’s say, ethnic conflicts in the modern-day Ukraine. I consider it a privilege to always be able to say: ‘I have no opinion on that one’.

But, where there’s a will there’s a way. Numerous publications from after 1945 devoted to the old culture of Lower Silesia show explicitly that interpreting facts according to a given ideology is possible regardless whether these facts occurred, say, in the 1940s or five, or even ten centuries earlier. Here’s an example (concerning this time medieval period):

‘There was no weakening of studies on Gallus Anonymus after World War II, on the contrary, they only intensified after regaining by Poland the Western Lands, Silesia and Pomerania, where the major part of his chronicle’s action is set – and then thanks to the thousandth anniversary celebrations, which simply had to expose the oldest of our chronicles. «Gallus Anonymus is again near to us» (Stanisław Helsztyński) – this was rightly emphasized in the press of immediately after the war, in 1945, and the bibliography of recent twenty years contains a strikingly large number of articles devoted to Gallus in all sorts of papers and journals.’ (preface to Polish Chronicle by Gallus Anonymus, 7th edition, Wrocław 1999, BN I nr 59)

This quotation, carelessly repeated in each new edition of the Chronicle..., is a perfect example of a formerly widespread, but, sadly, still present phenomenon of attempting to compulsively justify that the above mentioned territories should belong to the People’s Republic of Poland (PRL). I will repeat what is already well-known, but I still find it worth mentioning. Every word in the formula ‘territories regained by Poland’, formula used here, repeated over and over again, and repeated even today, is false. For neither were these lands ‘regained’ – they were rather taken by force with no historical legitimization of such act whatsoever, which, as we know, was accompanied by savage treatment of Germans living there and throwing out civilians out of their homes; nor were these lands regained ‘by Poland’ – for no Polish authority ever took actions or made decisions in order to seize the lands. This decision was a classic example of Stalin’s policy of mass and often brutal displacements. Changing borders and, above all, displacement of people was fully arbitrary and was in this form unknown in politics earlier than that of the 20th century. Legitimizing such actions by invoking dukes from the Piast dynasty, ruling Silesia in the medieval times, is at best grotesque. But even the brutality of German occupation doesn’t justify anything of that sort. On the contrary, the victims should strive towards being as different from their oppressor as can be.

But even if we assumed for a moment that this whole propaganda story was true... what link would it have to Gallus Anonymus? None, of course. If what we read was dependent on factors such as shifting borders then Poles would have to quit reading Shakespeare and Dante, as authors that are not worthwhile for not being Polish enough. One could give some attention only to Hamlet, thanks to Fortinbras’s return from a Polish war.

The above described peculiarity of thinking is also present in the book historical research on Lower Silasia, the topic most interesting to me right now. Polonica – this word is represented far above average in catalogues, publications and master theses devoted to the topic. And why should it be? Why Polish books or those concerning Poland are more interesting than the German ones? I can’t think of any sensible reason. Of course, the term ‘polonica’ was not coined after WWII. It was an invention which allowed Karol Estreicher to limit an already enormous spectrum of his bibliographical research – it’s impossible to describe the whole world, after all. Later, however, this construct was used to overemphasize the importance of Polish culture e.g. in Lower Silesia which tendency resulted in negligence of the main-stream German culture as, for inexplicable reasons, less interesting.

‘Polish reader, used to Polish books being almost solely about Poles and Polish issues, may take against me both the choice of characters and of the topic which I found interesting. Yet in my view, other people, not only Poles, are also people. And the topic of the book was an attempt to describe some constellation of human affairs’. These words were written by Józef Mackiewicz in an epilogue to his novel Sprawa pułkownika Miasojedowa (The Colonel Miasojedow’s Affair), where the characters are mainly Russians. I also think in a similar way.

A meaningful order of languages in a menu of one of Wrocław's cafes today