FATHER JAN BOGUSLAWSKIS BOOK COLLECTION AS A TESTIMONY TO THE INTERESTS OF THE 16TH CENTURY CISTERCIAN PREACHER AND TRANSLATOR (Ksiegozbiór ks. Jana Boguslawskiego swiadectwem zainteresowan cysterskiego kaznodziei i tlumacza)

Father Jan Boguslawski, a 16th century Cistercian and translator, was virtually forgotten and absent from modern writings on the late Renaissance. The present article compiles facts from Father Boguslawski's life to be found in various source publications and examines the fragment of his book collection that has been identified so far. The authoress analyses 27 works in 25 volumes kept today at the University Library in Warsaw and several other academic libraries in Poland and abroad. She examines their content, bindings of the various volumes and the method of their marking. The collection theme is fairly homogeneous. It is dominated by theological literature, including Biblical commentaries and sermons. The surviving works testify to a distinctively utilitarian nature of the collection, necessary in everyday pastoral work. The oldest publication, from the earliest period of Boguslawski's life, comes from 1478. Other books, published in the 16th century, were bought between 1589 and 1602. After Boguslawski's death, in the early 17th century, a majority of volumes described here were incorporated into the library of the monastery in Koprzywnica. Apart from the catalogue description and place of storage, the enclosed list of books contains information about former owners of the books and the bindings.