Tomasz Niewodniczański (1933–2010) i jego zbiory. In memoriam. Kolekcja Marie-Luise Niewodniczańskiej – kontynuacja.

The paper presents Dr. Tomasz Niewodniczański (1933–2010), a collector, physicist, and businessman, citizen of Poland and Germany. Over the years, in Bitburg, Germany, he amassed a formidable, unique collection of antique maps, prints, sea charts, atlases, globes, parchment documents, manuscripts, old books, letters of famous persons, letters of Polish prisoners from Nazi concentration camps, other documents and collectibles on paper, related mostly to Poland or – historically – to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and – to a lesser extent – to Germany. Before he died he bequeathed his entire collection related to Poland to the Royal Castle in Warsaw. The Niewodniczański Collection is described in limited detail, with particular attention paid to maps, sea charts, and city views. Some of those are accompanied by commentaries and placed in the context of the history of European cartography. Several of the rarest antique atlases, now in the collection of Marie-Luise Niewodniczańska, Tomasz’s widow’s, are also described. A large number of reproductions of old maps, atlases, views, etc., and references accompany the text. The paper amounts to an attempt to present “in a capsule” the history of cartography of the area of Europe once under the rule of the Kings of Poland (who simultaneously were the Grand Dukes of Lithuania). The contribution of Tomasz Niewodniczański to research on the history of cartography is emphasized. The numerous exhibitions he organized, based on his collection, and the extensive catalogues thereof are listed. Some of the author’s own memories of Tomasz Niewodniczański are recalled.