Pozycja protobibliotekarza w Cursus Honorum patrycjatu gdańskiego

The Library of the Council of the City of Gdańsk was initially managed by the Collegium Scholarchale – a city authority responsible for the supervision of the schools of Gdańsk. Since the 1650s, one of its members occupied the prestigious position of the protolibrarian, i.e. the custodian of the Gdańsk bookery. For the next one and a half centuries the most eminent members of the city patrician milieu carried out the duty, caring for the institution that was entrusted to them to a greater or lesser extent. Some of them limited their work solely to supervising book purchases, while others engaged themselves in improving the conditions in which the Library was functioning – by acquiring additional funds, planning and supervising renovations or developing the catalogue of the holdings. The article presents the figures of the subsequent nineteen protolibrarians and – above all – the place of the Library curator in their cursus honorum. It also explains what kind of education and experience were required to be appointed to this position.