Edycja i znaczenie spisów książek z XIX-wiecznych akt notarialnych
Edition and Significance of Book Registers in 19th-Century Notarial Documents

Two Book Collections of Inhabitants of Chełm

Author(s): Wiktor Sybilski
Subject(s): 19th Century
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: notarial documents; book registers; probates; auction results; readership; middle class; Christians; Jews; female elite; Haskalah; Chełm; Ruthenia
Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the work is to examine the benefits of abstraction of book registers from notarial documents (probates and auction results) and the development of pertinent bibliological and historical commentary. The book collections of two middle-class inhabitants of the city of Chełm were analysed – in this case, a Christian and a Jew: Tadeusz Wylęgiewicz (ca. 1791–1825) and Rala Byk née Ettinger (ca. 1793–1824). The results of the analysis may be surprising – the set of books of the city tax collector can be likened to a priest’s library, while the library of the young widow reveals a cosmopolitan outlook and clearly indicates the impact of the Haskalah movement. The transfer of books and ideas is revealed to have occurred across confessional and ethnic boundaries. Auction records also list individual purchasers of the books – in examining these closer, the less obvious interactions and interests of the local educated society can be traced. Both cases, because of their peculiarity – especially the latter as a female member of the Jewish elite – attest, firstly, to the cultural potential of a minor city at the Western edges of the former Ruthenian Voivodeship and, secondly, make a strong case for establishing a broader study sample of other remaining book lists in the notarial documents of the city of Chełm.

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