Karol Estreicher (1827–1908) and his Bibliografia polska: Negotiating a National Bibliography in Nineteenth-Century Poland

Abstract

Karol Estreicher (1827–1908) compiled Bibliografia polska [Polish bibliography], an extraordinary retrospective national bibliography of the body of written works of Poland. Chronologically covering the entire history of printing in Poland up to 1900, it consisted of three distinct parts: the nineteenth century; a universal chronological bibliography of Polish publications; and pre-nineteenth century, conventionally called Bibliografia staropolska [Bibliography of old Poland]. So far a total of 56 volumes of Bibliografia polska have been published. That total includes the 35 volumes that constitute parts 1, 2, and 3; the four volumes that, covering 1891–1900, were published outside the framework of the three parts; and the seventeen volumes that constitute the second edition of part 1, the nineteenth-century bibliography. It was an exhaustive but also complicated bibliographic opus. A prolific writer and literary scholar himself, Estreicher devoted—with remarkable endurance and resilience—50 years of his life to its making. Much of the complexity of his bibliography reflected the cultural and intellectual roots of the author and the way he interpreted the meaning of his project.