This paper presents two rare 16th-century panel-stamped bindings from the collections of the Kórnik Library. The first one, decorated with an impression of a panel depicting the personification of the Christian virtue of Hope (Spes), protects the printed book published in 1545. The binding was made by a Netherlandish bookbinder working in Leuven, called Master IP, identified with Jacob Pandelaert (d. ab. 1563). The second binding presents a Gothic motif of animals-in-foliage and protects a printed book published in 1550. The authorship of the panel (the so-called de profundis) is attributed to a bookbinder working in the town of ’s-Hertogenbosch (fr. Bois-le-Duc), Geraert van der Hatart (d. ab. 1540/1541). Both these bindings testify to the fact that the holdings of the Kórnik Library include gems of the West-European bookbinding craft.

Jan Walter of Chojnice (*about 1445, †1512), initially a vicar, and then a parson of St. Peter and Paul’s Church, as well as a secretary of Gdansk City Council, is one of the best known figures associated with the old book culture in Gdansk. The article describes one of the aspects of his bibliophilia: book covers marked with supralibros. It first discusses works by local bookbinders made for Walter, and then analyses a supralibros in the form of a miniature oval featuring the mark of a bibliophile (the head of a Negro) against the background of the European and local tradition of marking books in late Middle Ages. As a result, it is demonstrated that six from among the Gdansk citizen’s books we currently know, which contain the mark, were provided with it secondarily. This is mainly indicated by the non-typical locations of the supralibros – each one is in a way “squeezed in” between the regularly spaced elements of the blind embossing adornment of the covers.

Wśród licznych cymeliów Biblioteki Kórnickiej znajduje się dzieło Stanisława Sarnickiego pt. Descriptio veteris ac novae Poloniae, wydrukowane w 1585 r. przez Aleksego Rodeckiego w Krakowie. Chroni je oprawa pergaminowa z dekoracją w typie orientalizującym, oznaczona superekslibrisem dedykacyjnym od Jana Sienieńskiego dla króla Stefana Batorego. Wobec nikłej liczby introligatorskich bathorianów, które zachowały się do dzisiaj, w tekście podjęto analizę tegumentologiczną tego dzieła. Pozwala ona na osadzenie oprawy na tle rodzimej twórczości introligatorskiej schyłku XVI w., określenie jej wykonawcy, powiązanie z innymi oprawami druków z księgozbioru Batorego, a także zobrazowanie powiązań między dekoracją okładzin a szatą ilustracją chronionej przez nią publikacji.

The holdings of the Kórnik Library include a small printed book by Walenty Schreck published by the Königsbergian printing house of Johann Daubmann in 1559. At the beginning of the book, there is a hand-written dedication from the author to Duke Albrecht Frederick, a son of Albrecht of Prussia (von Hohenzollern), and a versed poetic work. Since the volume was a gift to a juvenile duke (and indirectly to his father), it was bound in a masterly manner: in covers with rich, almost entirely gilded ornamentation and with gilded edges. The paper offers an analysis of this book-binding work, taking similar objects from Polish collections and information from relevant literature as a point of reference. This allowed a thesis that the object is a representative creation of the leading 16th century Königsbergian book-binder Kaspar Angler, in which he used several of his characteristic decorating tools (such as a roll with fi gures of cupids and putti, a roll with a cortège of a king and bishop, and 3 medallion plaques with Biblical scenes). Taking into account its high artistry and almost untouched condition, the work seems to be one of the most impressive objects of the 16th century European bookbinding industry in the collection of the Kórnik library. Its high historical value also results from its provenance – it originates from the ducal library in Königsberg.

The collections of the Kórnik Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences include a set of printed textes by Jan Seklucjan with a handwritten dedication to Albrecht Frederick, Duke of Prussia (†1618). Their binding is decorated with plaquettes with portraits of Albrecht von Brandenburg- Ansbach, Duke of Prussia (†1568) and his first wife Dorothea (†1547). The article analyses both compositions, providing the following conclusions: they were made in the Konigsberg circles of the so-called Formschneider between the end of the 1530s and the first half of the 1540s. Between the period in question and 1565, wooden plaquettes (blocks) with these portraits were kept by the Duke’s court bookbinder, Kaspar Angler. After his death they probably belonged to the workshop equipment of his pupil Wolff Artzt, although it is also possible that they were used by a local religious writer, bookseller and possibly also bookbinder – Jan Seklucjan. Both works are examples of adaptation in Konigsberg of a specific formula of Renaissance book binding decoration, being at the same time a bookplate, based on a rectangular portrait plaquette presented in the centre of the cover. Compositions of such works most often depended on the painted portraits – mainly from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder. Both Konigsberg portraits, however, are marked by prolonged proportions, a landscape background, and the display of coats of arms at the bottom. This fact should be explained by the painting models that were probably related to paintings in Albrecht’s Konigsberg residence. It is impossible to decide definitely whether they were made by a painter employed at his court (e.g. Crispin Herrant), or imported. Nevertheless, they are an indirect testimony to the existence of a gallery of portraits in the Konigsberg Castle, which was created on a long-term basis and with passion by the Duke of Prussia.

Artykuł poświęcony jest cennemu sobiescianum z kolekcji rękopisów PAN Biblioteki Kórnickiej – oprawie rękopiśmiennego panegiryku z emblematami autorstwa Johanna Jakoba Rollosa dedykowanego królowi Janowi III Sobieskiemu. To dzieło introligatorskie odznacza się powściągliwą, choć wytworną dekoracją, w centrum której widnieje superekslibris władcy w formie monogramu pod koroną królewską i w ujęciu gałązek palmowych. W pierwszej kolejności dokonano analizy oprawy pod względem materiałowo-technicznym i dekoracyjnym. Wnioski z analizy wykorzystano do osadzenia dzieła na tle francuskiego introligatorstwa XVII wieku, co doprowadziło do wniosku, że jest to klasyczny przykład oprawy w stylu à la Duseuil ( à la Du Seuil), mający liczne odpowiedniki w dorobku francuskich introligatorów ery baroku. W dalszej kolejności przeanalizowano genezę formy superekslibrisu, wskazując na francuskie wzorniki graficzne, prezentujące m.in. projekty monogramów. Istotne okazały się analogie między superekslibrisem Sobieskiego a francuskimi superekslibrisami z monogramem lub tarczą herbową pod koroną i otoczoną gałązkami palmowymi bądź podobnymi motywami. Uwagę poświęcono też genezie formy papieru marmurkowego, z którego wykonano wyklejki. Na końcu podjęto się próby osadzenia tej księgi na tle księgozbioru Jana III Sobieskiego, z którego do dziś zachowała się jedynie drobna część woluminów. Zwrócono też uwagę na problem monogramów królewskich w Polsce ostatnich lat XVII i pierwszych dekad XVIII wieku.