Friedlein, D. E., Catalog of Polish Books, Manuscripts, Engravings, Lithographs, Maps, Drawings, Coins, and Medals. Nos. 1–2. [1873]

Title: Catalog of Books, Manuscripts, Engravings, Lithographs, Maps, Drawings, Polish Coins and Medals, as well as foreign items relating to Polish matters, available for purchase at the antiquarian bookshop of D. E. Friedlein in Kraków. Nos. 1–2 in 1 vol.

Author: The Antiquarian Bookstore of D. E. Friedlein in Kraków (run at that time by Józef Edward Friedlein) [a Kraków family of booksellers and publishers, residing near Wawel since 1796; the business operated in the Hetmańska tenement house on the Main Market Square]

Publisher: Published by D. E. Friedlein’s Bookstore. Printed at the Jagiellonian University Press under the management of K. Mańkowski, Kraków

Year of publication: 1873. Series: Catalog of D. E. Friedlein’s Bookstore in Kraków (numbered series, here Nos. 1–2).

Format: 22 cm.

Volume: Part 1 – [3], 196 pp. Part 2 – 16 pp.

Binding: Paperback, paper cover, publisher’s edition.

Company sales catalogs rarely found their way into libraries—printed for current commercial use, they wore out and were discarded once the transaction was completed. This makes the set of the first two issues of the series published by the Kraków bookstore D. E. Friedlein between 1873 and 1879 (fourteen issues in total), preserved in a single volume, all the more significant. The first issue covers Polish books and manuscripts as well as foreign works relating to Polish matters; the second issue features engravings, lithographs, maps, and hand-drawn illustrations; subsequent issues of the series included, among other things, coins and medals. The 1873 edition marks the moment when the firm decided to expand its antiquarian book department, which it had previously operated on a limited scale. This coincided with the period of Galician autonomy, a decade after the defeat of the January Uprising; the preceding eleven-year hiatus in catalog publication is attributed to a desire to avoid drawing the attention of the Austrian authorities to the bookstore’s patriotic profile.

Daniel Edward Friedlein (1802–1855) took over the family bookstore from his father, Jan, and significantly expanded the inherited stock by purchasing the liquidated bookstores of Drelinkiewicz and Jan Maj, from whom he also acquired a printing press. The company acted as a consignment dealer for publications from Jagiellonian University and the Kraków Scientific Society, supplied textbooks to the Jagiellonian Library and the Raczyński Library in Poznań, and from 1848 onward, the daily newspaper *Czas* was published in its printing house. After Daniel’s death, the business was inherited by his son, Józef Edward (1831–1917), who later became mayor of Kraków; he expanded the antiquarian book division, increased the collection of engravings to 2,000, and collected maps and coins; it was during his tenure that the catalog now being offered was published, still under his father’s firm name.

The provenance of this particular piece remains unknown—the volume bears no institutional stamps or ownership inscriptions.

A valuable resource for researchers of the history of the book, the history of the antiquarian trade, and 19th-century Polish collecting, as well as for collectors of Cracovian publications and works published by the Friedlein firm.

The block is intact; the paper has natural spots and discoloration; the pages are clean. The paper publisher’s cover is cracked.

Catalog ID: 10818-22-A-X