Antoni Stefanowicz, The Work of Human Salvation Presented […] in Sermons Delivered at Various Churches in Kraków [1678]

Format: folio (2°), block height 29 cm.

Volume: two bound volumes—Volume I: [5], 186 pp., [4] pages of registers; Volume II: 208 pp., [4] pages of indexes.

Binding: original, full-leather binding from the period, with a loss of leather at the top of the spine.

A collection of sermons and reflections by Antoni Stefanowicz, delivered in Kraków’s churches, on the life and passion of Christ and the Marian mysteries, written in the Baroque style of preaching. It was written during the reign of Jan III Sobieski and printed at Wojciech Górecki’s publishing house in Kraków. The two parts have separate subject indexes, making the book easier for preachers to use.

On the front endpaper, there is a paper inventory label in Cyrillic reading “Vilnius Public Library” with the letter H. This library was established in 1867, in part from book collections confiscated from Polish monasteries following the January Uprising.

There are areas of missing skin on the upper part of the spine and at the corners. The title page is duplicated; there are notes on it, as well as on the first and last two pages. There are ink stains on pp. 183–186, and the missing sections of the last 7 pages have been filled in with paper.

An item from the 18th Polish Antiquarian Book Auction.