General Confederation of All Orders of the Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Adopted at the Convocation of 1764, Warsaw 1764

Title: General Confederation of All Orders of the Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Adopted at the Main Convocation in Warsaw, on the Seventh Day of May, in the Year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred and Sixty-Four
Issuing authority: Convocation Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (General Confederation of the Crown and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of the Czartoryski Family)
Publisher: Printing House of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at the Collegium XX. Scholarum Piarum, Warsaw
Year of publication: 1764
Format: 33 cm
Volume: 193 pp.
Binding: original, period half-leather.

This document records the act of confederation formed at the Convocation Sejm in May 1764, during the interregnum following the death of Augustus III of Saxony. The Czartoryski faction (Familia) formed the General Confederation of the Crown and Lithuania at that time, seeking political reforms and preparing for the election of Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski. The Sejm restricted the use of the liberum veto in fiscal and military matters, introduced a uniform general customs duty, and established the Treasury and Military Commissions. The print was produced at the Piarist printing house in Warsaw.

The text contains the full text of the adopted universal decrees and the points of the confederation, along with lists of signatories—it is a primary source for research on the political reforms of the early years of Stanisław August Poniatowski’s reign.

On the title page and inside the text block, there is a ownership stamp reading “Biblioteka HR. Bielińskich” with the palace inventory number 777, as well as old ink inscriptions—the mark of the Bieliński family’s book collection, bearing the Junosza coat of arms. On the front endpaper is an ex-libris by Jarosław Henryk Doliński (1910–1983), a Kraków architect, historic preservationist, and collector of books and ex-libris in postwar Poland.

Condition of the copy: leather spine with deep cracks and missing sections, weakened joints, endpapers with missing sections; paper in very good condition; aside from the ownership marks described above, the pages are clean, with no foxing or water stains; minor insect damage in the margins, with no damage to the text.