Marian Dubiecki, An Outline of Recent History [1880]

Format: 21 cm.

Number of pages: 452.

Binding: Period half-leather, with title labels on the spine. Slight wear on the spine label; a visible crack and heavy wear on the corners; title labels barely visible.

Marian Dubiecki (1838–1926) described events in which he himself took part. During the January Uprising, he served in the Ruthenian Department of the National Government and acted as an intermediary between Romuald Traugutt and Henryk Krajewski, the director of foreign affairs. Arrested in 1864 and imprisoned at Pawiak, he did not betray anyone during the investigation; sentenced to hard labor and exile, he was held, among other places, in Irkutsk, then in Yekaterinoslav and Odessa. Even while in exile, he wrote for *Tygodnik Ilustrowany*, *Kłosy*, and *Bluszcz*.

“A Sketch of Recent History” is an outline of world history from the Congress of Vienna to the years 1876–1878—that is, the Balkan Crisis and the Russo-Turkish War. The author wrote it in Odessa and published it in 1880 through Józef Zawadzki in Vilnius, at the same printing house that had printed the first volume of Mickiewicz’s *Poetry*, containing *Ballads and Romances*, in 1822.

Provenance: On the title page and the first few pages, there is a stamp reading “Society of the Ladies of Charity in Vilnius. St. Vincent de Paul,” followed by the seal “Society of the Ladies of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. Holy Cross Parish in Warsaw. Warsaw, Tamka St. No. 30,” and a stamp reading “Sold from the surplus collection of the Holy Cross Parish Library.” The book thus passed from the Vilnius branch to the Warsaw branch of the same association and was later legally sold from the library.

Complete volume, 452 pages. The paper is evenly discolored, and the text is legible. The binding has scuffed corners and a small crack in the spine.

An item from the 19th Polish Antiquarian Book Auction.