Hieronim Stroynowski: A Treatise on Natural Law, Political Law, Political Economy, and the Law of Nations [1805]

Hieronim Stroynowski, *The Study of Natural Law, Political Law, Political Economy, and the Law of Nations*, Vilnius, 1805

(at the Printing Office of the Imperial University of Vilnius; third edition)

Hieronim Stroynowski’s work was first published in Vilnius in 1785. According to the Universal Lithuanian Encyclopedia (VLE) Stroynowski was a pioneer in teaching economics at the University of Vilnius and one of the most prominent physiocrats of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; he advocated for increasing agricultural production and taxing landowners, and he considered peasant serfdom to be contrary to natural law. This copy is an edition marked on the title page as “Third Edition,” printed in 1805, with a reprinted approval from the Main School of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania dating from 1785.

Hieronim Stroynowski (1752–1815) taught at the Collegium Nobilium in Warsaw and headed the Department of Natural Law in Vilnius (1783–1793). From 1799 to 1806, he served as rector of the University of Vilnius, and from 1814 onward, he was Bishop of Vilnius. The title page of the 1805 edition lists him as Coadjutor Bishop of Lutsk, a Knight of the Order of St. Stanislaus, a member of the Florentine Academy, the St. Petersburg Economic Society, and the Warsaw Society of Friends of Science, and rector of the Imperial University of Vilnius.

On the title page, there are handwritten notes, a faded signature, and a stamp on the reverse—traces of previous owners. The portrait and the last two pages of the table of contents are missing; there is a stain and some soiling on the title page, a stamp on the last page, and a corner cut on page s. 37/38. This copy underwent conservation treatment at the Antykwariat Polski workshop. The book block was mechanically cleaned, and the sections were re-sewn by hand, restoring the volume’s structural stability.

A half-leather binding handcrafted from the finest materials by master craftsmen at the Antykwariat Polski bookbindery. Natural leather, marbled paper endpapers.

The mission of Antykwariat Polski is based on a simple belief: valuable Polish books deserve to survive. Not as exhibits behind glass, but as living objects—preserved, bound with the utmost artisanal care, and ready for centuries to come in a collector’s library.

12203-17-A-X