Maurycy Dzieduszycki, *Ojczyzna* [1867]

Title: Homeland.

Author: Maurycy Dzieduszycki (1813–1877) [Count, Catholic writer and journalist, author of works on the history of the Church in Poland, deputy curator of the Ossoliński National Institute, member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences; he also published under the pseudonym M. J. A. Rychcicki].

Publisher: Lviv, published by Alexander Vogel.

Year of publication: 1867.

Format: 22 cm.

Binding: Paperback.

Published in Lviv in 1867, *Ojczyzna* belongs to the journalistic and reflective part of Maurycy Dzieduszycki’s body of work. These are reflections on the essence of national community, written by an author known primarily for his treatises on the history of the Church and biographies of prominent figures in Polish Catholicism. The year of publication is no coincidence. In 1867, Galicia was entering a period of broad autonomy within the Habsburg Monarchy, and Lviv was becoming one of the main centers of Polish intellectual and political life under the partitions. This statement on the homeland, published at that moment, was part of the debate on the shape of national identity under the conditions of newly gained freedom. The author, a staunch ultramontane, strongly linked Polishness with Catholicism and loyalty to Rome. The pamphlet was published by the Lviv bookseller Alexander Vogel in a modest brochure format typical of Galician journalism at the time.

Maurycy Ignacy Aleksander Count Dzieduszycki was born on February 10, 1813, in Rychcice. He derived his pen name, M. J. A. Rychcicki, from this town. He was an official in the Galician Viceroyalty and, from 1855, an imperial chamberlain. From 1851 to 1869, as deputy curator, he co-directed the Ossoliński National Institute in Lviv. His works include, among others, *Piotr Skarga and His Age* (1850), “Zbigniew Oleśnicki” (1853–1854), and “The Dzieduszycki Family Chronicle” (1865). In 1873, he became an active member of the Academy of Learning in Kraków. Scholars note that he was drawn more to polemics and the free expression of bold, unpopular opinions than to the rigor of scholarly criticism. Therefore, it is difficult to call him a historian in the strict sense, but he remains a distinctive voice of nineteenth-century Catholic thought in Galicia. He was a Knight of the Austrian Order of the Iron Crown. He died in Lviv on April 22, 1877.

Provenance: on the reverse of the title page, a stamp reading “Poznań University Library – Duplicate,” attesting to the piece’s presence in the collection of the Poznań University Library and its subsequent removal as a duplicate.

This is a Lviv print from the pivotal year of Galician autonomy, an uncut piece in its original cover. A must-have for collectors of Lviv-related items, researchers of 19th-century nationalist and Catholic thought, and enthusiasts of prints preserved in their original published condition.

Uncut piece. The paper publisher’s binding is in good condition; the block—except for the first fold—is intact; the paper has natural spots and stains.

Catalog ID: 8326-22-A-X