DOI article:
Getka-Kenig, Mikołaj: Traktat Sebastiana Sierakowskiego a problem popularyzacji wiedzy architektonicznej w Księstwie Warszawskim
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.44918#0116
improving that fortunę from the said work on architecture”).103 It was a substantial
financial investment, as the total cost of publication of the treatise was 4 thousand
ducats (“red zlotys”), or 12 thousand thalers, which was not the highest sum spent
for this kind of purpose during the period of the Duchy of Warsaw, but also by no
means was it meagre (the record-breaking expenses, amounting to between 17 and
17,5 thousand thalers, were incurred by Samuel Bogumił Linde during the publica-
tion of his multi-volume Słownik języka polskiego - the Dictionary of the Polish
language).104 If such an expense was to be paid back with a surplus, Sierakowskis
work could not have been a low-cost issue. The author himself initially anticipated
the cost of 120 zlotys (6 ducats or 18 thalers) per one copy of the complete work,
but the Drukarnia Akademicka printing house in Kraków was to ultimately sell
the Architecture at 166 zlotys, and other booksellers, even as much as 200 zlotys. At
that time, this was a very high price to pay for a book.105 This fact madę it impos-
sible to reach a morę democratized circle of individual merchants, thus contradict-
ing the idea of disseminating the principles, which were available to the affluent
people anyway, as a result of their reading of foreign publications (and there was
no shortage of those in private libraries).106 Therefore, it can be assumed that the
basie expected buyers of Sierakowski s work were to be educational institutions of
various levels, which, providing him with sales of his book, would also facilitate
the implementation of the postulate of widespread dissemination. Let us notę that
the issue of “purchasing and inserting this work to the school libraries” was also
the subject of the correspondence between Sierakowski and Śniadecki, referring
to the Polish lands under the Russian rule. Śniadecki agreed with the author that
“knowledge of civil architecture should be included in the plan [...] of the scholarly
instructions”107, although he saw its place among optional subjeets. On the other
hand, according to the idea presented in his treatise, Sierakowski could have hoped
that his book would be bought, for example, by wealthier landowners who - in
making themselves responsible for the social community - would make it available
to those who could not afford it (tenants or even peasants). The aforementioned
correspondence with Śniadecki clearly suggests that the author focused on wealthy
readers, including well-to-do students. The latter were, however, the most obvious
candidates for futurę construction investors. Taking into account the proportion of
costs to the originally assumed price (4000 to 6 ducats), the circulation of the treatise
must have been at least 700 copies. This put it on the average level of publishing
circulation at that time in Poland (which ranged between 500 and 1000 copies)108
and most defmitely excluded the possibility of large-scale sales.
As we remember, the political naturę of the treatise was not unrelated to its
scientific character, which emphasized the social significance of the subject being
103 Biblioteka Jagiellońska, rkps 3729, vol. 8, sheet 3-3v.
104 M. Ptaszyk, Słownik języka polskiego Samuela Bogumiła Lindego: szkice bibliologiczne, Toruń
2007, pp. 128-129.
105 Idem, Cena „Słownika języka polskiego” Samuela Bogumiła Lindego (Warszawa 1807-1814),
“Acta Universitatis Nicolai Copernici. Nauki Humanistyczno-Społeczne, Bibliologia”, 4,2000,
issue 340, p. 241.
106 See: T.S. Jaroszewski, Architektura doby Oświecenia w Polsce: nurty i odmiany, Wrocław 1971,
PP- 30-33.
107 Śniadeckis letter to Sierakowski of 5/17 11811, p. 376.
108 J. Kamionkowa, Życie literackie w Polsce w pierwszej połowie xix wieku. Warszawa 1970, p. 238.
114
ARTICLES
Mikołaj Getka-Kenig
financial investment, as the total cost of publication of the treatise was 4 thousand
ducats (“red zlotys”), or 12 thousand thalers, which was not the highest sum spent
for this kind of purpose during the period of the Duchy of Warsaw, but also by no
means was it meagre (the record-breaking expenses, amounting to between 17 and
17,5 thousand thalers, were incurred by Samuel Bogumił Linde during the publica-
tion of his multi-volume Słownik języka polskiego - the Dictionary of the Polish
language).104 If such an expense was to be paid back with a surplus, Sierakowskis
work could not have been a low-cost issue. The author himself initially anticipated
the cost of 120 zlotys (6 ducats or 18 thalers) per one copy of the complete work,
but the Drukarnia Akademicka printing house in Kraków was to ultimately sell
the Architecture at 166 zlotys, and other booksellers, even as much as 200 zlotys. At
that time, this was a very high price to pay for a book.105 This fact madę it impos-
sible to reach a morę democratized circle of individual merchants, thus contradict-
ing the idea of disseminating the principles, which were available to the affluent
people anyway, as a result of their reading of foreign publications (and there was
no shortage of those in private libraries).106 Therefore, it can be assumed that the
basie expected buyers of Sierakowski s work were to be educational institutions of
various levels, which, providing him with sales of his book, would also facilitate
the implementation of the postulate of widespread dissemination. Let us notę that
the issue of “purchasing and inserting this work to the school libraries” was also
the subject of the correspondence between Sierakowski and Śniadecki, referring
to the Polish lands under the Russian rule. Śniadecki agreed with the author that
“knowledge of civil architecture should be included in the plan [...] of the scholarly
instructions”107, although he saw its place among optional subjeets. On the other
hand, according to the idea presented in his treatise, Sierakowski could have hoped
that his book would be bought, for example, by wealthier landowners who - in
making themselves responsible for the social community - would make it available
to those who could not afford it (tenants or even peasants). The aforementioned
correspondence with Śniadecki clearly suggests that the author focused on wealthy
readers, including well-to-do students. The latter were, however, the most obvious
candidates for futurę construction investors. Taking into account the proportion of
costs to the originally assumed price (4000 to 6 ducats), the circulation of the treatise
must have been at least 700 copies. This put it on the average level of publishing
circulation at that time in Poland (which ranged between 500 and 1000 copies)108
and most defmitely excluded the possibility of large-scale sales.
As we remember, the political naturę of the treatise was not unrelated to its
scientific character, which emphasized the social significance of the subject being
103 Biblioteka Jagiellońska, rkps 3729, vol. 8, sheet 3-3v.
104 M. Ptaszyk, Słownik języka polskiego Samuela Bogumiła Lindego: szkice bibliologiczne, Toruń
2007, pp. 128-129.
105 Idem, Cena „Słownika języka polskiego” Samuela Bogumiła Lindego (Warszawa 1807-1814),
“Acta Universitatis Nicolai Copernici. Nauki Humanistyczno-Społeczne, Bibliologia”, 4,2000,
issue 340, p. 241.
106 See: T.S. Jaroszewski, Architektura doby Oświecenia w Polsce: nurty i odmiany, Wrocław 1971,
PP- 30-33.
107 Śniadeckis letter to Sierakowski of 5/17 11811, p. 376.
108 J. Kamionkowa, Życie literackie w Polsce w pierwszej połowie xix wieku. Warszawa 1970, p. 238.
114
ARTICLES
Mikołaj Getka-Kenig