Księgozbiory prywatne zachowane w Bibliotece Kapituły Kieleckiej (XV–XVIII w.)

Abstract

This article is based on provenance research done on the historical library of the Kielce chapter house. This research has allowed to prepare a list of priests who owned book collections which were subsequently bequeathed to the chapter library. Particular books were matched with their owners and thus catalogues of private libraries came into existence. In some cases these “catalogues” contain only one or two printed books. The private libraries stored in the chapter library contain monuments of printing since the fifteenth century. The priests who owned these books were either members of the chapter house or curates of the Kielce collegiate church in the period from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. The members of the chapter house as well as the curates owned printed books connected with their sacerdotal activity, such as collections of sermons, handbooks for priests or liturgical books. Some of them owned also works of the Fathers of the Church as well as biblical, theological and legal prints. The contents of the private book collections cast light on the interests and the theological culture of the environment of the Kielce chapter.