Joseph Maximilian Ossolinski

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Joseph Maximilian Ossolinski (* 1748 in Wola Mielecka ; † March 17, 1826 in Vienna ; Polish: Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński ) was a Polish / Austrian literary and cultural historian, bibliophile , writer, politician, patron from the Polish nobility and founder of the Ossolineum . He carried the title of Count of Tenczyn.

Joseph Maximilian Ossolinski, oil painting by Jan Maszkowski (Lwowska Galeria Obrazów)

Life

Joseph Maximilian came from the Polish noble family Ossoliński and is the great-grandson of the Polish statesman and Count Jerzy Ossolinski. He was born in Wola Mielecka (former Sandomir Voivodeship ). As a teenager he was a reserved and deeply religious person. He received his first training from 1762 at the Jesuit College in Warsaw. During his studies, Ossolinski dealt with history and literature.

As a result of the partition of Poland, he became an Austrian citizen. Due to his early political interest, he became a member of the Galician State Deputation at the court in Vienna. Ossolinski lived in this city from 1789. The interest in Polish literary life led to numerous social contacts, which soon made his house known as a meeting place for Slavophile scholars. The related merits were not disregarded. First, Emperor Franz I granted him the title of a real secret council in 1808 and appointed him head of the imperial court library in 1809 .

Former Ossolineum in Lviv / Lemberg (Ukraine)
Today's Ossolineum in Wrocław (Poland)

After the second division of Poland , Ossolinski began collecting Polish literature in 1794. From the initially smaller collection successes, his library expanded in the course of the secularization of all monasteries in Austria. The "Count's Ossolinskian Librarian" Samuel Gottlieb Linde worked at the Ossolinskische Bücherei until 1803 and collected Polish written material for his Polish-German dictionary.

To promote the Galician cultural and literary life, he obtained permission from Emperor Franz I to set up his family foundation. According to his written will, his library, the collections of copperplate engravings, maps and medals became part of the foundation's assets. In this way the National Institute named after him ( Bibliotheca patria ), later Ossolineum, came into being .

In 1817 Ossolinski bought a building in Lviv from the former Carmelite monastery with private funds in order to accommodate the collections. He also had a regular amount of money so that the activity of a librarian, regular publication and the purchase of new works could be secured. An affiliated publisher enabled the publication of topic-specific publications. After the National Library in Warsaw and the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow, the Ossolineum is now the third largest Polish collection of its kind.

Ossolinski tried many times and successfully to enlarge his collections. The greatest access during his lifetime was achieved through a contractual agreement from 1823 with Prince Henryk Lubomirski , whereby the collections of the Lubomirski family were included in the Ossolineum.

Because of his tireless work for the national Polish cause he was appointed Crown Grand Marshal of the Kingdom of Galicia in 1817 and Oberlandhofmeister of the Kingdom of Lodomeria in 1825 .
Ossolinski was also friends with Ludwig van Beethoven , who in 1816 spent a summer in Ossolinski's country house ( Braiten Castle ) near Baden near Vienna .

Ossolinski died blind in Vienna at an advanced age and was buried in the Matzleinsdorf cemetery . His grave fell victim to a railway expansion in the 19th century.

Merits

Through the work of Ossolinski and Bętkowski in the Warsaw Society of Friends of Science (from 1800 to 1831), the systematic research on Polish literary history could be modernized.

Ossolinski had employed the librarian Samuel Gottlieb Linde in the imperial court library he ran . He published the Słownik języka polskiego ( dictionary of the Polish language , six volumes) in Warsaw under the protection of his sponsor from 1807 to 1814 .

After the division of Poland and the abolition of the Jesuit order , the University of Lemberg was also dissolved in 1773 . This meant that the Galicia region lacked a scientific location. In 1784 the Lviv University was re-established as the Josephinum at the behest of Emperor Josef II. The languages ​​of instruction were Latin and German. A more significant impetus for Polish culture arose only in 1817 with the establishment of the National Institute (today Ossolineum) through the foundation activities of Ossolinski.

Memberships and awards

Works

  • Wiadomości historyczno-krytyczne do dziejów literatury polskiej (3rd vol.) Kraków 1819–1822
  • Wieczory badeńskie (Baden Evenings) (1793–1794) was published in Cracow in 1852
  • Rozmyślania ślepego (contemplations of a blind person)

literature

personal data
SURNAME Ossolinski, Joseph Maximilian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish-Austrian bibliophile, writer, patron and politician
DATE OF BIRTH 1748
PLACE OF BIRTH Wola Mielecka
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1826
Place of death Vienna