Th is paper aims to present the history of a precious manuscript from the collections of the Kórnik Library – Autograf Kościuszki. Th e manuscript, written by Tadeusz Kościuszko in mid- 1793, contains Opis kampanii r. 1792 – a description of a campaign launched against Russia. Having analysed the manuscript and discussed all the eight editions of its text, the author of the article presents its history up until the death of Józef Dobek Dzierzkowski from Lviv (1830). He subsequently discusses a brief history of Tytus Działyński’s acquaintance with Wiktor Baworowski, as contained in their mutual correspondence, which discloses the further complex fate of Autograf Kościuszki – information on its subsequent owner and the circumstances in which it found its way into the collections of the Kórnik Library. Finally, all the copies of the manuscript known from literature are discussed. In the Annex, the author publishes inter alia the abovementioned correspondence between Działyński and Baworowski.

This paper seeks to acquaint the readers with problems related to Wojciech Kętrzyński’s 1893 edition of Epitaphium Dithardi abbatis [ Epitaph of abbot Dithard] in volume six of Monumenta Poloniae Historica. In contrast to the information the scholar disseminated which was subsequently commonly adopted, Epitaphium Dithardi abbatis was not a part of the hand-written collection of the so-called Oliva sources ( Fontes Olivenses). This laudatory work in a verse form, in honour of the first abbot of the Oliva monastery, was probably created in the 13th century, and today is known mainly from the 17th-century epitaph tablet surviving in the Oliva Cathedral in Gdańsk, which Wojciech Kętrzyński did not see personally. He issued Epitaphium Dithardi abbatis taking as the basis a copy of the text surviving in the Kórnik manuscript call no. BK 65, copied from this tablet in 1749. Today, in view of the existence of an older copy of the text, included in the Gdańsk manuscript (APG, call no. 940/422) copied not from the tablet but from the 15th-century polychrome, Kętrzyński’s edition should be considered insufficient.

This paper presents two rare 16th-century panel-stamped bindings from the collections of the Kórnik Library. The first one, decorated with an impression of a panel depicting the personification of the Christian virtue of Hope (Spes), protects the printed book published in 1545. The binding was made by a Netherlandish bookbinder working in Leuven, called Master IP, identified with Jacob Pandelaert (d. ab. 1563). The second binding presents a Gothic motif of animals-in-foliage and protects a printed book published in 1550. The authorship of the panel (the so-called de profundis) is attributed to a bookbinder working in the town of ’s-Hertogenbosch (fr. Bois-le-Duc), Geraert van der Hatart (d. ab. 1540/1541). Both these bindings testify to the fact that the holdings of the Kórnik Library include gems of the West-European bookbinding craft.