DUDA JERZY The Rebirth of the Knights Bibliophilic Order of Krakow 1992-2020 in the illustrated account of the Grand Master TOM I [author's autograph].

Volume I. 1992-2007, pp. 146, dimensions 21 x 29.5, booklet binding with wings. Very good condition. On the pre-title page, autograph of the Author, Dr. Eng. Jerzy Duda, Grand Master of the Knighted Order of Bibliophiles in Cracow.

The Knights' Bibliophilic Order with a Chapter of the Order of the White Raven in Cracow began its activities on February 13, 1930. Its originator was Kazimierz Wojciech Witkiewicz (1880-1973), president of the Society of Friends of the Book and later director of the Museum of Artistic Industry in Cracow. The Museum's reading room, together with the library and Witkiewicz's study, became the headquarters of the Knights of the Book. He developed the hierarchy of dignities, titulature, ceremonial, and designed all variants of the Order of the White Raven. Between the wars, the Order was active in promoting bibliophilism at home and around the world. With the advent of World War II, bibliophiles affiliated with the Order had to cease their previous forms of intensive activity. It was a time of conducting underground activities. Unfortunately, the post-war times were not kind to the Order either. The new authorities were reluctant to look at the elite nature of the organization. For this reason, 1963 Kazimierz Witkiewicz decided to suspend the activities of the Chapter of the White Eagle.

On June 27, 1992, the Chapter of the Order of the White Raven was rediscovered by Tadeusz Eugeniusz Witkiewicz, Kazimierz's son, and his wife, Urszula Waleria, née Dylska. The official opening of operations took place on March 4, 1993, during the Patent Awarding Ceremony for members of the Chapter of the Order of the White Raven in Cracow. The headquarters of the Order, or the White Raven's Nest, remained an apartment at 9 Smolensk Street.

Tadeusz Witkiewicz became Grand Master, and after his death on September 23, 2001, the continuation of Kazimierz Witkiewicz's work was appointed on November 15, 2001. Chancellor of the Order Dr. Eng. Jerzy Duda. Nowadays, the members of the Revived Chapter, by the activities they carry out, try to spread the love of books to make the name of the Order famous in Cracow and beyond its borders. This is carried out in two ways: on the one hand, since 1992, they have held washings during which patents are awarded, deceased bibliophiles are remembered, and personalities from the world of culture and science give lectures, while on the other hand, the association tries to go out into the open, to reveal a little of the mystery that surrounds their activities