WUJEK JAKUB (Stojałowski Stanisław), New Testament, Saint Matthew [1872, leather binding].

Wujek Jakub (Stojałowski Stanisław), The New Testament, Saint Matthew, Drukarnia "Czasu", Kraków 1872. 16x10.5 cm. [40], pp. 176, hardback binding, bookbinding (contemporary) leather, title and year of publication embossed and gilt, stamp excluded from library collection...on title page, stylish ex libris on 3rd page of cover .Polish

One of the true White Ravens. A unique volume containing the text of the Gospel of St. Matthew, translated by Jakub Wujek, compiled and endowed with commentaries by Father Stanislaw Stojalowski (1845-1911). It is the compiler who determines the unique character of the edition. Rev. Stojałowski was a Polish clergyman, politician (among other things, he was a member of the Galician Sejm and the Austrian Parliament) suspected of socialist sympathies (he was excommunicated for a year in 1896). In the early 1870s, he became involved in a movement seeking a certain modernization of the text of Scripture based on Wujek's 1599 translation (and treated by the Catholic Church in Poland at the time as unquestionable and unalterable). He decided to publish the text of the New Testament with minor changes mainly concerning the addition of a new commentary (corresponding to the needs of the time). He obtained both the means and the approval of the superintendency for this. In 1872, the Gospel of St. Matthew offered here was published. Unfortunately, analysis of the edition (and especially of the commentaries, which reverberated with socialist ideas), led the clerical authorities to issue an order to destroy the entire edition. The extent to which this order was carried out is unknown. The current literature on the subject speaks either of the salvage of a few pieces (Wł. Smereka, The Beginnings and Development of the Biblical Movement in Poland, Biblical and Liturgical Movement, No. 2, Year XI, Kraków 1958, p.85) or even of the complete destruction of the edition - which, as we can see, did not turn out to be true (cf. R. Pietkiewicz, Biblia Polonorum vol. V, Poznań 2015, p.76). Currently, only the Jagiellonian Library and the Scientific Library of the Jesuit priests boast of having a piece in the public collection (H. Pietras, Spiritual Life, Winter 61/2010). The piece on offer (which can be ascertained from the outdated ownership seals) survived for some time in the Capuchin Library in Sędziszów. It is worth noting that the history of the destruction of this edition (partial) of the Holy Scriptures resembles the history of the famous Radziwill Bible of 1563, the vast majority of pieces of which were also to be burned shortly after printing. The condition of the pages of the item is very good. Interestingly, one can sometimes see unevenness in the length of the pages, which indicates that the piece was delivered uncut. New leather binding with gathers and embossed lettering.