Podróż Jacka Idziego Przybylskiego do bibliotek zagranicznych przed objęciem dyrekcji w Bibliotece Jagiellońskiej w Krakowie

Abstract

The education of librarians in the 18lh century was practically non-existent. One of the ways to prepare for this profession was to visit foreign libraries. In the years 1785-1786 such an educational journey was ventured on by Jacek Idzi Przybylski (1756-1819), the future librarian of the Principal School of the Realm Library in Cracow. What was planned to be a three-year-long travel to the greatest libraries of Germany, Italy, France and England, was shortened to a single year. Przybylski did not manage to visit all the above-mentioned countries. However, he visited all sorts of libraries: those with great collections of books and the smaller ones, state and church, public and private libraries. On his way to Vienna he saw - among others - the Olomouc Secondary School Library in the Moravian capital. From among Austrian libraries he visited the Imperial Library and the University Library in Vienna; the Municipal Library in Prug and the Academic Library in Kla- genfurt. In Italy he went to Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice, Biblioteca Universitaria in Padua, Biblioteca Comunale Bertoliana in Vicenza, Biblioteca Venerabilis Capitula in Verona, Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Biblioteca Palatina in Parma, Biblioteca Estense in Modena, and others. Apart from libraries, he also visited museums of antiquity, established contacts with foreign scholars, read ancient Roman and Greek authors and studied Greek. He wrote down all his observations and curiosities he encountered on the way in his travel diary.