A Treasury of Knowledge, Not a Noble Collection of Artefacts. The Concept of the Leopold Jan Szersznik School Museum

Abstract

Leopold Jan Szersznik (1747-1814), a Cieszyn ex-Jesuit and prefect of the local grammar school, was the founder of the first library and museum in Cieszyn Silesia, which he organized on the basis of his private collection. Their official beginning is marked by a decree of Emperor Franz II of Habsburg on 27 January 1801, which ensured that Szersznik’s collections would be under the protection of the state, with the right to use the title ‘Imperial-Royal’. By the end of the founder’s life, the book collection numbered more than 12,000 volumes, the mineralogical collection some 5,000 items, with another several thousand collections showing the world of flora and fauna. The collections constituted a well-thought-out whole and were intended to serve specific cognitive and didactic purposes, namely to support the educational process of junior high school students. This was the concept of a scientific school museum, which contrasted with the collections of artefacts that adorned noble and aristocratic castles and palaces at the time.