Collections of Handwritten Newspapers in Noble Manors from the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century: The Case of Ewaryst Andrzej Kuropatnicki’s Collection

Abstract

In the second half of the eighteenth century, despite the dynamic development of the printed
press, handwritten newspapers continued to be an important component of Polish social communication as well as a news medium. Among the recipients of manuscript newspapers were also representatives of the nobility and magnates, who not only ordered and read such newspapers, but also began to collect them. Among the most important Polish collectors of handwritten newspapers was Ewaryst Andrzej Kuropatnicki (1734-1788), who created a rich library in his manor house (Tarnowiec) and kept handwritten newspapers there. The main purpose of this article is to describe this newspaper collection and to show Kuropatnicki’s role as compared to other Polish collectors of manuscript newspapers in the eighteenth century. Indeed, Ewaryst Kuropatnicki’s collection of handwritten newspapers is very impressive. Only at the Ossoliński Library in Wrocław are some 700 copies preserved. The original stock, however, must have been larger. This puts Kuropatnicki among the most prominent handwritten newspaper collectors of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Today, his collection surpasses others collected by Polish noblemen and magnates in the second half of the eighteenth century, belonging to Adam Józef Mniszek and Tomasz Ignacy Łopaciński.