Janina Rodkiewiczówna, The Bookbinders’ Guild in Vilnius: A Historical Overview [1929]

Title: The Bookbinders’ Guild in Vilnius: A Historical Overview.

Author: Janina Rodkiewiczówna [historian, graduate of the Faculty of Humanities at Stefan Batory University in Vilnius; this work was written as her teacher’s diploma thesis under the supervision of Prof. Kazimierz Chodynicki and Prof. Stanisław Kościałkowski].

Publisher: Vilnius, Vilnius City Council Publishing House; “Pogoń” Publishing Society; “Pax” Printing House, 5 St. Ignatius Street.

Year of publication: 1929.

Series: Vilnius Library, No. 1.

Format: 23 cm.

Number of pages: 55, [1] p.

Binding: Original paperback cover, made of publishing-grade paper.

The opening volume of the “Vilnius Library”—a publication series by the Vilnius City Council, established on the initiative of the Cultural and Educational Commission of the Vilnius City Council. The foreword was written by the Commission’s chairman, Prof. Stefan Ehrenkreutz of the University of Vilnius (USB), who identified the series’ goal as deepening knowledge of Vilnius and encouraging the younger generation of researchers to study the city’s history. Between 1929 and 1938, nine volumes were published; in addition to works by young graduates of the University of Vilnius, the series included, among others, essays by Prof. Stanisław Pigoń (No. 2) and “The Struggle for Vilnius” by Maj. Bolesław Waligóra (No. 9). The outbreak of World War II prevented the publication of further volumes.

Drawing on archival and printed sources, the author traces the history of the Vilnius bookbinders’ guild, which was most likely founded at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. The first people to bind books in Vilnius were monks; lay bookbinders appeared in the 16th century, when demand for books grew under the influence of the Reformation and the spread of education. The work discusses bookbinding workshops operating in conjunction with bookstores, artisans working in the homes of wealthy bibliophiles, the guild’s membership and its most prominent representatives, the guild’s finances, its relationship with the Church and municipal authorities, and its struggle against “bunglers”—artisans outside the guild. The author traces the organization’s history through the calamities of the 17th century (the 1610 fire in Vilnius, the 1655–1661 Moscow occupation), its revival in the second half of the 18th century, and the period of the Partitions, when the Vilnius guilds were transformed into craft associations subordinate to the Russian authorities. After 1840, a Jewish guild operated in Vilnius alongside the Christian one; in 1885, the two were merged, and in 1893, the Russian authorities abolished the guilds. This study is included in contemporary bibliographies of sources on the history of Polish bookbinding in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Provenance: a piece without provenance marks—no ownership inscriptions, seals, or bookplates.

A concise, source-based overview of the history of bookbinding in Vilnius, and at the same time the first volume in a municipal series that became a hallmark of interwar Vilnius historiography. A must-have for bibliophiles interested in the history of bookbinding and the book trade, researchers of guild history, and collectors of Vilnius-related items and prints from the Eastern Borderlands.

The text block is intact, the paper is clean, and the piece is free of internal stains; the title page is yellowed and stained, but in very good condition. Original paperback cover, made of publishing-grade paper, preserved in very good condition—a rarity for such a flimsy period paperback.

Catalog ID: 11332-23-A-X