Pięć albumów z rycinami medali polskich do dzieła „Historia polska medalami zaświadczona i objaśniona” biskupa Jana Chrzciciela Albertrandego

Abstrakt

In 1808 the Warsaw Society of Friends of Science decided to publish a work of John Baptist Albertrandi „Historia polska medalami zaświadczona i objaśniona” (History of Polish Medals
Recorded and Expounded). The book was supposed to be illustrated with images of all medals stamped and known in Poland. Despite many years of ongoing preparations, the completed and ready numismatic study was not published. The copperplates for the engravings, of which there are four hundred and thirty-four, were created between 1822 and 1828. After the fall of the November Uprising they were conscated and exported to Russia to enrich the holdings of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, where they remain to this day. Before they were carried off, around thirty copies of the set were printed.

The  subject of this article are four albums including copies of prints from the copperplates for the engravings, stored in National Museum in Krakow, Jagiellonian Library (two albums) and Science Library of PAU (Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences) and PAN (Polish Academy of Sciences) and one album from National Museum in Poznan containing so called new prints stamped in 1872 in Saint Petersburg. e article contains a presentation of all four albums, which are analysed from several standpoints, namely, historical, provenance, as collector’s items, as works of art and as works created to be printed.