TYSZKIEWICZ, Jerzy and 8 others.

Full details on request.

A most interesting sammelband of Counter-Reformation Polish and Lithuanian imprints from the first half of the C17, produced in Cracow, Poznàn and Vilnius – all but one in their first, and most in their only, edition. ‘Krotkie’ appears to be the only copy recorded, and Tyszkiewicz’s ‘Controversia’, only the second. Several, if not all, were likely in the library of the Jesuit house at Smolensk, under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was officially granted the status of college in 1623, and closed in 1654. The Smolensk Jesuits had a special interest in these pamphlets, during their tumultuous political and religious times. The author of two of them, Jerzy Tyszkiewicz (1596–1656), was bishop of Vilnius and later also Smolensk, his ‘Vindiciae’ being concerned with religious troubles in the Polish city of Torún, where the Jesuits had established a house in 1595. Capar Hap’s (1563-1619) ‘Obrona rozsadkv’ discusses the ‘heretical’ (i.e., Protestant and Jewish) communities in Poznàn, where the Jesuits were very active. The anonymous ‘Krotkie’ focuses on key disagreement between Catholics and Protestants, i.e., penance, religious images and sacraments. The Jesuit Mateusz Bembus’ (1567-1645) ‘Pax non pax’ addresses the possibility of peace between Catholics and the Evangelical communities in Poland. The other pamphlets include Bellarmine’s ‘Apologia’, against King James I of England – among the most important Counter-Reformation confutations – and other works by Jesuits resident in Polish or Lithuanian colleges: Szymon Kaczorowski’s ‘warnings’ against Calvinist doctrines; Quirin Cnogler’s theological pamphlets on the main theses of Catholicism, Lutheranism and Calvinism; and Sebastian Pikielius’ work which employs Hebrew lines from the Old Testament to support the one substance of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is a very rare survivor. Such collections have most often been broken up and their parts dispersed in modern times.