Prukhnytskyi Zdislav.The Austrian Constitution.Lviv, 1902

Austrian Constitution / written by Dr. Zdzisław Próchnicki. — From the public university lectures organized by the University of Lviv.

In Lviv: published by Macierz Polska; main warehouse of the “Macierz Polska” Administration in the Sejm building, 1902. — 177, [3] pp. — (Macierz Polska Library; No. 14). Text in Polish.

Hardcover in light cloth with a printed Art Nouveau design — poppies, daisies, birds, and the title on the front cover; on the back cover, the binder’s stamp “M. Górski. Bookbinder in Lviv.” The cloth has tonal stains; on the back cover, there is a dark stain in the upper corner and an ink stain at the bottom; on the front cover, there are small areas of paint loss at the top; the head of the spine is rubbed, and the edges and corners are worn. The paper shows natural yellowing, with occasional foxing on the title page and table of contents leaf; the text block is tight. An ex-libris “Studium of St. John the Baptist in Lviv” with a portrait of John the Baptist and the ink cipher “Ч. I, 5008” is pasted on the front endpaper; the title page and p. 177 bear blue library stamps of the “Studium” with the same portrait (next to the title is an image of an open book with the letters “MP”); at the top of the title page, p. 3, and p. 5, there is an ink mark “С” with a line. Condition: good.

The book has historical and cultural value and is of collecting interest; the Art Nouveau binding is of independent artistic interest.

INFORMATION

The copy comes from the library of the Studium of St. John the Baptist in Lviv — a library founded by Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky (1865–1944) in 1909 at the Studite monastery on Petra Skarga Street. The “Studium” ex-libris with the portrait of John the Baptist was designed by the painter Modest Sosenko, and this same image formed the basis of the library stamps — both marks appear in the volume. At the end of 1939, the library contained over 60,000 volumes; in February 1940, it was incorporated into the Lviv branch of the library of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (now the V. Stefanyk National Library of Ukraine), while part of the collection was dispersed or destroyed as “clerical” literature.

The book, as the author writes in the introduction, was based on twelve lectures delivered in 1901 as part of the public university lectures organized by the University of Lviv. It is a popular account of the constitutional system of Austria: the history of the constitution, the State Council, the provincial diets and the Provincial Delegation, the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, the general rights of citizens, and the common affairs of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. To make the book useful to Polish readers throughout Austria, the author, in addition to Galician law, also considered Silesian and Bukovinian law.

Zdzisław Konrad Próchnicki (1875–1939) was a Lviv public and political figure, a member of many societies, and in 1914, a member of the Lviv City Council; son of the Polish-language educator Franciszek Próchnicki. The publication was the 14th issue of the “Library” series by the “Macierz Polska” society, whose main warehouse was located in the building of the Galician Sejm. At the end of the volume is a leaf of errata.