Księga ksiąg na ludzkich drogach, czyli losy pelplińskiej Biblii Gutenberga

Abstract

Acquired by the bishop of Chełmno, Mikołaj Chrapicki (who died in 1514), the copy of Gutenberg Bible was handed over by the hierarch to the library of the Franciscans-Bernardines in episcopal city of Lubawa. After the dissolution in year 1821 the masterpiece of the printer from Mainz became the property of The Library of Divinity School in Pelplin, where – as the only copy in Poland – at the end of the 19th century it was adequately exhibited. In the inter-war period – although the selling of the Bible was considered – its ideological popularizer and protector was, among others, the bishop of Chełmno, Stanisław Wojciech Okoniewski, but above all, the priest dr Antonie Liedtke, the director of the library in Pelplin. It was he who dedicated several papers to the “Polish” copy of Gutenberg Bible and just before the war – risking his life – he rescued the Bible from German robbery. The route of its evacuation led from Pelplin, through Warsaw (the treasury of the National Economy Bank), Romania, France, Great Britain to Canada, where it was deposited in the branch of the Bank of Montreal in Ottawa. Although there were some problems with getting it back afer the war, the Gutenberg Bible returned to Pelplin and until this day it is a real pearl of the collections of seminar library.