The history of printing in Poland began in the late 15th century, when following the creation of the

Gutenberg Bible The Gutenberg Bible, also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42, was the earliest major book printed in Europe using mass-produced metal movable type. It marked the start of the "Printing Revolution, Gutenberg Revolution" an ...

in 1455, printers from Western Europe spread the new craft abroad. The Polish capital at the time was in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, where scholars, artists and merchants from Western Europe had already been present. Other cities which were part of the

Polish kingdom The Kingdom of Poland (; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a monarchy in Central Europe during the medieval period from 1025 until 1385. Background The West Slavic tribe of Polans who lived in what is today the historic region of Greater Po ...

followed later. Cities of northern Polish province of

Royal Prussia Royal Prussia (; or , ) or Polish PrussiaAnton Friedrich Büsching, Patrick Murdoch. ''A New System of Geography'', London 1762p. 588/ref> (Polish: ; German: ) became a province of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, which was annexed follow ...

, like the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

city of Danzig (Gdańsk), had established printing houses early on. The first printing shop was possibly opened in Kraków by

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

-based

Günther Zainer Günther Zainer (or Zeyner or Zeiner) (died 1 October 1478) was the first printer in Augsburg, where he worked from 1468 until his death; he produced about 80 books including two German editions of the Bible and the first printed calendar. He ...

in 1465. In 1491,

Schweipolt Fiol Schweipolt Fiol (also Sebald Vehl or Veyl; – 1525 or 1526) was a German-born 15th century pioneer of Cyrillic printing. Fiol spent a considerable part of his life in Poland, particularly Kraków, the capital of the Polish Kingdom at the time. ...

printed the first book in

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

script. The next recorded printing shop was a Dutch one known by the name ''Typographus Sermonum Papae Leonis I.'' that might have been established in 1473 on Polish territory, but its exact location has yet to be determined.Wieslaw Wydra, "Die ersten in polnischer Sprache gedruckten Texte, 1475–1520", ''

Gutenberg-Jahrbuch The ''Gutenberg-Jahrbuch'' is an annual periodical publication covering the history of printing and the book. Its focus is on incunables, early printing, and the life and work of Johannes Gutenberg Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenb ...

'', Vol. 62 (1987), pp. 88–94 (88) The oldest known print from Poland is considered to be the

Almanach cracoviense ad annum 1474 ''Almanach cracoviense ad annum 1474'' (Cracovian Almanac for the Year 1474) is a broadside astronomical wall calendar for the year 1474, and Poland's oldest known print. This single-sheet incunable, known also as the ''Calendarium cracovien ...

(Cracovian Almanac for the Year 1474) which is a single-sheet astronomical

wall calendar A calendar is used to display dates and related information, usually in a table format. Calendars are used to plan future events and keep track of appointments, and so a typical calendar will include days of the week, week numbering, months, pub ...

for the year 1474 printed and published in 1473 by

Kasper Straube Kasper Straube (also Kaspar or Caspar, also known as The Printer of the Turrecrematas) was a German 15th-century printer from Bavaria. He was active in Kraków between 1473 and 1477, decades before Johann Haller. His Latin almanac '' Calendariu ...

. The only surviving copy of ''Almanach cracoviense'' measures 37 cm by 26.2 cm, and is in the collections of the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

. The first text in Polish was printed in Breslau (Wrocław) in 1475. The first book printed in Polish was '' Historyja umęczenia Pana naszego Jezusa Chrystusa'' ("The story of the martyrdom of our Lord Jesus Christ"), published in 1508 by Johann Haller's publishing house. For a long time, the first print written in

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

was believed to be ''Hortulus Animae polonice'', a Polish version of

Hortulus Animae ''Hortulus Animae'' (, , , ) was the Latin title of a prayer book also available in German. It was very popular in the early sixteenth century, printed in many versions, also abroad in Lyons and Kraków. History An earlier well-known work of de ...

written by

Biernat of Lublin Biernat of Lublin ( Polish: ''Biernat z Lublina'', Latin ''Bernardus Lublinius'', ca. 1465 – after 1529) was a Polish poet, fabulist, translator, and physician. He was one of the first Polish-language writers known by name, and the most i ...

, printed and published in 1513 by

Florian Ungler Florian Ungler (died 1536 in Kraków) and Kasper Hochfeder were printers from Bavaria that after 1510 became pioneers of printing and publishing in the Polish language. *1512 ''Introductio in Ptolomei Cosmographiam'', with maps of America *1513 ...

in Kraków. The last known copy was lost during World War II. One of the first commercial printers in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

is considered to be Johann Haller who worked in Kraków in the early 16th century, starting in 1505, and who in 1509 printed a Latin translation by

Nicolaus Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a mathematical model, model of Celestial spheres#Renaissance, the universe that placed heliocentrism, the Sun rather than Earth at its cen ...

of Greek poems by

Theophylact Simocatta Theophylact Simocatta (Byzantine Greek: Θεοφύλακτος Σιμοκάτ(τ)ης ''Theophýlaktos Simokát(t)ēs''; ) was an early seventh-century Byzantine historiographer, arguably ranking as the last historian of Late Antiquity, writing in ...

, ''Theophilacti Scolastici Simocatti Epistole morales, rurales at amatoriae, interpretatione latina''. Other well known early printers in Poland are: *

Hieronymus Vietor Hieronymus Vietor (c. 1480, in Liebenthal (now Lubomierz) Silesia – late 1546 or early 1547, in Kraków)Tyszkowska, Bogusława : Hieronim Wietor - drukarz z Lubomierza', 2009. URL last accessed 2012-11-11. was a printer and publisher born in S ...

from

Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...

who worked in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and Kraków * Printers from the

Scharffenberg family The Scharffenberg family was a family of sixteenth-century printers, bookdealers and publishers, who lived in the Kingdom of Poland. They worked in various parts of the book trade, including the production of paper and woodcuts, in Kraków, Wrocła ...

In the late 16th century there were seven printing shops in Kraków, and in 1610 ten. A decline started in around 1615. Due to this fact in 1650 there remained only three secular printing shops, accompanied by a few ecclesiastical ones. Only one printing shop is recorded in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

in 1707, owned by the

Piarists The Piarists (), officially named the Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools (), abbreviated SchP, is a religious order of clerics regular of the Catholic Church founded in 1617 by Spanish priest Joseph Calasanz ...

. This situation improved during the realm of the last

Polish king Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of Royal elections in Poland, free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electab ...

Stanisław August Poniatowski Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, and as Stanisław August Poniatowski (), was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuani ...

, that marked political and cultural revival in Poland. Unfortunately his attempts to reform the state led to the

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

carried out by

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

References

Select bibliography

*"The Early Printed Book in Poland (15th-17th century)", eds. Janusz S. Gruchała, Michał Czerenkiewicz, Kraków: Avalon, 2023

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:History of Printing in Poland Polish printers

Printing Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The ...

See also

References

Select bibliography

External links