Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński

Joseph Maximilian Ossoliński (* 1748 in Wola Mielecka, † March 17 1826 in Vienna; Polish: Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński ) was a Polish / Austrian literary and cultural historian, writer, politician, patron of the Polish nobility and the founder of Ossolineum. He bore the title of Count of Tenczyn.

Life

Joseph Maximilian came from the Polish nobility Ossoliński and is the great-grandson of the Polish statesman and Count Jerzy Ossoliński. He was in Wola Mielecka ( former province Sandomir ) born. As a teenager he was a reserved and deeply religious man embossed. He received his first training from 1762 onwards at the Jesuit College in Warsaw. During his studies Ossoliński dealt with history and literature.

As a result of the partition of Poland, he was an Austrian citizen. He was a member of the Galician stands deputation at the court in Vienna by his early political interest. Since 1789, Ossoliński lived in this city. The interest in the Polish literary life led to numerous social contacts, which soon became his home as a meeting place Slavophile scholar awareness. The associated merits were not taken into account. First Emperor Francis I. gave him in 1808 the title of Privy Council and appointed him in 1809 to head of the Imperial Court Library.

After the second partition of Poland decided to Ossoliński 1794 collection of Polish literature. From the first small collection successes, his library enlarged in the course of the secularization of all the monasteries in Austria.

As a culmination of his efforts to promote the Galician cultural and literary life, he obtained a license for the construction of his family foundation at Kaiser Franz I.. After his documental will his library, the collections of engravings, maps and medals went into the assets of the Foundation. In this way, was named after him National Institute ( Bibliotheca patria ), later Ossolineum.

In 1817 Ossoliński bought by private means a building of the former Carmelite monastery in Lviv, to house the collections. Furthermore, he possessed a regular amount of money, so that the activity of a librarian, a regular publication and the purchase of new works could be secured. An affiliated publisher allowed the publication of thematic publications. According to the National Library in Warsaw and the Jagiellonian Library of Krakow, the Ossolineum is now the third-largest Polish collection of its kind

To increase its collections to Ossoliński tried many times and in an excellent manner. The largest addition to his lifetime he achieved through a contractual agreement with Prince Henryk Lubomirski in 1823, making the collections of the Lubomirski family were included in the Ossolineum.

Because of his tireless ministry for the Polish national concern he was appointed in 1817 to the Kron - Grand Marshal of the Kingdom of Galicia and 1825 to the Oberland, Steward of the Kingdom of Lodomeria. Ossoliński was also a friend of Ludwig van Beethoven, who spent 1816 in Ossolinskis country house ( castle Braiten ) at Baden near Vienna one summer.

In old age Ossoliński died blind in Vienna and was buried in the cemetery Matzleinsdorf. His tomb was in the 19th century a railway expansion to the victim.

Merits

Through the work of Ossoliński and Bętkowski in the Warsaw Society of Friends of Sciences ( existed from 1800 to 1831 ), the systematic research on the Polish literary history could be modernized.

Ossoliński had in his respective Imperial Court Library the librarian Samuel Gottlieb Linde busy. This was in Warsaw under protection of his patron in the years 1807-1814 the Słownik języka polskiego ( dictionary of the Polish language, six volumes to date).

After the Polish division and dissolution of the Jesuit Order, the University of Lviv was suppressed in 1773. This was missing in the Galicia region of a scientific site. In 1784 the Lviv University was re-established as the Josephinum at the behest of Emperor Joseph II. The languages ​​of instruction were Latin and German. A more significant boost for Polish culture did not surrender until 1817 with the founding of the National Institute (now Ossolineum ) through the Foundation's activities Ossolinskis.

Memberships and awards

• Member of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Science
• Member of k.k. Vienna Academy of Arts
• Member of the Academy of Vilna
• Member of the Academy of Kraków ( Akademia Krakowska )
• Honorary Doctorate shaft of the Jagiellonian University
• A member of the Royal Society of Sciences in Göttingen
• Since 1789 member of the Galician stands deputation in Vienna
• Winner of the St. Stephen's Order

Writings

• WiadomoĹ historyczno - krytyczne do dziejów literatury Polskiej ( 3 vols ) Cracow 1819-1822
• Wieczory badeńskie ( Baden evenings ) ( 1793-1794 ) published Krakow 1852
• Rozmyslania slepego ( Reflections of a blinded )