Benedykt CHMIELOWSKI, New Athens, or the Academy of All Sciences

New Athens, or the Academy of All Sciences, full

various subjects, divided into classes—for the wise as a memorial, for fools as instruction, for politicians as practice, and for melancholics as entertainment. Established, alias—On God, the multitude of deities, the selection of beautiful words,—Many wondrous questions, on the collection of the Sibyls,—On animals, fish, birds, and mathematics, - About the wonders of the world, people, and political governance, - About languages and trees, the elements, and faith, - Hieroglyphs, riddles, and the customs of nations; - Which countries possess strange curiosities, - The entire world described from the ground up, in brief words. - All of which came about through the great labor and at the author’s own expense, expressed here in enigmatic terms: - The name begins with “spring,” near the Great Night, - The surname stirs the head with beer and mead. - This is by Father... Dean Rohatynski, Firlejowski, and Podkamieniecki, the Shepherd. Vol. 1. (1st ed.). Lviv 1745. Printed at the press of Paweł Józef Golczewski, His Royal Majesty’s privileged typographer, in the year in which eternal wisdom was incarnated. (21 x 18 cm), fol. [6], p. 896, fol. [8], woodcut signed Filipowicz, secondary parchment binding.
(Vol. 14). The first Polish encyclopedia by Benedykt Joachim Chmielowski of the Nałęcz coat of arms (1700–1763), a Catholic priest and canon of Kyiv. The complete work consists of four volumes, which were published between 1745 and 1756. Each volume forms a distinct whole, and their content comprises information from various fields. The work covers an exceptionally wide range of topics—from theology, philosophy, and history to geography, natural science, medicine, and descriptions of peoples, animals, and the world’s curiosities. Born of the ambition to compile “all science,” it stands as a unique testament to the knowledge, ideas, and intellectual culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Saxon era. Once the subject of criticism, it is now recognized as one of the most important works of the Polish Enlightenment and one of the most valuable 18th-century rare books. The first edition, printed in Lviv at Paweł Józef Golczewski’s press, is among the most sought-after items among Polish encyclopedic prints. Traces of moisture, a few pages with fraying edges, a minor missing section on the first two pages has been filled in, the last page of the Errata is missing; fresh endpapers, contemporary binding. Good condition.