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Another lecture in the course Colloquia Bibliologa Wratislaviensia

The Library of the University of Wrocław invites you to a second lecture in the new lecture course, Colloquia Bibliologa Wratislaviensia, dedicated to book history, literacy, and libraries. This initiative aims to create a space for critical reflection and the exchange of views, facilitating dialogue among researchers, students, and all those interested in book culture in its material, intellectual, and spiritual dimensions.

The lecture will start on 20th January, at 12:15 p.m. in conference room number 4 in the Library of the University of Wrocław. To join the lecture, registration is required; the link is provided below.

The lecturer will be dr hab. Wojciech Mrozowicz, prof. UWr – medievalist, scholar in Silesian history and medieval literacy culture, professor of humanities. In research work, he combines his dedication to exploring the past with extraordinary sensitivity to material testaments to history – manuscripts, law books, and chronicles. He is an author of multiple papers concerning medieval written sources, as well as biographies and works by Silesian monks, chroniclers, and clerks. Professor Mrozowicz engages in diplomatics, palaeography, and the editing of historical sources. He explores the development of writing culture in Poland, and his works facilitate an understanding of medieval processes of creation, preservation, and interpretation of documents. He has been working with cultural institutions, including the Library of the University of Wrocław, assisting research on manuscripts and popularising awareness of the literary heritage of the region. Professor Wojciech Mrozowicz is also one of the notable staff members of the Centre of Medieval Studies at John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. His contribution to the functioning of the centre includes a wide range of research and organisational activities.

The topic of the lecture of Professor Mrozowicz will be one of the most precious pieces of the Silesian medieval literature, Księga Henrykowska (Book of Henryków). It will be discussed as a piece of material culture. At the same time, its significance as a testimony of changes in Silesia, which survived the after-effects of Mongolian incursion from 1241, and under the influence of settlement movement from the West, in language, legal, and social issues, in communication, employing writing, and in the economy. As a mirror of these concerns, the Book of Henryków will be presented as a source documenting in microscale the process of shaping the Latin civilisation on the territories and among the folks that had remained on the margins of the Roman and Christian influences. The lecture fits thematically into the 10th anniversary of the Book of Henryków on the Memory of the World International Register of UNESCO. This jubilee commemorates the recognition awarded in 2015 to this priceless piece of cultural heritage of both Lower Silesia and the whole of Poland.

Throughout the course of lectures, guests will include leading researchers from Polish and foreign centres, representing diverse traditions and methodological perspectives. Colloquia Bibliologa Wratislaviensia aim at presenting books as a cultural and civilisational phenomenon and creating a space for reflection on the historical workshop of a librarian and an academic, as well as the significance of the library collections in shaping intellectual and institutional identities.

We cordially invite all history and literature enthusiasts to participate in the meeting. It will be an opportunity to listen to an inspiring lecture, as well as to reflect on the literary heritage that shapes our identity.

Registration for the event is under this LINK.

Translated by Natalia Kupis (student of English Studies at the University of Wrocław) as part of the translation practice.