Manuscripts of the Carolath-Beuthen branch of the von Schönaich family in the collections of the University of Warsaw Library

Abstract

As a result of the operation of taking over and securing library collections from the so-called Recovered Territories, undertaken after World War II, part of the resources of the library and archive of Castle Karolat in the Silesian village of Siedlisko (German: Carolath) was moved to the University of Warsaw Library. This article presents the history of the Castle Karolat library and describes the most valuable manuscripts from there, now stored in the Manuscripts Department of the University of Warsaw Library. They include interesting — and, as regards research, important — castle archives, which provide sources for the economic history of the Carolath-Beuthen majorat, inventories, financial and accounting books, architectural drawings from the times of the reconstruction of the castle in the 19th century, lists of the maps and books preserved in the castle archives and other items. The collection also includes interesting memorabilia of the castle owners, like gymnasium and home education notebooks, records of academic lectures delivered at the beginning of the 19th century at Landwirtschaftliche Akademie Möglin and Halle university by, among others, Albrecht Daniel Thaer, Georg Ernst Wilhelm Crome and Friedrich August Wolf. 16th-century prayer books, 18th-century official lists and a military treatise on cavalry deployment and drills written by Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig von Arnim-Suckow, major of the Prussian army, are also worth attention. The archive also includes part of the heritage — scattered in Polish and German libraries — of the theologian Gustav Richtsteig as well as of members of the Carolath-Beuthen family, who lived in the estate from the 18th to 20th century. An interesting item in the collection is a well-preserved 19th-century herbarium, containing about 1000 local plants collected in the estate and castle gardens in the same century.