MINT NEVER HINGED -
DAY OF ISSUE 22 DECEMBER 1986.
Joachim Lelewel (22 March 1786 – 29 May 1861) was a Polish
historian and politician, from a Polonized branch of a Prussian
family. His grandparents were Heinrich Löllhöffel von Löwensprung
(1705–63) and Constance Jauch (1722–1802), who later
polonized her name to Lelewel.
Born in Warsaw,
Lelewel was educated at the Imperial
University of Vilna, where in 1814 he became a lecturer
in history, with a brief sojourn at Warsaw,
1818–1821, where he joined the Warsaw
Society of Friends of Learning. His lectures on Polish
history created great enthusiasm, as shown in some lines addressed
to him by Adam
Mickiewicz that led to Lelewel´s removal by
the Russians in
1824.
Five years later, Lelewel returned to Warsaw, where he was elected
a deputy to the Diet.
He joined theNovember
1830 Uprising with more enthusiasm than energy,
though Tsar Nicholas
I identified him as one of the most dangerous
rebels. On the suppression of the rebellion, Lelewel made his way
in disguise to Germany and
subsequently reached Paris in
1831. The government of Louis
Philippe ordered him to quit French territory in
1833 at the request of the Russian ambassador. The cause of the
expulsion is said to have been his writing of revolutionary
proclamations. He went to Brussels,
where for nearly thirty years he earned a scanty livelihood by his
writings.
In 1847, he, together with Karl
Marx and Friedrich
Engels, became a founding member
and Vizepräses (vice
president) of the Demokratische
Gesellschaft zur Einigung und Verbrüderung aller
Völker (Democratic
Society for Unity and Brotherhood of All Peoples), seated in
Brussels. The anarchist Michail
Bakuninwas strongly influenced by him.
Lelewel died 29 May 1861 in Paris, where he had moved a few days
earlier. First interred there, his body was transferred to
the Rasos
Cemetery in Vilnius,
in accord with his wishes.
HIS WORKS:
His literary activity in Polish and,
to a more international audience in French,
was enormous, extending from his Edda
skandynawska ("The
Scandinavian Edda", 1807) to his Géographie
des Arabes (1851).
One of his most important publications
was La
Géographie du moyen âge (5
vols., 1852–1857), with an atlas (1849) of fifty plates
entirely engraved by himself, for he attached such importance to
the accuracy of his maps that he would not allow them to be
executed by anyone else.
His works on Polish history are based on minute and critical study
of the documents; they were collected under the
title Polska,
dzieje i rzeczy jej rozpatrzywane (Poland,
Her History and Affairs Surveyed), in 20 vols. (1853–1876).
He intended to write a complete history of Poland on an extensive
scale, but never accomplished the task. His method is shown in the
"little history" of Poland, first published at Warsaw in Polish in
1823, under the title Dzieje
Polski,
and afterwards largely rewritten in
the Histoire
de Pologne (2
vols., 1844). Other works on Polish history which may be especially
mentioned are La
Pologne au moyen âge (Poland
in the Middle Ages, 3 vols., 1846–1851), an edition of
the Chronicle of Matthew
Cholewaski (1811) and Ancient
Memorials of Polish Legislation (Księgi
ustaw polskich i mazowieckich).
He also wrote on the trade of Carthage,
on the geographer Pytheas of Marseille,
and two important works on numismatics (La
Numismatique du moyen âge,
2 vols., 1835; Etudes
numismatiques,
1840). While employed in the Warsaw University library, he studied
bibliography, and the fruits of his labors may be seen in
his Bibliograficznych
Ksiąg dwoje (Two
Bibliographic Books, 2 vols., 1823–1826).
Lelewel´s characteristics as a historian are great research and
power to draw inferences from his facts. His style is too often
careless, and his narrative is not picturesque, but his expressions
are frequently terse and incisive.
He wrote an autobiography (Adventures while Prosecuting Researches
and Inquiries on Polish Matters), printed in
his Polska (Poland).
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