Tadeusz Kruszyński, The Treasury of Wawel Cathedral and the Metropolitan Museum. Issue 3 [1928]

Title: The Treasury of Wawel Cathedral and the Metropolitan Museum. Volume 3.

Author: Rev. Dr. Tadeusz Kruszyński – Tadeusz Albin Kruszyński (1884–1959) [clergyman, art historian, metropolitan conservator, last dean of the Faculty of Theology at the Jagiellonian University, professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw].

Publisher: Kraków, published by the Dr. Adrian Baraniecki Municipal Industrial Museum.

Year of publication: [1928].

Format: 25.5 cm.

Volume: 40, [1] pp., ill.

Binding: Original paper publisher’s cover.

“The Treasury of Wawel Cathedral and the Metropolitan Museum” is a series of booklets by Fr. Tadeusz Kruszyński published in Kraków in the second half of the 1920s and early 1930s. The booklets are devoted to various artifacts from the Wawel Cathedral Treasury—one of the most valuable ecclesiastical art collections in Poland. The treasury is overseen by the Kraków Cathedral Chapter, which established the Cathedral Museum in 1906. Each booklet was a separate, illustrated monograph on a specific artifact or group of artifacts. In 1927, the series published the treatise “Chasubles and Dalmatics from Żywiec and Their Dutch Origin,” printed in an edition of 500 numbered pieces, with a cover illustrated by Józef Mehoffer. The series also included, among others, the study “A Medieval Silver Reliquary in the Treasury of Wawel Cathedral” and, as Issue 6 (1930), “Piotr Kmita’s Chasuble and the Altar of St. Anthony, founded by the Kmita family, in Wawel Cathedral.” The present issue No. 3 was published by the Municipal Industrial Museum in Kraków, an institution founded in 1868 by Adrian Baraniecki. Kruszyński’s series is still cited today in the relevant literature, including in the most recent studies on the so-called Żywiec set and the Saracen-Sicilian casket from the Wawel treasury.

Tadeusz Albin Kruszyński was born on March 1, 1884, in Dublany near Lviv, the son of zoologist Stanisław Kruszyński. He studied theology at Jagiellonian University. From 1907 to 1914, he served as a curate in Bolechowice and Wieliczka, and in 1912 he earned his doctorate in theology. Even before World War I, he was engaged in the study of art history—his book *Old Gdańsk and the History of Its Art* was published in Kraków at that time. Starting in the 1919–20 academic year, he taught art history at the Jagiellonian University. He earned his habilitation in 1925 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków and again in 1929 at the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv. From 1923, he served as metropolitan conservator, and from 1933, as secretary of the cathedral restoration committee. During the war, he was imprisoned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp; later, he participated in clandestine teaching. He was the last dean of the Faculty of Theology at the Jagiellonian University before its closure. At the Academy of Catholic Theology in Warsaw, he headed the Department of Church Art History, serving as a full professor from 1956 onward. He died on July 23, 1959, in Zakopane, after being struck by a motorcycle.

The provenance of this piece remains unknown—the volume bears no institutional seals or ownership inscriptions.

A volume from the series of monographs on the Wawel Treasury—intended for researchers of goldsmithing and artistic crafts, historians of sacred art, and collectors of works related to Kraków and Wawel.

First edition. The text block is intact, the paper is clean, and the illustrations are complete. The loose paper cover has some paper loss.

Catalog ID: 17187x3-25-A-X