ON THE ESTABLISHMENT AND FALL OF THE POLISH CONSTITUTION OF 3^RD MAY 1791

This work was extensive, consisting of two volumes and over 500 printed pages. As Andrzej Zahorski wrote in the publication Spór o Stanisław Augusta (The dispute about Stanisław August), published nearly half a century ago: "it was probably the first work in modern Poland in the field of political propaganda [...] written down in black and white". The first editions of this work, inspired by Kołłątaj and edited by Dmochowski, are full of riddles. The place of publication of this anonymous text is Metz of Lorraine, and the date of publication is 1793. Karol Estreicher believed that the work was published in Krakow by Jan Antoni Maj. More recent studies assume, following Józef Szczepniec, that "On the Establishment ..."was in fact published in Leipzig by the publisher Johann Gottlob Immanuel Breitkopf. The next edition gives Lviv 1793 as its place of publication but, again, this is not true, because the work was published in Warsaw in 1794. With the participation of Samuel Bogumił Linde as translator, "Vom Entstehen und Untergange der polnischen Konstitution vom 3ten May 1791" was also published in German, this time actually in Lviv, in 1793.

By the end of 1793, "On the Establishment ..." was already being sold in Poland, and was widely distributed during the Uprising. Andrzej Zahorski wrote: “This book played a special role in ‘The dispute over Stanisław August’. It was written by the people who were preparing the insurrection with the express purpose of winning over the hearts and minds of the nation to battle. ‘On the Establishment ...’ was intended by its authors as a work of propaganda; it was meant to show Poles that an armed struggle for Poland was the only way to maintain Poland as an independent state. All negotiations, compromises, acts of humility and humiliation led to nothing, did not achieve the goal, did not suppress the appetites of possessive neighbors. So, one had to fight and win; one had to learn the strategy for victory from the French who were able to defend Poland from the forays of all of monarchical Europe”.

Subsequent editions of "On the Establishment ..." were published in Warsaw in 1830 and in Paris 1867-1871, "The People's Library" no. 21-26. This last edition is particularly interesting due to the format and the purpose it served, i.e., for delivery to Poland. This edition was published by the Luxembourg Bookshop (Polish Bookshop in Paris), founded in 1864 by Jean-Baptiste Vasseur. The co-initiator of the creation of the bookshop was Władysław Mickiewicz, son of Adam Mickiewicz, who ran it independently between 1867 - 1889. The bookshop dealt with the publication of Polish works and the problems of Poland in Polish and French. During its relatively short existence (1864-1889), many masterpieces of Polish fiction, scientific works (approx. 200 titles) and political publications were published. One of its first undertakings was to establish the Polish People's Library (1866-1871), for which it published 69 volumes. By 1869, the People’s Library boasted some 4,500 titles. It was destroyed in 1871 and closed in 1889.

It was also no coincidence that, almost simultaneously with the Paris edition of "On the Establishment ...", a book written by Stanisław August was posthumously published, also in Paris, but under the name of his chamberlain Mikołaj Wolski. "Obrona Stanisław Augusta" (In defence of Stanisław August) was in fact the royal response to “On the Establishment ...”, the propaganda publication of the supporters of insurrection.