Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński
Count Józef Kajetan Piotr Maksymilian Ossoliński known as Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński (1748 – 17 March 1826) was a Polish nobleman, landowner, politician, novelist, poet, historian and researcher into literature, historian, translator, lexicographer, bibliophile, a forerunner of Slavic studies and a leading figure of the Polish Enlightenment. He founded the Ossoliński Institute in Lwów to which he donated his immense library and other collections of manuscripts and coins. Józef was a member of many learned institutions, and a doctor honoris causa of the Jagiellonian University. He became one of the first Polish politicians from Galicia. He took Austrian citizenship when he became prefect of the Imperial Austrian Library in 1793 in Vienna. He employed Samuel Linde as his "Gräfliche Ossolinskische Bibliothekar", librarian of the Ossoliński Library until 1803 and under his patronage compiler of the first Polish Lexicon. Biography He was born in Wola Mielecka, near Sandomierz. His father, Michał Ossoliński was castellan of Czchów and owner of the estates at Mielec, Zgórsk, Cyranka, Piątkowiec, Wola Mielecka, Partyn, Izbiska. His mother was Anna Szaniawska. He had a strict upbringing as befitted a young nobleman of the day. Józef was regarded as deeply religious, modest and shy. From 1762 to 1771 he attended the highly rated Jesuit Collegium Nobilium in Warsaw. He was taught there by distinguished professors, Adam Naruszewicz, poet, historian and editor, Karol Wyrwicz, geographer, historian and educationalist, Franciszek Bohomolec, author of many ruthless satires about the excesses of the nobility and by I. Nagurczewski and J. Albertrandi. All these men belonged to the intellectual circle of the last king of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski. Following the First Partition of Poland in 1772 which "sanctioned" a land grab by the Habsburg monarchy, the Ossoliński estates found themselves in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Apart from administering the family estates and the occasional trips to Warsaw, Jozef gave himself over to literary pursuits. The Austrians soon awarded him the title of Count. In 1785 he married a relative, Countess Teresa Jabłonowska. The marriage was childless and came to an end in 1791. Between 1789 and 1793 he sat on a committee reviewing the administrative constitution of Galicia to little effect. At the same time he was head of a delegation (1790-1793) to Leopold II, Margrave of Austria. In 1792 He travelled around Central Europe, taking in: Saxony, Bavaria, Austria, Czech lands and Moravia. In 1793 he spent some time in Vienna where he frequented Austrian minister, Thugut, which enabled him to be an intermediary between the Austrian government and members of the Kosciuszko Insurrection (1794). At that time he supported a patriotic Polish daily newspaper in Lwów, "Dziennik Patriotycznych Polaków" (1792-1798), and lobbied on behalf of imprisoned Polish activists who numbered Hugo Kołłątaj among them. After the Third Partition of Poland (1795) the occupying powers intensified their policies of germanisation and russification closing down native educational establishments, cultural centres and introducing the invader's language into all administrative matters. The greatest loss for Polish culture were the wholesale deportations to Russia