The monograph by Jan Ziarnka, an extraordinary 17th-century "talented craftsman from Lviv", is a book for lovers of graphic art. It will also reach historians, sociologists, propaganda scholars or representatives of one of the oldest and most numerous Polish communities in Europe, the French Polish community.

The book - published in the series "Studies and Materials" - is a thorough stylistic analysis of Jan Ziarnko's works and an innovative reinterpretation of them, revealing a hitherto completely unknown face of this Pole-erudite, unique in the entire history of Polish, and even European, graphic art.

Małgorzata Biłozór-Salwa, writing about the fate and work of the "Polonus" taken in distant Paris, describes in a very interesting way the realities of the epoch in Lvov, Krakow and Paris at that time, together with all the conditions of the graphic arts market, which was not easy for artists. The works of the renowned Jan Ziarnko found their way into placards, almanacs or calendars, and were illustrations for allegorical political prints. As a documentalist of the era and propagator of political ideas, he was, in a way, an intermediary between the authorities and the people.

Noteworthy is the catalogue appended to the book, diligently compiled by the Author, of the engravings by Ziarnka presented in terms of type, content, social, political and propaganda functions. The publication demonstrates a high level of scientific workshop of the art historian.

Author: Małgorzata Biłozór-Salwa

Edited by: Sylwia Chojecka

Translation: Sylwia Zawadzka (English), Małgorzata Matysik (English), Małgorzata Kościańska (French).

Year of publication: 2021

Number of pages: 324

Binding: softbound

ISBN: 978-83-66172-36-4