The first Polish bookshop abroad was opened in Paris on 12 September 1833 on the initiative of the Polish writer and publicist Eustachy Januszkiewicz (1805-1874). Januszkiewicz belonged to the representatives of the so-called Great Emigration - Poles who left their homeland to escape the repressions of Nicholas I after the fall of the November Uprising. It was with people like him in mind - Polish exiles forced to live abroad - that Librairie Polonaise was founded.

The context of the Libraire Polonaise. The new function of bookshops at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.

The enactment of Le Chapelier's law (Loi Le Chapelier) in 1791, which banned the organisation of associations of citizens of the same state and profession and the undertaking of joint activities, significantly affected the book market in France. As a result of this ban, at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, bookshops began to fulfil an important new social function - they became places of meeting and gathering for different groups of stakeholders. Aware of these changes, the French authorities over the next century introduced regulations aimed at limiting the political potential of bookshops, which grew in line with the development of the publishing market.

History of the Librairie Polonaise's activities in the 19th century.

One of the key political institutions on the Parisian bookselling scene, whose activities were committed to the Polish national cause in the nineteenth century, was the Polish bookshop in Paris, the Librairie Polonaise, which had been operating since 1833. From its inception, the Librairie Polonaise served not only as a shop and antiquarian bookshop, but also as a publishing house, publishing books, political pamphlets and essays on "la cause polonaise". In addition to album publications on the former Republic of Poland and books of Polish fiction, the bookshop also offered medals, drawings or prints by Polish artists. However, what made it unique on the map of Paris bookshops was its role as a centre for the distribution of cultural and political news about the territories of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the Partitions, as well as a centre for meetings and exchanges of views between representatives of the Polish intelligentsia, artists, former insurgents and landowners.

Originally located at quai Voltaire 11, opposite the Louvre, the bookshop changed its premises, names and the nature of its offer several times. Just two years after opening, it was moved to premises on rue des Marais-Saint-Germain (now rue Visconti). In the 1840s, it was sold first to Juliusz Marylski and then to Karol Królikowski, and for the next decades it operated at this address as Librairie Catholique Polonaise, concentrating on the distribution of religious publications in Polish.

In 1864, thanks to Władysław Mickiewicz (1838-1926), son of the famous poet Adam Mickiewicz, the bookshop gained a new location at 23 rue Taitbout and took the name Librairie Polonaise du Luxembourg. Władysław Mickiewicz took charge of the institution to develop its publishing activities (he strove to publish all of his father's literary works) in response to the growing demand for Polish literature resulting from the spread of reading and the introduction of compulsory education. The bookshop was closed down in 1889. Changes in the political sympathies of the French public and authorities contributed to the decision to close it - after the fall of the Paris Commune, revolutionaries responsible for the destruction of the French capital began to be seen in the Poles. In addition, after the defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Russia - the opponent of Polish independence aspirations - was gaining more and more favour with successive French governments. The prevailing atmosphere caused many Polish émigrés to decide to leave France, and numerous Polish institutions, including the Librairie Polonaise, closed their doors.

Contemporary history of the bookshop

Librairie Polonaise resumed its activities after the First World War as a branch of the Warsaw bookshop of Gebethner and Wolff. In 1925, it moved to its current premises near the Théâtre national de l'Odéon, at 123 Boulevard Saint-Germain. The bookshop was located on the ground floor of an eclectic tenement house from 1890, in premises with a large shop window, where it still operates today.

In 1941, during the Nazi occupation of Paris, the Librairie Polonaise was closed and its collection destroyed. Persecution also affected the then director of the bookshop, Tadeusz Pajor, who was deported to a concentration camp.

The operation of the Polish bookshop on Boulevard Saint-Germain was resumed after 1945 thanks to the efforts of Stanisław Lam (1891-1965). Since the early 1990s, the institution has been run by the Michalski family, who have continued its pre-war traditions. As in the early days, Librairie Polonaise not only offers literature and press in Polish or reproductions of Polish art, but also serves as a meeting centre for Polish émigrés and the cultivation of Polish culture abroad by organising, among other things, thematic lectures.