Biblioteka Towarzystwa Pomocy Naukowej w Paryżu w świetle korespondencji i protokołów a proces kształtowania się potrzeb czytelniczych Wielkiej Emigracji

The article aims to recreate the unknown origins of the Society for Academic Aid, especially its library. The study, based on the source materials held in the Polish Library in Paris whose creation is closely related to the history of the described institution, begins with a concise presentation of the Polish emigration in France between 1831 and 1833, its number, dispersion and spiritual condition. The formation and activities of the Society were presented not as a top-down idea of the conservative camp, a stance prevalent in the scanty literature on this subject, but a bottom-up initiative of the entire Polish diaspora, despite its political divisions. On the other hand, responsiveness of the members of the Society, led by Prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski, was shown as well as their flexibility in relation to the changing cultural and academic needs of the Polish emigration. On the basis of correspondence sent to the Society from all over France and the first minutes of its meetings, the most urgent needs of Polish emigrants in the sphere of reading and learning were reconstructed and the purposefulness of the requests for a specific reading was shown. Presenting both individual and collective educational and reading expectations, special attention was paid to the dominant aspect of self-education and grassroots initiatives of emigrants deciding to continue their studies in Paris, which finally led to the creation of the library and contributed to the gradual creation of a dual Polish-French émigré identity.