Joachim Lelewel was a Polish

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

 and politician

Politician

A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...

, from a Polonized branch of a Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

n family.

His grandparents were Heinrich Löllhöffel von Löwensprung (1705–63) and Constance Jauch

Jauch family

The Jauch family of Germany is a Hanseatic family, originating from Bergsulza in Thuringia and for the first time documented in the 15th century...

 (1722–1802), who later polonized

Polonization

Polonization was the acquisition or imposition of elements of Polish culture, in particular, Polish language, as experienced in some historic periods by non-Polish populations of territories controlled or substantially influenced by Poland...

 her name to Lelewel.

Life

Born in Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, Lelewel was educated at the Imperial University of Vilna

Vilnius University

Vilnius University is the oldest university in the Baltic states and one of the oldest in Eastern Europe. It is also the largest university in Lithuania....

, where in 1814 he became a lecturer in history, with a brief sojourn at Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

, 1818-21, where he joined the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning. His lectures on Polish history created great enthusiasm, as shown in some lines addressed to him by Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Mickiewicz

Adam Bernard Mickiewicz ) was a Polish poet, publisher and political writer of the Romantic period. One of the primary representatives of the Polish Romanticism era, a national poet of Poland, he is seen as one of Poland's Three Bards and the greatest poet in all of Polish literature...

 that led to Lelewel's removal by the Russians

Russian history, 1796-1855

In Russian history, period from year 1796 to 1855 was time of Napoleonic wars, Government reform, political reorganization and economic growth.-War and peace in Russia, 1796-1825:...

 in 1824.

Five years later Lelewel returned to Warsaw, where he was elected a deputy to the Diet

Diet (assembly)

In politics, a diet is a formal deliberative assembly. The term is mainly used historically for the Imperial Diet, the general assembly of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire, and for the legislative bodies of certain countries.-Etymology:...

. He joined the November 1830 Uprising

November Uprising

The November Uprising , Polish–Russian War 1830–31 also known as the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in Warsaw when the young Polish officers from the local Army of the Congress...

 with more enthusiasm than energy, though Tsar

Tsar

Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...

 Nicholas I

Nicholas I of Russia

Nicholas I , was the Emperor of Russia from 1825 until 1855, known as one of the most reactionary of the Russian monarchs. On the eve of his death, the Russian Empire reached its historical zenith spanning over 20 million square kilometers...

 identified him as one of the most dangerous rebels. On the suppression of the rebellion, Lelewel made his way in disguise to Germany

German Confederation

The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...

 and subsequently reached Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 in 1831. The government of Louis Philippe

Louis-Philippe of France

Louis Philippe I was King of the French from 1830 to 1848 in what was known as the July Monarchy. His father was a duke who supported the French Revolution but was nevertheless guillotined. Louis Philippe fled France as a young man and spent 21 years in exile, including considerable time in the...

 ordered him to quit French territory in 1833 at the request of the Russian ambassador. The cause of the expulsion is said to have been his writing of revolutionary proclamations. He went to Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, where for nearly thirty years he earned a scanty livelihood by his writings.

In 1847 he, together with Karl Marx

Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...

 and Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...

, became a founding member and Vizepräses (vice president) of the Demokratische Gesellschaft zur Einigung und Verbrüderung aller Völker (Democratic Society for Unity and Brotherhood of All Peoples), seated in Brussels. The anarchist Michail Bakunin was strongly influenced by him.

Lelewel died 29 May 1861 in Paris, where he had moved a few days earlier. First interred there, his body was transferred to the Rasos Cemetery

Rasos Cemetery

Rasos Cemetery is the oldest and most famous cemetery in the city of Vilnius, Lithuania. It is named after the Rasos district where it is located. It is separated into two parts, the old and the new cemeteries, by a narrow Sukilėliai Street. The total area is 10.8 ha...

 in Vilnius

Vilnius

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...

, in accord with his wishes.

Works

His literary activity in Polish

Polish language

Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...

 and, to a more international audience in French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, was enormous, extending from his Edda skandynawska ("The Scandinavian Edda", 1807) to his Géographie des Arabes (1851). One of his most important publications was La Géographie du moyen âge (5 vols., 1852-1857), with an atlas (1849) of fifty plates entirely engraved by himself, for he attached such importance to the accuracy of his maps that he would not allow them to be executed by anyone else.

His works on Polish history are based on minute and critical study of the documents; they were collected under the title Polska, dzieje i rzeczy jej rozpatrzywane (Poland, Her History and Affairs Surveyed), in 20 vols. (1853-76). He intended to write a complete history of Poland on an extensive scale, but never accomplished the task. His method is shown in the "little history" of Poland, first published at Warsaw in Polish in 1823, under the title Dzieje Polski, and afterwards largely rewritten in the Histoire de Pologne (2 vols., 1844). Other works on Polish history which may be especially mentioned are La Pologne au moyen âge (Poland in the Middle Ages, 3 vols., 1846-51), an edition of the Chronicle of Matthew Cholewaski (1811) and Ancient Memorials of Polish Legislation (Księgi ustaw polskich i mazowieckich). He also wrote on the trade of Carthage

Carthage

Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...

, on the geographer Pytheas

Pytheas

Pytheas of Massalia or Massilia , was a Greek geographer and explorer from the Greek colony, Massalia . He made a voyage of exploration to northwestern Europe at about 325 BC. He travelled around and visited a considerable part of Great Britain...

 of Marseille

Marseille

Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...

, and two important works on numismatics

Numismatics

Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, and related objects. While numismatists are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, the discipline also includes the broader study of money and other payment media used to resolve debts and the...

 (La Numismatique du moyen âge, 2 vols., 1835; Etudes numismatiques, 1840). While employed in the Warsaw University library, he studied bibliography, and the fruits of his labors may be seen in his Bibliograficznych Ksiąg dwoje (Two Bibliographic Books, 2 vols., 1823-26).

Lelewel's characteristics as a historian are great research and power to draw inferences from his facts. His style is too often careless, and his narrative is not picturesque, but his expressions are frequently terse and incisive.

He wrote an autobiography (Adventures while Prosecuting Researches and Inquiries on Polish Matters), printed in his Polska (Poland).

• Edda czyli Księga religii dawnych Skandynawii mięszkańców (1807)
• Rzut oka na dawnosc litewskich narodow i związki ich z Herulami (1808)
• Uwagi nad Mateuszem herbu Cholewa polskim XII wieku dzieiopisem, a w sczególności nad pierwszą dzieiów iego xięgą (1811)
• Historyka tudzież o łatwem i pozytecznem nauczaniu historyi (1815)
• Joachima Lelewela badania starożytności we względzie geografji : część naukowa (1818)
• Dodatek do Teodora Wagi Historyi książąt i królów polskich : panowanie Stanislawa Augusta (1819)
• Joachima Lelewela bibljograficznych ksiąg dwoje Tom 1 (1823) Tom 2 (1826)
• Edda : to jest Księga religii dawnych Skandynawii mieszkańców (1828)
• Dzieje bibliotek do Dziennika Warszawskiego (1828)
• Dzieje Polski Joachim Lelewel potocznym sposobem opowiedział, do nich dwanaście krajobrazów skreślił (1829)
• Początkowe prawodawstwa polskie cywilne i kryminalne do czasów jagiellońskich (1829)
• Essai historique sur la législation polonaise civile et criminelle, jusqu’au temps des Jagellons, depuis 730 jusqu’en 1403. Paris, 1830.
• Panowanie króla polskiego Stanisława Augusta Poniatowskiego : obejmującé trzydziestoletnie usilności narodu podźwignienia się, ocalénia bytu i niepodległości (1831)
• Numismatique du Moyen-âge, considérée sous le rapport du type. Paris, 1835.
• Polska odradzająca się czyli dzieje polskie od roku 1795 potocznie opowiedziane (1836)
• Joachima Lelewela porównanie dwu powstań narodu polskiego 1794 i 1830-1831 (1840)
• Études numismatiques et archéologiques. Bruxelles, 1841.
• Gilbert de Lannoy i jego podróże (1844)
• Histoire de Pologne Tom 1 (1844) Tom 2 (1844) Atlas (1844)
• Dzieje Litwy i Rusi aż do unii z Polską w Lublinie 1569 zawartej (1844)
• La Pologne au moyen âge. 3 vol. Poznań, 1846.
• Stracone obywatelstwo stanu kmiecego w Polsce (1846)
• Polska wieków średnich czyli Joachima Lelewela w dziejach narodowych polskich postrzeżenia Tom wstępny (1853) Tom 1 (1855) Tom 2 (1847) Tom 3 (1851) Tom 4 (1851)
• Géographie du moyen âge Tome I (1852) Tome II (1852) Tomes III et IV (1852) épilogue (1852)
• Géographie des Arabes. Paris, 1851.
• Cześć bałwochwalcza Sławian i Polski (1857)
• Lotniki piśmiennictwa tułaczki polskiej (1859)
• Geografja. Opisanie krajów polskich (1859)
• O monetach błaznów i niewiniątek z powodu dzieła Rigollota kilka słów Joachima Lelewela (1860)
• Trzy konstytucje polskie. 1791, 1807, 1815. Poznań, 1861.
• Histoire de la Lithuanie et de la Ruthénie jusqu'a leur union définitive avec la Pologne conclue a Lublin en 1569 (1861)
• Nauki dające poznać zrzódła historyczne (1863)
• Historya Polska do końca panowania Stefana Batorego : dzieło pośmiertne (1863)
• Dzieje bibliotek (1868)
• Pamiętnik z roku 1830-31 (1924)