The Parish Library in Biała in the Light of the General Inspection in 1748

The parish in Biała was established before 1325. In the Old-Polish period its territory was included in the Zawichost Archdeaconry in the Krakow Diocese. A lot of valuable information about its functioning is supplied by the inspection protocols. The protocol from 1748 that is used in the present article contains an interesting list of books kept in the parish library. Analyzing the contents of the library one may state without any doubts that it had a typically pastoral character. Homily books (by Matthew Faber, Henry Engelgrave, Antoni Andrzej Węgrzynowicz) and theological ones (by James Marchant, Francis Tolet, Ferdynand Ohm Januszewski, Adam of Opatów, Jan Dymitr Solikowski) were a help in the work at the pulpit and in the confessional. The presence of the representative of classical literature – Terence – might have resulted from the priests' personal interests. However, the lack of the Bible, of works by the Fathers of the Church or collections of sermons by preachers that were well-known and highly regarded at those times, may seem strange. Maybe they were in the clergy's private collections, and the parish library was a sort of the priests' reference library