Józef Muczkowski

Peasants; a son of Marcin Muciek and Katarzyna Drelanek.

After finishing department school in Lublin (1812), he began studies at the Philology Faculty of Jagiellonian University. He took 2 years off from university, finally graduating in 1817.

From 1813 until 1815, as the second lieutenant of the Uhlan regiment in Napoleon’s Imperial Guard, he fought in Germany and France. In 1817, he joined the staff of the library of Jagiellonian University as a junior librarian, in 1819 he took up the position of teacher of Polish, Greek and Latin at St. Mary Magdalene’s Middle School in Poznań. After returning to Cracow in 1929, Muczkowski gave private lessons for a living, later securing a teaching position at St. Anne’s Middle School. In 1834, he was made senior librarian, to be later promoted to the director of the university library and bibliography professor at Jagiellonian University. He gained recognition not only as the author of writings on linguistics, but also as an editor of literary works (Mickiewicz’s poetry, among others) and author of writings on the history of Jagiellonian University and of Polish literature. He rendered great services to Jagiellonian University.

• Adam Bochnak, Muczkowski Józef, [w:] Polski słownik biograficzny, t. 22, Wrocław 1977, s. 250–252.