In this volume I aim to examine the figure of Mieczysław Karłowicz in the broader sociocultural context which fostered his work. The attempt to contextualize an immense intellectual patrimony — despite being restricted to a tiny number of works when compared to more prolific authors, especially in the context of the xix and the xx centuries — is always a complex and hazardous task.

My primary intention in organizing the volume has been to explicate Karłowicz the man as well as Karłowicz the ...