In 1990s I kept searching for philatelic material for my subject, analyzing available catalogues and looking for relevant literature. Taking advantage of my short visit to France (Lyon) in 1992, I placed in the February issue of L'Echo de la Timbrologie (No 1639) an advertisement for the exchange of stamps regarding the history of a book, printing and libraries. However, this and other advertisements placed later on in various magazines have met with no response. In spite of this, I did not give up trying to establish wide contacts with philatelists from Europe and the world having similar collector's interests. By the end of 1990s my collection included over 1500 items and could have been presented in the form of a topical display.
Here I have to mention that as the Chancellor of the Knightly Bibliophilic Order from Cracow I have continued, with the consent of Brothers, philatelic traditions in the Order. As early as 1919 the founder and first Grand Master of the Order Kazimierz Witkiewicz, Professor of Academy of Fine Arts, published in The Polish Philatelist his article "The Artistic Value of Polish Postage Stamps". In 1955 - 1961 the then Chancellor of the Order Witold Chomicz, also Professor of Academy of Fine Arts, designed stamps, cards and envelopes highly valued by specialists.
The year 2000 proved to be crucial for bibliophilately because of the presentation of stamp collection in the Jagiellonian Library which commemorated in this way the 600th anniversary of Johann Gutenberg's birthday. The exhibition organized jointly by the Jagiellonian Library and the Knightly Bibliophilic Order was recognized as an important cultural event. The programme of the display included 12 sub-topics, such as: Master Gutenberg, Before a Man Learned To Write, The History of Writing and Writing Materials, Handwritten Books (Manuscripts), Development of Printing Industry, Libraries, Promotion of a Book. Introduction to the catalogue was written by Professor Maria Kocójowa, Director of the Institute of Library Science and Scientific Information at the Jagiellonian University. She was the one to direct my attention to the article published in the professional magazine American Libraries in February 2000, in which the author Larry T. Nix used the word "bibliophilately." It turned out that this word had been used even earlier, in June 1982. The inventor of this neologism was George Eberhard who introduced it for the first time in his article in American Libraries. In it he made a review of stamps depicting libraries. Therefore I think that the neologism "biblio-philately" in this sense was derived from Greek bibliotheca and international philately. Larry T. Nix suggested also the name corresponding to the subject, that is "Postal Librariana".
So, the word "bibliophilately" had been used outside Poland for over 18 years, which I didn't know. Fortunately, it referred only to a selected part of what I proposed.
My further search for thematic literature brought another discovery, thanks to the book by Antoni Kurczyński Thematic Philately published in Poland in 1992. I found there the word "bibliately." It turned out that this word had been invented by Leona Rostenberg, President of American Association of Booksellers and Antiquaries in 1972 - 1974, and at the same time the owner of a well-known antiquarian bookstore in New York. In 1977 a series of her articles was published in The American Philatelist under a general title "Bibliately," on the subject of books on stamps. I learned about it from invaluable Larry T. Nix who sent me copies of those articles in 2002.
In 2001, on the tenth anniversary of the Revived Chapter of the Order of Rara Avis, of the Knightly Bibliophilic Order, there was held a display of stamps "Bibliophilately 2" at the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow. This time the visitors' attention was directed towards the educational role of a book, and the presented material was described as "the collection of postage stamps and other philatelic items referring to a book and its history, institutions and persons who rendered services to its development, and showing its educational inspirations, its role in the fight against illiteracy and the propagation of education, also in schools and universities".
The year 2002 brought me one more surprise, the author of which was the aforementioned Larry T. Nix. I received the information from him about an unusual dissertation concluded with a catalogue containing stamps that concerned libraries and valuable books, and whole collections kept in them. The catalogue entitled Bibliotheken und ihre Kostbarkeiten auf Briefmarken was compiled in 2001 by Heinz Gittig, the former director of the National Library in Berlin. It comprises stamps from all over the world, concerning all libraries, separate as well as those at colleges and universities, various secular and church organizations, museums of literature; it also includes a list of stamps presenting library organizations and librarians.
So it has turned out that my bibliophilately is one of the ways of combining bibliophily and philately, and the stamp collection can be another attempt at the presentation of the extraordinary history of a book and the part it played in our civilization. The examples of exhibits presented so far are as follows:
Recently in several philatelic magazines some articles have appeared, drawing attention to matters connected with a book and its history depicted on postage stamps. We should mention here Didier Michaud: Les livres anciens; La thematique universelle from the magazine Timbroscopie No 34, January 1997; Harry E. Reef: "The Pathway To Our Alphabet" published in the magazine Topical Time No 307 from 2001; and Barbara M. Soper: "Illuminated Manuscripts and Medieval Books" in Scott Stamp Monthly, April 2001.
The first information about bibliophilately appeared in Polish magazine Philatelist No 8/2000, and then in other regional philatelic magazines, including The Malopolska Philatelist No 3/44/2000 and The Kalisz Philatelist No 2/74/2002. The idea and development of the collection were presented at the international conference "The Information Community; Quality of Education and Librarians' Work" organized by the Jagiellonian University in 2001. The idea of the collection was also presented in Spanish bibliophilic magazine HIBRIS No 16/2003. Since No 1/2004 Philatelist has introduced a series of articles under the general title "Bibliophilately".
What I hadn't been able to obtain through advertisements in the specialist philatelic press (Topical Time, Timbres Magazin, Interphila, Boletim do clube filatelico de Portugal), that is the expansion of contacts with foreign countries, turned out well in 2002. In August of that year the website www.bibliofilatelia.org.pl was created, and supplemented in 2004 with new information regarding mainly writing connected with a book in philately. The main website has been compiled in four European languages, and since 2004 also in Chinese. Additional elements of promotion have been decorative postcards prepared in three graphic versions, which I send to my correspondents and to tenderers from whom I receive or buy philatelic material for my collection.