Referring to a book by A. Eriksen (Oslo 2007) the author discusses the development of the Norwegian historiography of the 17th–18th centuries and attempts to determine the role played by the so called “topographers”, who represented the antiquarian and/or erudite approach to historical writing.

This article aims to look at the Roman interest in the past beyond the context of traditional historiography, focused on the great politics, events and individuals. It suggests that antiquarian writing was not so much a separate literary genre, but rather an alternative model of historical reflection focused on studying the distant past in all its manifestations: everyday life, culture, religion, language or law.

This is account of the first auction of rare magazines and newspapers organized at the Warsaw Academic Antiquarian Bookshop (Magazines and Newspapers) of the Publishing House Dom Książki in 1984. It offered over two thousand items, published in Poland and abroad, from the 18th until the 20th century.