Polish scholarly magazines Biblioteka Warszawska [Warsaw Library] (1841–1914) and Ateneum (1876– 1901) devoted a quite a lot of attention to recent discoveries in the field of ancient history, cultural history and descriptions of foreign countries. This article discusses materials on the ancient Middle East published in both of these periodicals.

The illustrated weekly Wędrowiec (The Wanderer), published in 1863–1906, certainly lived up to its programmatic title and published a great deal of material on geography, history of culture and travels abroad. This article discusses the texts that dealt with the ancient history of the Middle East.

The first part of this article focuses on one strand in the history of the weekly magazine Przyjaciel Dzieci (The Children’s Friend) under the editorship of Jan Skiwski (1892–1911), i.e. the gradual revision of the rules concerning the selection of its literary content, laid down by his predecessor Jan Kanty Gregorowicz (1867–1890). Skiwski modified them without abandoning the principles and artistic models of 19th century realism.

The second part of this article examines the content of the main sections of the weekly magazine Przyjaciel Dzieci [The Children’s Friend] (1892–1911), i.e. popular science; travel, geographical and ethnographical materials; biography; a section called “teaching actions”; and religion. Also covered are miscellanea, practical tips, puzzles and cartoons, as well as new sections “About the World” and “Educational Games and Entertainment”. Finally, the article looks at a review published by Poradnik dla Czytających Książki [A Guide for Book Readers] in 1901, whose author claims that some of the information in Przyjaciel Dzieci is outdated or obsolete.

Father Marceli Dziurzyński (1861–1945) was a noted publisher and editor of a number of magazines, mainly for the country people. The most successful of them was Nowy Dzwonek (The New Hand Bell) that appeared continually from 1892, under altered names and at various intervals, until 1932. This article surveys the first phase of its history and its thematic range (religion, Polish history, current events in Poland and abroad, stories and poems). In that period the magazine also carried a number of supplements.