Joachim Lelewel, a Polish historian, born in Warsaw, March 20, 1786, died in Brussels, May 29, 1861. He studied history at Wilna, and was appointed professor of history at Kre-menetz in Volhynia, and afterward at the university of Wilna. He rose to the first rank among Polish historians, but in 1822 was removed for his revolutionary language. Having returned to Warsaw, he was in 1830 elected to the diet, and was a member of the various revolutionary governments which succeeded each other before the events of Aug. 15, 1831. After the fall of Warsaw he went to Paris, where he was placed at the head of a Polish democratic committee, and became involved in controversies with Czartoryski, Bern, and other refugees belonging to the aristocratic party. The committee was dissolved, Lelewel removed from Paris by order of the government of Louis Philippe, and finally, after the failure of several Polish conspiracies in various countries, he was banished from France. He took up his residence at Brussels, where he lectured on history at the new university, and lived a life of self-imposed poverty and incessant literary labors.

Among his numerous works, in Polish, French, and German, are: a " History of Poland " for the young (Warsaw, 1829); "Treatises on Geographical and Historical Subjects " (Leipsic, 1836); " Numismatics of the Middle Ages" (Paris, 1836); " Numismatical Studies " (Brussels, 1840); "Poland Regenerated" (Brussels, 1843); "Poland in the Middle Ages " (Posen, 1846-'51); " Geography of the Arabs " (Paris, 1851); and " Geography of the Middle Ages," with an atlas engraved by himself (4 vols., Brussels, 1852-7).