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thumb|250px|right|Signature of Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński
Count Józef Kajetan Piotr Maksymilian Ossoliński known as Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński (1748 – 17 March 1826) was a Polish nobleman, landowner, politician, novelist, poet, historian and researcher into literature, historian, translator, lexicographer, bibliophile, a forerunner of Slavic studies and a leading figure of the Polish Enlightenment. He founded the Ossoliński Institute in Lwów to which he donated his immense library and other collections of manuscripts and coins.
Józef was a member of many learned institutions, and a doctor honoris causa of the Jagiellonian University. He became one of the first Polish politicians from Galicia. He took Austrian citizenship when he became prefect of the Imperial Austrian Library in 1793 in Vienna. He employed Samuel Linde as his "Gräfliche Ossolinskische Bibliothekar", librarian of the Ossoliński Library until 1803 and under his patronage compiler of the first Polish Lexicon.
Biography
He was born in Wola Mielecka, near Sandomierz. His father, Michał Ossoliński was castellan of Czchów and owner of the estates at Mielec, Zgórsk, Cyranka, Piątkowiec, Wola Mielecka, Partyn, Izbiska. His mother was Anna Szaniawska. He had a strict upbringing as befitted a young nobleman of the day. Józef was regarded as deeply religious, modest and shy.
From 1762 to 1771 he attended the highly rated Jesuit Collegium Nobilium in Warsaw. He was taught there by distinguished professors, Adam Naruszewicz, poet, historian and editor, Karol Wyrwicz, geographer, historian and educationalist, Franciszek Bohomolec, author of many ruthless satires about the excesses of the nobility and by I. Nagurczewski and J. Albertrandi. All these men belonged to the intellectual circle of the last king of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski.
Following the First Partition of Poland in 1772 which "sanctioned" a land grab by the Habsburg monarchy, the Ossoliński estates found themselves in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Apart from administering the family estates and the occasional trips to Warsaw, Jozef gave himself over to literary pursuits. The Austrians soon awarded him the title of Count. In 1785 he married a relative, Countess Teresa Jabłonowska. The marriage was childless and came to an end in 1791.
Between 1789 and 1793 he sat on a committee reviewing the administrative constitution of Galicia to little effect. At the same time he was head of a delegation (1790-1793) to Leopold II, Margrave of Austria. In 1792 He travelled around Central Europe, taking in: Saxony, Bavaria, Austria, Czech lands and Moravia. In 1793 he spent some time in Vienna where he frequented Austrian minister, Thugut, which enabled him to be an intermediary between the Austrian government and members of the Kosciuszko Insurrection (1794). At that time he supported a patriotic Polish daily newspaper in Lwów, "Dziennik Patriotycznych Polaków" (1792-1798), and lobbied on behalf of imprisoned Polish activists who numbered Hugo Kołłątaj among them. In the years he spent with Ossoliński he gathered sufficient material for a Polish lexicon, for which he consulted widely in Polish and Slav sources in the count's own collection and benefitted from his mentoring. As a result Linde's fame prospered so that in 1804 he was appointed headmaster of the Warsaw Lyceum.
From 1795 Ossoliński settled permanently in Vienna where he devoted himself to research and his passion for books. In that period he began collecting materials on a grand scale for his projected national cultural foundation. In 1808 he was nominated as clandestine consultant to the Austrian court and the following year he became prefect of the Imperial Library, which he successfully defended from looting by Napoleon's invading army.
He spent 15 years (1808-1823) as curator of the Galician Economic Institute. He was granted the distinction of Royal Marshall by Emperor Francis I of Austria and honoured with the Order of St Stephen of Hungary and Court Bursar of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.
In his highly complicated act of foundation, Ossoliński laid down the staffing and financial arrangements and made express provision for the publication of a newsletter to report on the scientific progress of the institute. In 1823 Ossoliński agreed with prince Henryk Lubomirski that he should donate his collections to the new library, but as a distinct museum collection.
In 1820 his health failed badly and in 1823 he lost his sight.