The Early Printed Books Division Reading Room of the Ossolineum Library is located in the main building of the Ossolineum at 37 Szewska Street in Wroclaw, on the second floor of staircase B, in room 231.
The reading room has 10 seats.
Early printed books, i.e. those published before 1800, are available only to authorised readers (employees of the University and other scientific and cultural institutions, as well as doctoral students and students with a written recommendation from the University).
Please note - originals will not be made available if the Library has scanned or microfilmed copies. Microforms and digital copies (DVDs) are available in the Microforms and Digital Collections Reading Room.
Digital copies of many early printed books are available:
- in the Lower Silesia Digital Library (all incunabula, the majority of 16th-18th century polonica, as well as 18th century foreign prints of particular editorial value, e.g. richly illustrated), and
- in the Digital Resources Database (especially items from the pre-war Ossolineum collections, now in Lviv).
Card catalogues available in the Early Printed Books Division Reading Room:
- Alphabetical catalogue of incunabula,
- Alphabetical catalogue of 16th century prints.
a) Related to Poland
b) Foreign prints,
- Alphabetical catalogue of 17th and 18th century prints,
- Alphabetical catalogue of periodicals.
Early printed books are also gradually being catalogued in the PRIMO system and information on them can be found in the Main Online Catalogue.
Printed catalogues
- Katalog inkunabułów Biblioteki Zakładu Narodowego im. Ossolińskich we Wrocławiu, na podst. materiałów K. Piekarskiego oprac. A. Kawecka-Gryczowa, Wrocław 1956.
- E. Triller, Katalog inkunabułów Biblioteki Zakładu Narodowego im. Ossolińskich we Wrocławiu. Kontynuacja katalogu Alodii Kaweckiej-Gryczowej, „Ze skarbca kultury” 1963, nr 15, s. 263-290.
- Katalog starych druków Biblioteki Zakładu Narodowego im. Ossolińskich. Polonica wieku XVI, Z materiałów rejestracyjnych K. Zatheya oprac. M. Bohonos, Wrocław 1965.
- Katalog starych druków Biblioteki Zakładu Narodowego im. Ossolińskich. Polonica wieku XVII, t. 1-2 oprac. B. Górska i W. Tyszkowski, Wrocław 1991-1992; t. 2-8 oprac. W. Tyszkowski, Wrocław 1993-1996; t. 9 oprac. G. Rolak i W. Tyszkowski, Wrocław 1997.
- B. Górska, Katalog czasopism XVI-XVIII w. w zbiorach Starych Druków Biblioteki Ossolineum, „Ze skarbca kultury” 1963, nr 15, s. 7-262.
- B. Górska, Katalog kalendarzy XVII-XVIII w. w zbiorach Biblioteki Ossolineum, Wrocław 1968.
- W. Tyszkowski, Polskie katalogi księgarskie z XVIII w. w zbiorach Biblioteki Ossolineum, „Ze skarbca kultury” 1986 nr. 42, s. 35-92.
- Katalog der Leichenpredigten und sonstiger Trauerschriften in der Bibliothek des Ossolineums Wrocław (Breslau). Bearb. von Rudolf Lenz [et al.]. – Sigmarinen : Thorbecke, 1998. (Marburger Personalschriften-Forschungen ; Bd. 21).
- Katalog druków XVI wieku z historycznej kolekcji Ossolineum. Pod redakcją D. Sidorowicz-Mulak, Wrocław 2017.
- M. Minkowska, Katalog druków śląskich XV–XVIII wieku ze zbiorów Zakładu Narodowego im. Ossolińskich, Wrocław 2020.
- Katalog druków cyrylickich XV-XVIII wieku w zbiorach Zakładu Narodowego im. Ossolińskich, oprac. O. Tkachuk przy współpracy D. Sidorowicz-Mulak, Wrocław 2022.
Information on early printed books in Ossolineum collections can be found in databases such as:
