The Division holds approximately 70,000 volumes of 15th-18th century prints, including:
"With regard to polonica (items relating to Poland), [the Ossolineum] has the most extensive collection of Polish classics next to the Jagiellonian Library, a large number of unique or very rare copies, author's copies with handwritten dedications and additions. Among the foreign items are rare editions from old Polish collections, in original bindings from royal libraries and eminent Polish personalities, often with handwritten notes and additions by the former owners". (Memoriał Komisji Ekspertów dla Przejęcia Polskiego Dobra Kulturalnego we Lwowie przy Wydziale Kulturalno-Oświatowym Związku Patriotów Polskich we Lwowie, 28.08.1945)
Incunabula are the oldest part of the Ossolineum's collection of early printed books. The collection of the Ossolineum Library includes books from the first printing house in Poland, the printing house of Kasper Straube in Krakow (c. 1475-1477). 1475-1477), a hand-coloured Cosmography by Ptolemy published in Ulm in 1482, Hartmann Schedel's Chronicle of the World with the first woodcut of Wroclaw, printed in Nuremberg in 1493 by Antony Koberger, a fragment of a rare print of the Triod cvietnaja from around 1491 from the oldest Cyrillic printing house in the world, an illustrated herbarium published in Paris in 1498, and a Florentine edition of Dante's famous Divine Comedy from 1481, one of the first works to be illustrated in copperplate and printed in humanist antiqua.
Sixteenth-century printed books are the most valuable part of the collection. The collection includes more than 70% of the works of national workshops, i.e. the majority of printed literature of the Renaissance and Reformation. The best represented are the works of the leading Krakow printers of the period. In addition to works by Polish-Latin authors, a large group of Greek and Roman literature in translation and in the original languages, as well as journalistic literature, is also represented. We have collected first editions of famous Polish writers of that time - Mikołaj Rej, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, Szymon Szymonowic, Kallimach and others. The collections of the Ossolineum include the oldest completely preserved book in Polish - Ecclesiastes - printed by Hieronim Wietor in Krakow in 1522. The Pieśni (Songs) by Jan Kochanowski, printed by the Łazarz Printing House in 1586 and kept in the Ossolineum, are a rarity today. The Ossolineum has the largest collection of Kochanowski's works printed in Poland between 1561 and 1641.
One of the most beautiful works is the hand-illuminated Krakow Missal, which was printed in two colours by the famous publisher Jan Haller in 1515. With its decorated title page, gilded initials and text framed by floral motifs of field flowers and Polish birds, it is very reminiscent of a manuscript. A rarity is the 1587 prayer book Modlitwy nabożne wszem białogłowom należące (Devotional Prayers for All Married Women), published in Krakow by Mikołaj Szarffenberger. The two-colour title page shows a typical 16th-century frontispiece with architectural elements. The value of this unprecedented print is enhanced by its beautiful binding. Its striking appearance is influenced by red velvet and silver-gilt fittings with cupid motifs, buckles and a medallion with a crucifixion in a mirror. The first Nuremberg edition of Nicolaus Copernicus's On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, published in 1543, is particularly valuable. As a scientific publication, it was accompanied by many astronomical tables and diagrams.
There are also rare dissenting prints from Brest-Litovsk (the Brest Bible), Nesvizh (the Nesvizh Bible) and from the Rakovsk printing house, which was active until 1638 and published, among others, the works of Socyn.
As for foreign printed books, the works of famous European printing houses are worth mentioning - Italian: Manucius and Giuntas, French: Estienne's, Gryphius and Ascensius, Dutch: Plantin. The work of Hanns Wagner, printed in Munich in 1568, O zaślubinach księżniczki Renaty i księcia Wilhelma (On the Wedding of Princess Renata and Prince Wilhelm) is unique. The publication contains a description of the ceremony, a list of guests, a list of dishes served and gifts. The volume is decorated with watercolour woodcuts. The illustrations show scenes related to the ceremony, such as the moment of the vows, the tournaments that take place and the knights' show.
Seventeenth-century prints outnumber publications from the previous century. However, the wars that ravaged Europe led to a decline in the quality of prints. In addition, many progressive works remained in manuscript due to an index of forbidden works, first published in Poland in 1603. The index also included works that had already been published, such as those by the dissenters Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski and Mikołaj Rej.
The collections of the Ossolineum include first editions of works by Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski, Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski, Stanisław Orzechowski, Łukasz Opaliński and Jan Długosz, as well as many small prints typical of the century: panegyrics, battlefield reports, religious disputes, polemical writings, as well as collections of sermons and Eulenspiegel literature. We have publications from almost all Polish printing houses, including 700 items not recorded by Estreicher. Most of the polonica are prints from Krakow, including those from the Piotrowczycy, Cezary and Szedel printing houses. In the context of the period, the publications of the astronomer Jan Hevelius, who had his own printing press, stand out. His two-volume work, Machinae coelestis, devoted to the observation of stars and planets and illustrated with numerous copper engravings depicting instruments and methods of celestial research, is very impressive.
The most beautiful foreign prints are the products of the famous Dutch publishing house Elzewir, including this series of the so-called small republics. The series consists of encyclopaedic volumes on the geography, history, law, socio-political and economic situation of various countries. There is also a book on Poland with a copperplate title page showing the coats of arms of the Crown, Lithuania and the Vasa dynasty, as well as images of Polish knight and nobleman. The heaviest print in our collection is the 17-kilogram, richly illustrated Bible, published in Amsterdam in 1643. The beautiful title page is decorated with a work by Antonio Bassani dedicated to the journey of Mary Kazimiera Sobieska to Rome. The coats of arms of the Crown, Lithuania, the Sobieski family and Pope Innocent XII, to whom the work was dedicated, as well as Turkish motifs alluding to John III's victories in Vienna, fill the entire surface of the map.
From the collection of periodicals, a complete set of the Paris 'Gazette de France' from 1631-1793 is of great value.
The printed books collected from the Saxon period in the 18th century were mainly produced for school use, devotional and panegyric literature. It was only in the second half of the century that the book market changed. Warsaw publishers developed as the demand for printed books increased with the establishment of Enlightenment institutions in the capital. The collection contains mainly works by poets, scholars and publicists of the period, many political prints, calendars, periodicals, including the famous "Zabawy przyjemne i pożyteczne" (Pleasant and Useful Games) printed by Michal Gröll. We have first editions by Ignacy Krasicki, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz, Stanislaw Staszic and Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro. In 1763 Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski published several issues of the so-called "Monitor" - the Father. It was the forerunner of an important periodical of the same name, which brought together the most important literary figures of the Enlightenment. Another unique item in the Ossoline collection is Ignacy Krasicki's Hymn do miłości ojczyzny (Anthem for the Love of the Fatherland), published as a pamphlet in 1774 and found in the binding of another print.
Early printed books have been collected at the Institute from the very beginning. The core of the collection is the private library of Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński, which was transported from Vienna to Lwów (Lviv) after the death of the Institute's founder in 1826. Since the opening of the library in Lwów (Lviv) in 1827, there have been many donations to the Ossolineum. Among the numerous donors, the following should be mentioned:
The Ossolineum's collections of early printed books also grew thanks to purchases, such as the book collection of Józef Kraiński at the turn of 1844/1845 (including a first edition of Nicolaus Copernicus), bequests, such as the library of the Entail of Przeworsk in 1870 on the basis of an agreement between Prince Henryk Lubomirski and Józef Maksymilian Ossoliński in 1823, or deposits, such as those of the Pawlikowskis of Medyka and the Chrzanowskis of Moroczyn in the first half of the 20th century.
Initially in Lwów (Lviv), early printed books were made available in the main reading room. In 1918-1920 the incunabula and sixteenth-century editions were separated from the book collection, but the catalogues were not. The Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Printed Books Division was formally established in 1926, with prints made available to readers in the research studio. In 1941 it was extended to include seventeenth- and eighteenth-century publications and renamed the Incunabula, Early Printed Books and Rarities Division.
The collection of early printed books did not suffer significantly during the war. At the beginning of 1944, Professor Mieczysław Gębarowicz sent some of the most valuable collections to Krakow for preservation. About 2,200 early printed books were sent to the Jagiellonian Library, which the Germans took to Adelin near Zlotorya in July 1944.
After the Second World War, the National Ossolinski Institute in Wroclaw received about 42,600 old prints from a total of about 54,000 volumes inventoried in Lwów (Lviv) and about 30,000 unprocessed books stored in Lwów (Lviv) warehouses. In 1949, the collections of the Branicki family from Sucha and the Lubomirski family from Przeworsk were added to the pre-war Ossolineum collections brought to Wroclaw. In the 1950s part of the book collection of the Cistercian Library in Krzeszów came to the Division. After the war the collections of the Ossolineum were enriched with parts of the collections of the Potocki family from Tulczyn and the Schaffgotsch family from Cieplice.
In February 1948 the Early Printed Books Division was reactivated in Wroclaw. Organising and cataloguing work began. Polonica (items related to Poland) were sorted out from stacked books, multi-volume volumes were joined together, foreign prints, duplicates and defects were separated. The most valuable publications were microfilmed. The first early printed books were made available to readers as early as 1948, although the Early Printed Books Reading Room was officially opened in February 1952.
