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425 years of the Gdańsk Library

Apart from the Jagiellonian Library it is the second oldest functioning municipal library in Poland with over a million of items. Annually, its collections serve to 10,000 readers. The celebration of the 425th jubilee of the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences begins.

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The Gdańsk Library was established by the Gdańsk Senate in 1596. Its catalog includes over a million items, including a variety of rare and unique items, such as: medieval wax tablets and a handwritten Missal of the Teutonic Order, the first printed maritime atlas, a collection of music prints by Georg Knoff, a collection of all printed works by Jan Heweliusz, salt paper photographs of the 19th-century Gdańsk or memorabilia of Major Henryk Sucharski. The library's collections are addressed primarily to researchers, doctoral students, documentalists, tourist guides, artists, journalists or to a wide range of people who enjoy learning.

For that occasion, a special city-tram decorated with the illustrations from the collections of the library set out on the streets of Gdańsk. We can find, among others the picture of one of the kings sitting on the throne, Mr. and Mrs. Heweliusz at work, as well as a panther and an otter, which come from the map "Carta marina et descriptio septentrionalium terrarum ..." from 1539.

Additional details and celebration program are available at www.425latpanbg.pl. The celebration starts in June with an open-air exhibition on the history of the library, an animation marathon and a jubilee concert.

Source of information: the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences