The Kórnik Library collections

The Library main collections contains 350,000 volumes, including old prints (30,000), manuscripts (15,000), books, periodicals, newspapers and documents of social life. There is also a valueable collection of graphics (nearly 14,000), drawings, postcards, photographs, book ex librises and maps. Moreover, the Library provides an excellent source of materials concerning the history of Poland – parliamentary system, the Reformation movement, documents of Royal Chancellery and the materials connected with the Polish Great Exile after 1831.

Among most outstanding items in the Kórnik Library one may find the commentary to St. Benedict’s monastery rule from the 9th century, the autographs: of emperor Napoleon I, famous composer Fryderyk Chopin, Nobel Prize winner Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Polish famous poets such as Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki, Cyprian Kamil Norwid and graphics by Jean Pierre Norblin.

Famous private collections in the Kórnik Library

Books, manuscripts and graphics which can be find in the Kórnik Library were often bought as a part of the private collections or even as whole libraries.

Count Tytus Działyński purchased a few manuscripts from a very prized collection which belonged to Tadeusz Czacki. These were 60 volumes of documents from the Royal Chancellery of two Polish kings – Zygmunt III and Władysław IV. The other part, almost 2,500 volumes, was bought by prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski. After a time their heirs, namely Jan Działyński (son of count Tytus Działyński) and Władysław Czartoryski (son of prince Adam Jerzy Czartoryski) began a long-running dispute concerning the ownership of the above mentioned collection. Prince Władysław claimed that he was the owner of these 60 volumes, because his father had lent them to count Działyński. This dispute took almost 100 years and was called bellum civile.

Other two noteworthy collections were bought by count Jan Działyński. The first one was bought in 1872 from a great mathematician Teofil Żebrawski. Second one was purchased in 1875 from Bathilde Conseillant, daughter of Józef Maria Hoene-Wroński, a famous philosopher and mathematician.

Another remarkable collection derives from a private library of Tassilo von Heidebrand und der Lasa, a Prussian baron who lived in Osieczna in Poland. Being a good chess player Heidebrand was also interested in history and theory of the game. His library arrived to Kórnik in 1955. This unique collection became the base for the international conference of chess historians in 2002.

In the Kórnik Library one can also find many books and manuscripts connected with the Reformation Movement in Poland, e. g. books from library of the Czech Brothers.

Many of the graphics in our ollections come form the private collection of Tytus Hołowiński.