The Scientific Library of the PAAS and the PAS in Cracow has over 17’000 volumes of books published in 15th-18th c. Majority of this collection was donated to the Academy by the most famous Polish bibliophiles of the 19th century, like Jan Wincenty Smoniewski, Julian Bayer, Florian Sawiczewski, Cyprian Walewski, Maksymilian Marszałkowicz. Thanks to them, our Early Printed Books section has unique collection of sometimes exceptionally rare early printed books from Polish and foreign printers.
The collection consists mostly of scientific treatises and texts on liberal and fine arts (particularly early history, archaeology and art history). Another significant group are religious texts: theological treatises, liturgical books and devotional texts. Interesting part of collection is group of 18th c. Polish political texts: statutes, parliamentary polemics and speeches and publications concerning Polish partitions. We also have a small collection of Polish ephemera concerning the Battle of Vienna 1683, and substantial collection of Polish funeral orations. Thanks to generous gift of bibliophile Henryk Bukowski, we have a priceless collection of scandinaviana (early modern books on history and culture of the countries on Scandinavian Peninsula).
The Library also has a collection of 155 incunabula described in the catalogue published in 2015. The group consists mostly of religious texts as they came from the nearby monastery of the Canons Regular of Penance.