Catalogue of Incunabula in the National Library of Poland

Warsaw: Biblioteka Narodowa, 2024 2 volumes 8vo (24 cm), 1080 pp. Publisher's boards. Second edition. "The two-volume English-language Catalogue of Incunabula in the National Library of Poland details the collection of fifteenth-century prints held by the BNP, the sixth-largest such collection in Poland (1,131 copies of 1,034 printed editions). This new publication continues the tradition of research into the oldest surviving examples of printing, begun by Kazimierz Piekarski before the Second World War. Perhaps the greatest achievement of this tradition so far was the publication of the central catalogue of all incunabula in Poland; now it is the turn of the collection of the National Library, presented here in great detail. The Catalogue describes incunabula from a number of important historical collections, including the famous Biblioteka Ordynacji Zamojskiej (Count Zamoyski Family Library) and the Count Tarnowski Family Library in Dzików. It includes descriptions of objects saved from the pre-War collection of the National Library, almost completely destroyed following the Warsaw Uprising. The Catalogue further adds to our bibliographic knowledge of fifteenth-century printing by presenting a number of unique items not covered in the existing literature. It also contains specialised descriptions of the medieval manuscripts that are bound together with the incunabula, and selected post-incunabula. " (from the publisher's description)