The Holy Cross Sermons are the oldest extant prose text in the Polish language, dating probably from the late 13th or early 14th century. The documents are named after the place where they were originally housed – the Holy Cross Monastery in Poland's Holy Cross Mountains. They were discovered in striped parchment pieces in 1890 by Aleksander Brückner, in the binding of a Latin language codex, which contained the Acts of the Apostles and the Apocalypse. The sermons were first published in 1891, in a "Philological Works" magazine. In 1934, facsimiles of the text were published by the Polish Academy of Learning, and in 2009, new, full edition of the sermons was issued, prepared by professor Paweł Stępień.
The Załuski Library established in Warsaw in 1747 by Józef Andrzej Załuski and his brother, Andrzej Stanisław Załuski, both Roman Catholic bishops, was a public library nationalized and renamed upon its founders' death into the Załuski Library of the Republic which existed until the final demise of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Third Partition of Poland in 1795.
Józef Andrzej Załuski was a Polish Catholic priest, Bishop of Kiev, a sponsor of learning and culture, and a renowned bibliophile. A member of the Polish nobility (szlachta), bearing the hereditary Junosza coat-of-arms, he is most famous as co-founder of the Załuski Library, one of the largest 18th-century book collections in the world.
The Krasiński Palace, also known as the Palace of the Commonwealth, is a reconstructed Baroque palace in Warsaw, Poland, on Krasiński Square. Initially erected between 1677 and 1683 for the powerful Krasiński family, it was heavily damaged during World War II and rebuilt in the mid-20th century.
The National Library is the central Polish library, subject directly to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland.
Mury (Walls) was a sung poetry protest song written by Polish singer Jacek Kaczmarski in 1978. It was especially popular among the members of Solidarity and is one of Kaczmarski's best known songs. It became a powerful symbol of the opposition to the communist regime in the People's Republic of Poland and was sung at countless rallies, meetings, protests and strikes throughout Poland during the 1980s. It has become popular among protesters in the aftermath of the 2020 Belarusian presidential election.
The Sankt Florian Psalter or Saint Florian Psalter is a brightly illuminated trilingual manuscript psalter, written between late 14th and early 15th centuries in Latin, Polish and German. The Polish text is the oldest known translation of the Book of Psalms into that language. Its author, first owners, and place of origin are still not certain. It was named after St. Florian Monastery in Sankt Florian, a town in Austria, where it was discovered.
Old Annals of the Holy Cross is the oldest Polish written history, recording key events from the very beginnings of the Polish state.
Skawinka′s Gradual is a richly illuminated gradual from around 1460.
Permanent exhibition in the Palace of the Commonwealth is an exhibition of the most valuable objects from the collection of the National Library of Poland in the baroque interiors of the Palace of the Commonwealth in Warsaw.
Gradual of Abbot Mścisław is an illuminated gradual from around 1390.
Antiphonary of Abbot Mścisław is an illuminated antiphonary from the late 14th or early 15th century.
Gradual of the Cracow Augustinians is an illuminated gradual from 1528.
Anastasia Evangelistary is an evangelistary from 12th century.
Przemyśl Meditation is a collection of apocryphal texts in Polish from the end of the 15th century.
The Life of the Lord Jesus Christ is the oldest entirely preserved printed book in Polish by Baltazar Opec, published in 1522.
Skevra Evangeliary is an illuminated Armenian evangeliary from 12th century.
Potocki Psalter is an illuminated French psalter from 13th century.
Bishop Tomicki′s Missal is a printed missal from 1532.
Jan Zamoyski's Prayer Book is a French printed prayer book from around 1485.
