One million objects successfully scanned in the Patrimonium project
Patrimonium is a joint project of the National Library of Poland and Jagiellonian Library.
On January 13, 2020, the Patrimonium project reaches its conclusion. Over the past three years, one million objects in the public domain have been digitised as part of the project, including books, newspapers and periodicals, manuscripts, early printed books, maps, drawings, prints, photographs, postcards, musical scores and ephemera.
Among the items scanned are original manuscripts by leading figures in Polish literature, handwritten scores by Chopin, the first edition of O krasnoludkach i o sierotce Marysi ("The Brownie Scouts") by Maria Konopnicka and an eight-century New Testament, the oldest parchment manuscript held by the National Library of Poland.
The digitisation was carried out in parallel at the two largest libraries in the country, the National Library of Poland in Warsaw and the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow. The collections of these two libraries, as the name Patrimonium or "heritage" implies, together make up what is known as the "National Library Resource" of Poland and are subject to special protection in terms of conservation.
POLONA – the Polish digital library – aims to open up the stores and vaults of the libraries to everyone. As part of the Patrimonium project, the most valuable and the oldest collections have been photographed in appropriate conditions, using digital cameras to ensure high-quality reproduction and faithfulness to the original. Some of the items underwent a complex process of conservation prior to digitisation. In some cases, items had been damaged and were not accessible to readers on a daily basis; these have now been restored to their former glory.
Following its purchase of 27 large-format scanners, the National Library of Poland is now the largest digitisation centre in Poland and one of the biggest in Europe. PLN 82 million was allocated to the project, possible thanks to contributions from European funds and co-financing by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. This is the largest digitisation project to date in the field of culture.
All the medieval manuscripts in the collection of the National Library of Poland have been scanned, along with a large proportion of the early modern manuscripts, parts of the collection of early printed books, musical scores, maps and prints, photographs and drawings, and also books, peridicals and ephemera from the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century.
Find out more about the Patrimonium project here: http://www.bn.org.pl/projekty/patrimonium/archiwum
Included among the most precious objects made available as part of the project:
- Manuscript scores by Chopin
- Eighth-century manuscript of the New Testament
- Mediaeval manuscript of the Polish anthem Bogurodzicy ("Mother of God/Theotokos")
- Fifteenth-century Antiquitates biblicae
- French mid-fifteenth century Book of Hours
- Renaissance manuscript of Jakub Wargocki's Book of Hours
- Only existing first edition of Józef Pawlikowski's pamphlet Czy Polacy wybić się mogą na niepodległość? ("Can Poles win their independence?"), included on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register
- Manuscript of Part II of Adam Mickiewicz's verse drama Dziady
- Manuscript of Stefan Żeromski's Przedwiośnia ("The Spring to Come"), included on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register
- Manuscripts by Aleksander Fredro
- Manuscripts by Józef Andrzej Załuski, co-founder in 1747 of the largest public library of the eighteenth century, the first Polish National Library
- Album of Kora Pinard, with a handwritten verse by Juliusz Słowacki
- First edition of O krasnoludkach i o sierotce Marysi by Maria Konopnicka
- Rare edition of the Cosmographia universalis atlas of Sebastian Münster (Basel, 1550), containing several hundred maps, plans and city panoramas, including some of Poland