The Jagiellonian Library houses many unique artefacts from the history of Polish literature, culture, writing, and printing. In the storerooms of the oldest university library in Poland, one can find the oldest Christmas carol written in Polish (before 1400), the oldest known version of "Bogurodzica" (1408) as well as the oldest Polish print (1473).

We could go on listing examples of items from the Jagiellonian Library's collections belonging to the "oldest" category, and it's a particular honour for us to have an opportunity to take care of these treasures, make them accessible (albeit even more often only in a digital form), and preserve them for future generations.

One of the Library's treasures is an unassuming, one-page, battered almanac from 1474, which will celebrate its 550th anniversary right now in the autumn of 2023. Accidentally found tucked behind a library cabinet in 1844, this calendar is an excellent testimony to the development of Krakow, which in the third quarter of the 15th century became one of the European centres of typography.
This oldest Polish print as a calendar for 1474 was presumably printed in the last months of 1473, thus the autumn of 2023 is the most appropriate time to commemorate the beginnings of printing in Poland. On the occasion of this jubilee, we would also like to present several dozen exhibits from the rich treasury of the Jagiellonian Library that illustrate the development of printing in Krakow, as well as the decoration and binding of old books. The objects on display are significant in the context of transformations of printed works, their appearance, their external features as well as their importance for Polish culture. Thus, in this exceptional and comprehensive exhibition, we present all copies originating from the printing press of the first Krakow printer Kasper Straube, some of which were recovered from discarded extremely rare Cyrillic proofs, Jan Haller's missals, the first Krakow prints from the 16th century, Queen Anne Jagiellon's royal cimelium, the peculiar "travelling block" of Abbot Jan Ponętowski, an incunabulum with a rare cover flap, and much, much more...
In the history of exhibitions organized by the Jagiellonian Library, there have not been many occasions when all these items were gathered within a single exhibition. As the organizers of the exhibition, we do hope that it will constitute an invaluable rare opportunity for the Library's visitors to come across these extraordinary relics of the "black craft".