The present paper describes the Manchu Collection in the Jagiellonian University Library in Cracow which was a part of the former Prussian State Library in Berlin. The historical Manchu collection comprised over 300 items (call numbers, including “duplicates” of the same title). The paper offers a historical sketch of the forming of the collection as well as short description of some interesting items.

The paper aims to give the results of initial research on the collection of incunabula from the St John’s church in Gdańsk. The collection constitutes significant part of PAN Biblioteka Gdańska. The author reconstructed the size and contents of the collection on the basis of the original church catalogues, marks of ownership and the physical details of the items. The books were gathered in the St John’s church from the time of the collections foundation until the 20th century. The paper establishes also the losses sustained by St John’s church’s library during World War II. Thanks to the incunabula’s content analysis the author determines the thematic focal points of the collection.

Johann Fidalke (1703–1763), a Gdansk pastor and a gymnasium teacher, gathered a substantial collection of books comprising more than 10,000 volumes. After his death, the books were sold during four auctions, and the valuable collection was dispersed. However, owing to an auction catalogue kept in the collections of the Gdansk PAS Library, we may recreate the content of the Gdansk pastor’s collection. Its most considerable part was made up of different editions of the Holy Bible – with a total of 95 editions in 156 volumes. The article provides a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the said Bibles, focusing on the presentation of their languages as well as the places and times of their publication, and their bindings. The article is accompanied by an index, in which the different editions of the Bible in Fidalke’s collection are identified and catalogued in line with the contemporary standards, on the basis of the rudimentary information given in the auction catalogue.

The eternal traveller, who was to become the founder of the Gdańsk Library, traversed Moravia several times and sojourned there at least twice. During his stay of 1562–1564, which was probably the longest, died his little dog named Viola, a reminiscency of his Apulian fatherland taken along in exile. Bonifacio wrote elegies after that death, in which he utters many names of persons of similar Weltanschauung he knew. Together with him mourned his favourite servant Julia: she was to be unable to stand the consequent void of the death and abandoned her master (and lover). So Bonifacio was hit by a double loss. He tried to overcome the depression in which he stayed: He succeeded with the animal, the dogs, who were to accompany him as far as to Gdańsk, but he failed with the women. He was to go his way without company, dedicating his leisure to the reading of his books (he possessed over 1000 volumes), but merging into depression. Blinded in a shipwreck, he bequeathed his books and the manuscript with the verses on Viola in 1591 to the city of Gdańsk; he died six years later.

Gerhard Cimmermann (1541–1602), a Gdańsk councillor, donated 49 books to Bibliotheca Senatus Gedanensis (August 13th, 1598). The abbreviated descriptions of the donatory collection items were included on three pages in Index Librorum, the first catalogue of Bibliotheca Senatus Gedanensis. Fifteen books from the original collection have survived until the present day. The identification was based on the owner’s dedication note and bookplate attached to the books. Apparently, before donating his books, Gerhard Cimmermann ordered a special bookplate to mark his ownership. Cimmermann’s oval-shaped copperplate bookplate with the Polish Korab coat of arms in the centre has two letters, G and C, on both sides and the date: 1597 beneath the heraldic design. The article includes a list of the preserved books.

The cult of the book in Gdansk manifested itself in the numerous substantial private libraries, marked by the features and qualities of bibliophile facilities, as indicated by the artistic bindings, ex-libris and supralibros of their owners. After their owner’s death, many of the book collections of Gdansk bibliophiles were provided to the municipal library, of which the current Gdansk PAN Library is the heir and continuator. The books have historical bindings, represent a variety of styles and epochs, and many different adornment techniques. The majority of Gdansk patrician families and wealthy burghers belonging to the political, cultural, and scientific elite of the city had coats-of-arms granted to them by the Polish, Danish, or Swedish rulers, or Roman-German emperors. From among many volumes kept in the collection of the Gdansk Library and marked with coat-of-arms supralibros, sample prints from the collections of thirteen representatives of Gdansk bibliophiles were selected.

Magnus Bruski (1886–1945) was ordained to the priesthood in 1913. Bruski’s whole life was strongly connected with Gdansk. His duties as a priest were manifold and comprised remaining the office of a parish priest at St. Nichola’s Church (1935–45) and a vicar general of the diocese of Gdańsk (1934–38). Bruski actively worked in the Free City of Gdańsk succumbed at that time to National Socialism. He was frequently criticised for popularising the knowledge about the Polish language among German clergymen. Bruski died of typhus on July 9th, 1945. The St. Nichola’s Church’s book collection including the private library of Magnus Bruski (75 items) was lucky enough to be preserved only thanks to support from the Dominican friars in 1945. The collection is now a part of the holdings of PAN Gdansk Library. It is now a testimony of their owner’s great need of personal development and his mission to prevent and reduce alcohol abuse in Gdańsk.

Gottfried Schwartz (1716–1777), a Mayor of Gdansk, was a wealthy manufacturer of silver wire, interested in art and science. He gathered precious collections of paintings and scientific instruments. He also collected objects made from porcelain, ivory and bronze and owned one of the most substantial collections of numismatic items in the city. In his testament drawn up in 1776, Schwartz bequeathed to Academic Gymnasium of Gdansk and the Library of the City Council of Gdansk both his numismatic collection, consisting of 3000 coins and medals, and his numismatic book collection including 110 items. The catalogue of this book collection, which is currently kept by Gdansk Library, is reconstructed in this paper. Schwartz’s numismatic books were thematically connected with the contents of the owner’s numismatic collection – the interrelation between the book items and the coin and medal holdings is clearly noticeable. On the basis of information on the contents of the lost collection we may presume that each type of numismatic items corresponded to some studies from the book collection.