The Royal Library in Warsaw ( Polish: ''Biblioteka Królewska w Warszawie'') is a prominent building located adjacent to the Royal Castle in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Constructed between 1779 and 1783, the library was designed by architects Dominik Merlini and Jan Chrystian Kamsetzer to house the royal book collection of King

Stanisław August Poniatowski Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, and as Stanisław August Poniatowski (), was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuani ...

, the last sovereign King of Poland. The library is an elongated structure measuring 56 x 9 meters, featuring 15 windows along its entrance hall and a terrace on the roof. Initially, the library housed approximately 7,500 items, which expanded to around 20,000 volumes by 1795. Following King Stanisław's death in 1798, the entire collection was acquired by Tadeusz Czacki, who later bequeathed it to the Liceum Krzemienieckie. After the 1830

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31) (), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in Russian Partition, the heartland of Partitions of Poland, partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. ...

against the Russian occupation, Tsar

Nicholas I of Russia Nicholas I, group=pron (Russian language, Russian: Николай I Павлович; – ) was Emperor of Russia, List of rulers of Partitioned Poland#Kings of the Kingdom of Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 18 ...

ordered the library's relocation to

Kiev Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, where it became the foundation of the new University Library.Agnieszka Kania, Monika Bryzek
Library of Stanisław August Poniatowski.
''Wirtualna Historia Książki i Bibliotek'', Kraków 2006

The library holdings

The establishment of the library at the

palace A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...

was driven by King Stanislaus Augustus's commitment to supporting Polish intellectuals and fostering workshops for scientists to develop political and economic reforms. The library acquired books from various collectors, including the private libraries of Giuliani, Jan Beniamin Steinhauser, Mateusz Czarnek, Paweł Czempiński, and Kajetan Ghigiotti. Key suppliers included Warsaw booksellers such as Piotr Dufour, Jan August Poser, Józef Lex, Michał Groell, and the Kornów company from

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

, along with international sources like the Paris warehouse of Saint Len and Jan Franciszek Sellon, and selected British booksellers. The King actively directed these acquisitions and awarded the "Merentibus" gold medal to suppliers for their contributions. The library's collections were categorized into various departments. The Philosophy department featured works by ancient philosophers like

Socrates Socrates (; ; – 399 BC) was a Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher from Classical Athens, Athens who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy and as among the first moral philosophers of the Ethics, ethical tradition ...

Plato Plato ( ; Greek language, Greek: , ; born BC, died 348/347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher of the Classical Greece, Classical period who is considered a foundational thinker in Western philosophy and an innovator of the writte ...

, Seneca, and

Lucretius Titus Lucretius Carus ( ; ; – October 15, 55 BC) was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the philosophical poem '' De rerum natura'', a didactic work about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, which usually is t ...

; modern thinkers such as

Erasmus Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus ( ; ; 28 October c. 1466 – 12 July 1536), commonly known in English as Erasmus of Rotterdam or simply Erasmus, was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic priest and Catholic theology, theologian, educationalist ...

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

, Michael Montaigne; mathematicians like

Blaise Pascal Blaise Pascal (19June 162319August 1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor, philosopher, and Catholic Church, Catholic writer. Pascal was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a tax collector in Rouen. His earliest ...

, and Descartes; and French Enlightenment philosophers and Encyclopedists including

Jean le Rond d'Alembert Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert ( ; ; 16 November 1717 – 29 October 1783) was a French mathematician, mechanician, physicist, philosopher, and music theorist. Until 1759 he was, together with Denis Diderot, a co-editor of the ''Encyclopé ...

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

, and

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Republic of Geneva, Genevan philosopher (''philosophes, philosophe''), writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment through ...

. The Fiction department included classics such as

Homer Homer (; , ; possibly born ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his autho ...

's Iliad and Odyssey, Comedies of

Aristophanes Aristophanes (; ; ) was an Ancient Greece, Ancient Greek Ancient Greek comedy, comic playwright from Classical Athens, Athens. He wrote in total forty plays, of which eleven survive virtually complete today. The majority of his surviving play ...

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

's Metamorphoses, Lodovico Ariosto's Mad Orlando, Le Cid by

Pierre Corneille Pierre Corneille (; ; 6 June 1606 – 1 October 1684) was a French tragedian. He is generally considered one of the three great 17th-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine. As a young man, he earned the valuable patronage ...

, Don Quixote by

Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra ( ; ; 29 September 1547 (assumed) – 22 April 1616 Old Style and New Style dates, NS) was a Spanish writer widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Spanish language and one of the world's pre-eminent novelist ...

, Robinson Crusoe by

Daniel Defoe Daniel Defoe (; born Daniel Foe; 1660 – 24 April 1731) was an English writer, merchant and spy. He is most famous for his novel ''Robinson Crusoe'', published in 1719, which is claimed to be second only to the Bible in its number of translati ...

, and the Complete Works of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, in 10 volumes; along with the Collected works of Nicholas Boileau, in 5 volumes. The library complex was severely damaged by the Nazis during World War II. By 1945, the library building had lost its roof, which was later reconstructed. It is the only structure in the complex that survived the war with its original architectural decorations from the era of King Stanisław August intact. During the communist era until 1989, the complex served as government offices and archives. Following the

collapse of the Soviet Union The Soviet Union was formally dissolved as a sovereign state and subject of international law on 26 December 1991 by Declaration No. 142-N of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union. Declaration No. 142-Н of ...

, the palace and library were transformed into a museum, now part of the Warsaw Royal Castle. The buildings underwent further restoration from 2004 to 2008, and today, the library's spacious rooms are used for conventions and exhibitions.Sławomir Kosim, Jagoda Pietryszyn
History of the Copper-Roof Palace.
''Zamek Krolewski w Warszawie.'' Retrieved October 11, 2011.

References

External links

"Biblioteka Stanisława A. Poniatowskiego"
(The Library of Stanisław August Poniatowski), ''Wirtualna Historia Książki i Bibliotek'',

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, 2006
The Royal Library
at ''Zamek-krolewski.pl'' official website {{coord, 52, 14, 51, N, 21, 0, 57, E, type:landmark_region:PL, display=title Buildings and structures in Warsaw

The library holdings

See also

References

External links