@chopininstitute
Chopin Institute📚 The Elbląg Library, named after Cyprian Norwid since 1970, is one of the oldest such institutions in Poland. Today, the collection – which returned to the Elbląg Library in 2000–2002 after more than five decades from the depository of the Nicolaus Copernicus University Library in Toruń – includes two oldest items: prayer books printed in 1612 by Wendel Bodenhausen (the German editor had settled in Elbląg several years earlier and primarily published Latin treatises by Gymnasium professors, as well as occasional prints in Latin and German). As many as 9,022 volumes from the Elbląg Library – dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries – are included in the national library collection (and are therefore subject to special protection as being of exceptional value and significance to the national heritage). Since 2008, projects focused on the preservation of this historic collection have been implemented – the Library currently has modern storage facilities and a Conservation Workshop; the secured items are made available in digital format. Thanks to a grant obtained from the European Funds for Digital Development programme, the Fryderyk Chopin Institute will digitise 519 items from the Elbląg Library collections – including manuscripts of works by Heinrich Nitschmann (composer, poet, translator and Polonophile, a very important figure for Elbląg in the Romantic period) and one of the previously mentioned 17th-century prayer books, ‘Kirchenordnung: wie es mit den gemeinen Gebeten…’ – all of which will be made available on the Polish Music Heritage website in open access 👉 https://polish.musicsources.pl/ Read more on our website 👉 http://nauka.nifc.pl
On the profile · Feb 11, 2026