LIBRARY OF THE POZNAŃ SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF SCIENCES
Scientific library founded in 1857, agency of the Poznań Society of Friends of Sciences. Due to the impossibility of establishing a Polish university under the Prussian rule, the founding of the Society expressed the desire of Wielkopolska to establish a Polish scientific and cultural center, and the Library and Museum of the PTPN constituted the necessary background for this type of activity and the seeds of future Poznań institutions in already independent Poland.
The historical resources of the Society’s collections, shaped years ago by donations and acquisitions of entire private book collections, determined the present character of the Library, with a total of 344,662 volumes. Today, the Library collects and stores, apart from new prints, also special collections, which include manuscripts, old prints, maps and atlases, iconography and bookplates. Due to the importance of its collections, which for many years contributed to the National Library Resource, the Library is listed in all major Polish and foreign science guides.