Editing National library (section)

==== Poland ====

The [[National Library of Poland]] continues the tradition of the [[Załuski Library]].<ref name="bn-history"/> The Załuski Library was opened to readers in [[Warsaw]] on 8 August 1747, thanks to [[Józef Andrzej Załuski|Józef Załuski's]] cooperation with his brother [[Andrzej Stanisław Załuski|Andrzej Załuski]], but the idea of the Library dates back to 1732 (presented in ''Programma literarium'' by Józef Załuski).<ref name="mak2021" /><ref name="szwac2014" /> The library was one of the first national libraries and largest public libraries of eighteenth-century Europe.<ref name="mak2021" /><ref name="kord2022" /> Following the death of its founders the library became the property of the Polish state and from 1774 was named the Library of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth ({{Langx|pl|Biblioteka Rzeczypospolitej}}).<ref name="mak2021" /><ref name="szwac2014" /> In 1780 the [[Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] granted the Library the right to receive a free [[legal deposit]] copy of every book printed in the country.<ref name="bn-history"/>  Following the failed [[Kościuszko Uprising]], on the eve of [[Third Partition of Poland]] and the collapse of Polish statehood, the Library of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was closed down and taken to [[St Petersburg]] in 1794, on the decision of Empress [[Catherine II]], where it formed the basis of the [[National Library of Russia]].<ref name="mak2021" /><ref name="kord2022" />  Before taken to Russia the collections numbered about 400,000 volumes, including about 13,000 medieval and modern manuscripts.<ref name="bn-history" />

Between 1795 and 1918 no central institution existed collecting printed and handwritten
works from the lands that had once formed Poland.<ref name="mak2021" /> Some smaller libraries aimed to fill the gap it left, albeit on a smaller scale.<ref name="mak2021" /> The National Library of Poland was re-founded after Poland regained its independence in 1918, and formally opened in 1928 under the Decree of the President of the [[Second Polish Republic|Republic of Poland]].<ref name="mak2021" /><ref name="bn-history" /> Following the [[Treaty of Riga]] of 1921, most of the manuscripts of Zaluski Library and a large proportion of the prints were returned to Warsaw from [[Soviet Russia]].<ref name="szwac2014" /> National Library of Poland also included the collections of other Warsaw-based libraries and the collections from [[Polish Museum, Rapperswil|Rapperswil]] and Paris created by Polish émigré communities.<ref name="bn-history" /> During [[World War II]] the most valuable part of the National Library's holdings – almost 800,000 registered items (including {{Circa|50,000}} manuscripts destroyed by German Nazis) – were lost forever.<ref name="bn-history" />