The Library of the Zamoyski Family Entail (Biblioteka Ordynacji Zamojskiej) was one of the most important Polish libraries existing before World War II. Known as the “treasury of Polish culture”, its collections were unique in Europe and included some of the most valuable objects from Polish written history. During the Partitions, it served as a secret institute specialising in Polish history. It was located in the Blue Palace and destroyed by the Germans in World War II.

The Library’s origins date back to the times of the founder of the Zamoyski Family Entail, one of the most powerful and richest people in Polish history: the Chancellor and hetman Jan Zamoyski. Following the example of Renaissance patrons of the arts, he bought expensive and beautiful books, including Greek manuscripts. Their translation into Latin was carried out by scholars at the Zamoyski Academy, which he founded and which had a printing house and a magnificent library that was systematically expanded over time.

In 1811, Stanisław Kostka Zamoyski, the twelfth ordynat of Zamość (owner of the Zamoyski Family Entail) moved the Library to the Blue Palace in Warsaw. It was joined by other family collections, including the collections of Aleksander Zamoyski, Chancellor Andrzej Zamoyski and Stanisław Kostka Zamoyski’s own private collection. He also added to the collection through further purchases. In 1814, for example, he acquired the eleventh-century Sakramentarz tyniecki (Tyniec Sacramentary) from the monks of Tyniec – a luxurious parchment manuscript, partly written in gold and silver on purple-stained pages, the oldest surviving liturgical codex in Poland.

During the Partitions, the Zamoyski Library, like other private family organisations, acted as a public cultural and scientific institution, helping keep the national memory alive. The Library was not only one of the most important places for collecting Polish literature; it was also home to a secret institute of Polish history. Its employees included Tadeusz Korzon, one of the most outstanding Polish historians, and Stefan Żeromski, whose autograph manuscripts of The Faithful River and Ashes are on display in the permanent exhibition.

Before World War II, the Library was home to around 150,000 volumes. The first damage to it occurred during the September Campaign, when he building was bombed several times. Artillery shells caused the most damage on 25 September, a fire destroying 50,000 volumes – a third of the collection – as well as all the art collections, including 400 paintings. During the occupation, 21 illuminated manuscripts were stolen by the Austrian art historian Kajetan Mühlmann working on behalf of Hermann Göring.

The final destruction of Library took place in the first weeks of the Warsaw Uprising, when the Germans threw incendiary grenades into the building. Almost the entire collection was destroyed, including about 100,000 early printed works, maps, atlases, drawings, catalogues and written records. Some 800 manuscripts and 1,200 fifteenth and sixteenth-century printed works miraculously survived as they were stored in a cellar that had a separate entrance from the Palace garden, which the Germans had overlooked.

The last ordynat, Jan Zamoyski, donated the remaining part of the Library to the National Library as a permanent legacy. In 2024, thanks to a special donation from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the collection became the property of the National Library. The permanent exhibition presents a selection of works from the magnificent Zamoyski Library collection, including: the Supraśl Codex – one of the oldest texts written in Cyrillic in Old Church Slavonic, inscribed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register; Claudius Ptolemy’s Geography – a collection of luxurious Renaissance world maps, finished in gold and dyes that cost more than gold; Antiquities of the Jews by Flavius Josephus – a rare example of a medieval book made entirely in Poland which has been preserved in its original form; the oldest copy of the Chronicle of Gallus Anonymus; the only surviving copy of a work by Jan Kochanowski in the author’s hand; and a fragment of The Manuscript found in Saragossa by Jan Potocki.