The First / the Oldest in the Collections of the National Library of Poland

Warsaw: Biblioteka Narodowa, 2019 8vo (23 cm), 320 pp. Printed wrappers, "The title - The First/The Oldest - refers to twelve jewels of medieval culture in Poland. Some of them are small and inconspicu­ous - they consist of just a couple of pages, handwritten in a script of varying quality. Others signalize their worth already through the luxurious form. Yet, all of them belong to the top tier of the cultural heritage of Poland, and seldom leave the National Library vault. Not many people have had the privilege of seeing them. It was therefore particularly significant that thanks to The First/The Oldest, they were successively made available to the public at the Palace of the Commonwealth in Warsaw. Each of these exceptional objects was put on display for one day and the exhibitions were accompanied by scholarly lectures and panel discussions. The theme of each exhibition, and consequently of each chapter of this book, is either a single codex (handwritten book) in its entirety, or just one of the texts in it, or finally a long-lost text that is known to us through its extant copies." (from the Introduction)