Gdańsk w początkach XVII wieku należał do najwybitniejszych ośrodków sztuki medalierskiej. Pracujący w mieści wybitni artyści, medalierzy znani i cenieni również w zachodniej Europie, tworzyli swe dzieła dla władców polskich i obcych, na zlecenie Rady Miejskiej, a także na prywatne zamówienia. Medale wybijano w mennicy gdańskiej, zazwyczaj w srebrze, miały różną średnice i wagę. Liczną grupę gdańskich medali z XVII i XVII wieku stanowią tak zwane medale ślubne, zwane także talarami weselnymi. Wśród nich wyróżniono trzy zespoły numizmatów: upamiętniające małżeństwa polskich monarchów, powstałe z okazji ślubu wymienianych z nazwiska osób oraz przeznaczone dla anonimowych nabywców. Ta ostatnia grupa medali cieszyła się dużą popularnością wśród zamożnych mieszkańców Gdańska; najczęściej były wręczane jako podarunek w czasie uroczystości weselnych. Medale ślubne popularność swoją zawdzięczały przede wszystkim kunsztowi i dekoracyjności wykonania, ale także ikonografii opartej na powszechnie znanej symbolice – wyrażającej bogaty wachlarz obiegowych pojęć alegorycznych dotyczących małżeństwa i rodziny, zaczerpniętych z literatury religijnej i klasycznej. Z przedstawieniami korespondują napisy zawierające sentencje etyczne, często odwołujące się do tekstów biblijnych. W artykule uwzględniono również medale jubileuszowe upamiętniające okrągłe rocznice zawarcia małżeństwa, które pojawiły się w XVIII wieku.

The cult of the book in Gdansk manifested itself in the numerous substantial private libraries, marked by the features and qualities of bibliophile facilities, as indicated by the artistic bindings, ex-libris and supralibros of their owners. After their owner’s death, many of the book collections of Gdansk bibliophiles were provided to the municipal library, of which the current Gdansk PAN Library is the heir and continuator. The books have historical bindings, represent a variety of styles and epochs, and many different adornment techniques. The majority of Gdansk patrician families and wealthy burghers belonging to the political, cultural, and scientific elite of the city had coats-of-arms granted to them by the Polish, Danish, or Swedish rulers, or Roman-German emperors. From among many volumes kept in the collection of the Gdansk Library and marked with coat-of-arms supralibros, sample prints from the collections of thirteen representatives of Gdansk bibliophiles were selected.

This paper seeks to present the characteristic types of collectors’ marks with the coat of arms of Gdańsk on the historical bindings of books from the collections of the Gdańsk Library. The city’s coat of arms as adopted in 1457 did not undergo any changes in the subsequent centuries, although its graphic form did. Its various elements were transformed relatively frequently, which created a sequence of heraldic varieties. This concerned in particular the shape of the escutcheon, as well as the representation of the crosses and the crown. The images of the two lions supporting the escutcheon also underwent changes. We have managed to identify more than twenty different representations of the coat of arms from the 16th–18th centuries on the original bindings of the gradually extended collection of manuscripts and early printed books.

This paper discusses the individual book ownership marks used in the Gdańsk Library from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 21st century. In the first two centuries of existence of the Library of the Council of the City of Gdańsk, three subsequent copperplate bookplates were used as ownership marks. Established in the beginning of the 19th century, the City Library in Gdańsk marked its collections with seals with eight (six pre-war and two post-war) different patterns changed over time; they were imprinted using ink. The founding of the Gdańsk Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences in the mid-20th century resulted in the use of a further seven different seals.
Today, bookplates are no longer used to mark the collections of the Gdańsk Library. However, these ownership marks continue to be made to mark special occasions; some of them are described in this paper.

Gerhard Cimmermann (1541–1602), a Gdańsk councillor, donated 49 books to Bibliotheca Senatus Gedanensis (August 13th, 1598). The abbreviated descriptions of the donatory collection items were included on three pages in Index Librorum, the first catalogue of Bibliotheca Senatus Gedanensis. Fifteen books from the original collection have survived until the present day. The identification was based on the owner’s dedication note and bookplate attached to the books. Apparently, before donating his books, Gerhard Cimmermann ordered a special bookplate to mark his ownership. Cimmermann’s oval-shaped copperplate bookplate with the Polish Korab coat of arms in the centre has two letters, G and C, on both sides and the date: 1597 beneath the heraldic design. The article includes a list of the preserved books.

The article attempts to present the functioning of the Gdansk Library under the patronage of the Polish Academy of Sciences. As of 1 January 1955, the scientific department of the Municipal Library in Gdansk was taken over by the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the thus established separate institution received new statutes regulating the activity of the Library and the scope of the development of its collections. Until the four-hundredth anniversary of the Gdansk Library (the establishment of Bibliotheca Senatus Gedanensis), descriptions of the history of the Gdansk PAS Library were mainly based on reports drawn up by the heads of the institution. It is on their basis that one may trace the difficult space and storage and warehouse conditions in which employees of the Library carried out their statutory tasks, with the constantly growing collections and the increasing load of services. The paper also reports the scientific works of employees of the Library as well as the editorial activity of the institution, including works documenting the collections of the Library. An important way of familiarising the general public with knowledge on the Gdansk Library and its collections was through exhibitions and displays organized by employees of the information and special collections departments.

The purpose of the paper is to discuss the Zernecke family’s library curated by PAN Biblioteka Gdańska.
Walter Friedrich Heinrich Zernecke (1862–1925) bequeathed his book-collection (1321 volumes) and his family collection of souvenirs to the library. The author reconstructed the contents of the collection on the basis of marks of ownership that occur in the survived books. The collection consists mainly of books devoted to historical, heraldic and genealogical studies (by Jacob Heinrich, Daniel Andreas, Valentin Heinrich, Wilhelm Ferdinand and Walter Friedrich Heinrich). Zernecke’s manuscript collection contains materials written by prominent members of the Zernecke family (Jacob Heinrich, Heinrich and Daniel Andreas). The most valuable part of the collection is a group of iconographic materials including an oil painting (Heinrich Zernecke’s portait by J. Wessel), engravings and photographic portraits of the family members and their book plates.

Gottfried Schwartz (1716–1777), a Mayor of Gdansk, was a wealthy manufacturer of silver wire, interested in art and science. He gathered precious collections of paintings and scientific instruments. He also collected objects made from porcelain, ivory and bronze and owned one of the most substantial collections of numismatic items in the city. In his testament drawn up in 1776, Schwartz bequeathed to Academic Gymnasium of Gdansk and the Library of the City Council of Gdansk both his numismatic collection, consisting of 3000 coins and medals, and his numismatic book collection including 110 items. The catalogue of this book collection, which is currently kept by Gdansk Library, is reconstructed in this paper. Schwartz’s numismatic books were thematically connected with the contents of the owner’s numismatic collection – the interrelation between the book items and the coin and medal holdings is clearly noticeable. On the basis of information on the contents of the lost collection we may presume that each type of numismatic items corresponded to some studies from the book collection.