The holdings of the PAS Gdańsk Library include the so-called Schwarzwald set marked by its uniform provenance, which is composed of the private collection of books of Heinrich Schwarzwald IV (1619-1672) and items collected in the library of St. Peter and Paul’s Church in Gdańsk from the 15th to the beginning of the 19th century – largely purchased using funds from this patrician. The Schwarzwald set in an almost complete form found its way to the City Library in Gdańsk in 1832; only in 1872 were manuscripts and incunabula added.
The paper sketches the history of the Schwarzwald set, placing it in the context of the early modern collectorship in Gdańsk, and presents its five hand-written catalogues, inventories and tables of contents created in the City Library in the 19th century. A quantitative analysis and a thematic division of Schwarzwald’s book collection and the holdings of the church library are also presented. The paper also indicates the benefits of studying broadly-understood book culture, resulting from the examination of historic catalogues and inventories, as well as imperfections in the drawing of conclusions on the basis of library materials without detailed examination of the studied collections.

The portrait of Heinrich Schwarzwald IV (1619–1672) was incorporated into the PAS Gdańsk Library’s collection back in 1832. Heinrich Schwarzwald IV was the founder of the book collection for the Petrischule in Gdańsk. The oil painting on canvas in a period frame with no signature was painted in the mid–1600s. Both the book collection and the portrait were actually donated to the school at St. Peter and Paul Church after the death of Heinrich Schwarzwald IV’s nephew, Heinrich Schwarzwald V, in 1708. For a long period of time the uncle’s merits were attributed to the nephew due to the same names. In 1860 Gotthilf Löschin identified the real founder of the above mentioned library. The article, in turn, settles down the matter of the identification of the portrayed person. The painting was presumably painted by Andreas Stech (1635–1697). The source data confirm the mutual contacts between the painter and Heinrich Schwarzwald IV. Before being donated to the library, the painting underwent an intensive and thorough restoration performed by Franz Joseph Manskirch in the 1820s.