17 October 2014 in the Presidential Palace in Warsaw Minister of Culture and National Heritage Małgorzata Omilanowska presented the 1st edition of the “Memory of Poland” list – national list from the UNESCO programme “Memory of the World”. One of the objects included belongs to the Scientific Library of the PAAS and the PAS in Cracow collections. It was A Brief and Precise Description of the Administration and Conditions in the Wieliczka and Bochnia Salt Mines in the Year of Christ 1518 (rkps sygn. 942), the oldest 16th-century copy of the 1518 manuscript drawn up by Stanisław Tarnowski of Nieszawa in regards to the mines’ administrative reform by Jan Boner. It is a precise description of the internal structure and operation of a centralised royal enterprise which then hired over 1’000 employees. Full description and digitised version of this document are available on the „Memory of Poland” website, and the facsimile, issued in 2000, is available in our Reading Rooms.
We also invite you to see a video from the event on the TVP website.