The Polish diaspora’s written heritage in the Rome and Italian collections

Abstract

Throughout the centuries Poland and Italy (specifically Rome) were strongly tied. Here, in Italy in the 16th Century were established such institutions as Polish church with affiliated the oldest Polish library abroad. Here there were established hospitals for pilgrims and provided first attempts of setting centres for the youth arriving to Italy for their studies. Italian archives (specifically in Vatican) belong to the ones which are the richest among Polish diaspora collections. It has been long time since Polish researchers have been using them. The paper is an attempt to present Polish written heritage and aims mainly on presenting above all activity of the Polish diaspora institutions in the scope of collecting and distributing Polish library collections and archival documentation. There is discussed relatively rich, however hardly known publishing, bibliographic activity, organization of different actions and events and cooperation with Italian institutions as well as with numerous centres run by the other countries in Rome.