Lorentz, Stanisław: Guide to museums and collections in Poland (Warsaw, 1974)

POZNAN

in the collection include: Rembrandt's prints "Little Pole",
90 prints by J. P. Norblin, a number of prints by S. delia
Bella, works by W. Hondius, "The Eagle" by Treter, etc. The
Czerniejewo collection and the Wolski collection each contain
several thousand portraits, mostly foreign, of iconographic
value.
The Library has publications in the fields of history of
art, museography, musicology, musical instruments and
miiitary history. The library contains about 33,000 volumes,
including about 5,080 periodicals and about 1,000 old prints.
Reproductions of works of art form a special collection of
about 25,000 items.
MUSEUM OF MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, Branch of the
National Museum, 45 Old Market Square, tel. 508-57. Open
daily, except Mondays and days following holidays, from
9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesdays
from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The collection of the Museum oi Musical Instruments was started
in 1945 as a section oi the Wielkopolskie Museum. Responsibie ior
the idea and for its implementation was Dr. Zdzisiaw Szulc (d. 1958),
the keeper of that section ior many years. His own collection oi
some 80 instruments, partiy preserved through the war, became the
nucieus oi the Museum. As time went on, added to it were a num-
ber of exhibits remitted by various museums and government insti-
tutions as weil as bequests, loans and purchases irom private per-
sons. In 1946, a temporary exhibition was opened, and irr 1949 the
great Exhibition oi Musical Instruments combined with the Ex-
hibition of Chopin Mementoes marked the beginning of regular
exhibition activities. In 1951, the Museum iound accommodation in
the historical Grodzicki house at 45 Old Market Square.
The collection contains at present over 750 musical instru-
ments from all parts of the world. Of greatest value is the
rich collection of Polish stringed instruments ranging from
the 16th to the 20th centuries and including violins made by
Poland's most distinguished violin makers of the late 16th
and early 17th centuries. A separate room is devoted to
memorials of Frederic Chopin. The exhibition of folk instru-
ments (both European and non-European) occupies five rooms.
In the room of Polish folk instruments, the exhibition inclu-
des, among other things, originals or copies of musical
instruments from archaeological excavations conducted in
Poland. Among the most interesting are two stringed instru-
ments from the 11th century (Opole) and from the 13th
century (Gdansk), an llth-century wooden pipe (Opole), and
a Pan's bone flute from the 8th century B.C. Przeczyce).
In addition to its exhibition programme, the Museum has
organized since 1949 "New Year's Eve Concerts" devoted to
old music played on old instruments by a small chamber
orchestra called the "Collegium Musicorum Posnaniensium".
Every five years, the Henryk Wieniawski International
Violin-Making Competition, one of the world's two greatest
contests of this kind, is held in the Museum's halls.
MUSEUM OR ARTISTIC CRAFTSMANSHIP, Branch of the
National Museum, 1 Gora Przemyslawa, tel. 580-11. Open
daily, except Mondays and days following holidays, from
10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wednesdays and Fridays from 12 noon
to 6 p.m.
The Museum, inaugurated in 1965, is lodged in the former castle,
the seat of royal authority in Poznah. The layout of the castle dates
from the second half of the 13th century and has been repeatedly
destroyed, restored and extended since then. At the end of the 18th

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