The International Advisory Committee for UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme (Pamięć Światowego Programu) has approved 54 new items for inclusion in the Memory of the World Register, including two from Poland.

The register will now include peace treaties concluded between the Kingdom of Poland and the Ottoman Empire, from the mid-15th century to late 18th century, and collections at the Polish Library and the Adam Mickiewicz Museum in Paris. UNESCO writes on its website: “The peace treaties between the two states are an example of mutual tolerance and universal values in international relations (Traktaty pokojowe między obu państwami są przykładem wzajemnej tolerancji oraz uniwersalnych wartości w stosunkach międzynarodowych).”

The Polish Library, founded in Paris in the 1830s by political emigres, is an example of solidarity and collaboration among international intellectual elites and had a profound impact on the preservation of national identity of Poles and the restoration of independence of Poland after over 120 years of partitions. Created in 1997, the Memory of the World Register protects the world’s documentary heritage. There are now 245 items on the Register, including 12 from Poland, such as the autograph manuscripts of Copernicus’s ‘De Revolutionibus’ and of Chopin’s compositions, and the 21 demands of the striking shipyard workers in Gdansk in August 1980, which gave birth to Solidarity.

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)