Coats of Arms of Citizens of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in Padua

Many prominent artists of the Renaissance such as Klemens Janicki, Łukasz Górnicki and Jan Kochanowski have also been associated with the University. All the major noble families of the Common- wealth sent their sons to study at the University. Their presence in the city at the end of the 16th century was so prominent that in 1592 a separate association was formed– known as the Natio Regni Poloniae et Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae. The group’s activity focused on maintaining national integrity by attending Masses, funerals and official celebrations related to the Polish military. Members would also support one another by means of establishing a loan office. They studied by attending the same language and fencing classes and sharing the costs of these lessons. They also founded a library that was open for all the members.

Register books of Polish individuals associated with the University of Padua over the centuries have been known under various names such as "Liber Congregationis S. Stanislai", "Album Polonorum", "Album Polonicum", "Cathalogus", or "Album iurisconsultorum Polonicum".
The two preserved registry books of the Polish nation record the period from 1592 to 1745. They contain more than 2350 entries. Many – especially the ones related to officials – are accompanied by watercolor illustrations of coats of arms.

Although these registries are not the only historical records to document that the Padua circle of students and scholars came from the Commonwealth and was dynamic, they are of extraordinarily value. Along with numerous heraldic cartouches primarily suspended or painted in the building of the main and the oldest university seat, the so-called Palazzo del Bo, they make up one of the richest compact heraldic groups in the history of Polish culture.

The first album, started in 1592, was damaged a few times after several years, which prompted Marcin Władysław Weiher, the nation’s councilor, to prepare a new book in the form of a codicil, in which all inscriptions were rewritten in 1605. This liber Nationis survived until 1640, when during the councilor Florian Michał Smogulecki, at his expense a new book was made in folio, which included the old codicil. A skillful bookbinder made this by aligning the book’s format through addition of a half clean sheet with a drawing to each of the codicil’s cards. The book of the nation served another nine years in this form and, even though there still 21 clean pages left, a decision was made to prepare a new book. The councilor Aleksander Michał Ossoliński took care of the execution and financed the project.

The crests ornamented with symbols of virtues, ancient goddesses and heroes as well as the related mottoes and epigrams, even though being an evidence of aspirations, have their moral aspect too. Even if certain ideas were popular and discussed in the culture which they met, to most of them they were out of their cognitive range; however, the will to leave the trace of their existence in the form of a crest (painted or sculpt- ed in stone) confirms the will to manifest their belonging to the world, which they explored and which influenced their recognizability, both in Padua and in Poland.

Coat of arms (incomplete) belonging to the Koprzywnica abbot, the consultor Zbigniew Ossoliński from Tenczyn, the assistant Stanisław Giebułtowski, the assistant Franciszek Trzeciak, 20/04/1651

The two volumes of the manuscript were initially stored in the association’s treasury box together with other documents, the seal and cash. The nation archive was stored permanently in the library, since its foundation. When the nation became less numerous, at the beginning of the 18th century, the documents were in danger. This was confirmed by the theft carried out by an “Athanasius Ruthenus,” who robbed the library and sold the stolen goods in the marketplace.

"Album nationis Polonae" was luckily preserved by the above mentioned historian Papadopoli. He must have returned it to the nation, as the records were continued. Finally, after the disintegration of the Polish nation, the books were first in the University library and next in the University Archive, where they received reference numbers 487 and 488. Currently, the books are stored in Archivio Storico dell’Università di Padova.