The Berlin Collections, commonly referred to as the “Berlinka,” comprise special collections (including a number of valuable archival holdings) as well as printed materials originating from the former Prussian State Library in Berlin (Preußische Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin). They constitute a resource of exceptional importance for European cultural and historical heritage.

The special collections include musical holdings (notably music autographs such as scores by Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven), cartographic and graphic collections (including Libri picturati), as well as extensive and diverse materials held in the Manuscripts Section of the Jagiellonian Library — autograph collections, bound manuscripts (codices), personal papers, and Oriental manuscripts and prints.

The Berlin Collections came to Kraków as a result of events of the Second World War. Beginning in 1941, they were evacuated from a heavily bombed Berlin to protect them from destruction. Initially stored at Fürstenstein Castle (now Książ), they were later transferred to the Cistercian monastery in Grüssau (now Krzeszów) in Lower Silesia. After 1945, these locations became part of Polish state. It was there that the Berlin Collections were discovered by Prof. Stanisław Sierotwiński, a delegate of the Ministry of Education who was searching for archival materials displaced from libraries in Kraków, Warsaw, and Lviv. In 1946, the collections of the former Prussian State Library were transferred to the Jagiellonian Library, which has kept, conserved, and, since the late 1970s, made them accessible to researchers, while supporting research on them in terms of organisation and content.