A glamour of poetry surrounds the magnificent building of the Jagellonian Library (illustration 31), the cradle of the famous University. The complex of houses standing here was bought partly by King Ladislaus Jagello for the University when he refounded it in 1400, partly by the University itself at a later time. The houses were rebuilt in 1468, and totally burnt down in 1492. This was the opportunity for the Jagellonian Prince-Cardinal Frederick to combine all University buildings into one. In 1497 the monumental structure was finished; in its main outlines, it has preserved its original shape to the present day. In the first half of the nineteenth century the building was restored, and received some modern additions, which, however, do not spoil the harmony of impression and are, besides, easy to distinguish. The medieval character is discernible at first sight by the oriel and the gables, which resemble those of the Dominican Church. Round a square arcade court, the most precious relic of medieval secular architecture, there runs, on the first floor, an open corridor with a modern balustrade, furnishing the communication between the different rooms. Below this corridor there is a beautiful cloister, with a cell-like vault and fine round pillars partly adorned with oblique channelling. The staircase, at the restoration, was transferred to the inside of the building, but the staircase leading up from the first floor to the second is still preserved. Among the architectural forms, which are full of picturesque variety, the balcony on the north-eastern corner of the building deserves special mention; it forms a perfect treasury of Gothic forms of the late Middle Ages. The most remarkable feature is the masonry, which, at the restoration, was transferred to this place by degrees from other buildings that were pulled down. The frames of doors and windows, partly plain and simple, partly adorned with tail-pieces, twisted pinnacles, knotty branches, show plenty of motives characteristic of late Gothic art. The Porta aurea, with ogee arches and twisted branches with leaves and crockets, leads into the so-called Obiedzinski Hall (1517). Its high walls are decorated with old stone coats-of-arms and tablets which were brought over here from the ancient students' rooms.
