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The University of Cracow was founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great (1310-1370), which makes it Poland’s oldest university and one of the oldest in Europe. It acquired its current name in 1817, in honor of the Jagiellonian dynasty that ruled over Poland, Lithuania, Hungary, and Bohemia from the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries.  

The Jagiellonian Library has an extensive collection of drawings, watercolors and studies of flora and fauna. The collection includes fifteen folio volumes with over 1,600 botanical and zoological drawings that can be traced back to Karel van Sint-Omaars (1533-1569) who lived on the castle of Moerbeke, near Bruges, who commissioned artists to make drawings and watercolors after his plant collection. 

Also preserved in the Jagiellonian Library are some 800 oil sketches, watercolors, and drawings by Albert Eckhout (ca. 1610-ca. 1664-66), who depicted the Brazilian flora and fauna during his travels.