The first significant book collection in Pécs had been established by Bishop Zsigmond Berényi but the library saw its heyday when György Klimó was Bishop of Pécs whose main goal was to restart the medieval university of King Louis the Great. For this purpose, Klimó established a papermill and a printing house and invited scholar priests to the diocese who could become professors at the university. This is how József Koller ended up in Pécs. He catalogued the books of the Klimó Collection, and he did research in Rome to find the documents of the medieval diocese of Pécs. In 1774, Klimó opened his library to the public. Although Maria Theresa had not granted permission to restarting the university, the collection became a public library.

Bishop Ignác Szepesy (1828-1838) was a scholar himself who carried out and patronised scholarly work. He founded the Episcopate Lyceum Quinque–Eclessiae in which the library building was designed by József Piatek. In 1832, the Klimó Collection was relocated to this building, which necessitated a new catalogue. The 6 hand-written folio volumes included an author type of catalogue, sorted alphabetically, and a thematically sorted catalogue.

In 1923, the Elisabeth University of Bratislava was relocated to Pécs due to territorial changes after World War I. Therefore, Bishop Gyula Zichy gave the building of Klimó Library along with the collection to the university for permanent use, making György Klimó’s dream come true, because his library could finally be used by university students and professors.

The majority of the books were in Latin but there were many German and Hungarian books as well as some Italian, Armenian, Sanskrit, Russian and Arabic books. Some rarities including eight codices, the 250 Antique Roman Fonts, medieval diplomas, the Vizsoly Bible, the manuscript of Sebestyén Tinódi Lantos as well as a Dutch master’s globe and celestial sphere from 1700 are also part of the Collection. The library catalogue of the collection is digitally available now.