Kraków Scientific Society was founded 200 years ago
Photo: Fotolia
This month we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the establishment of Kraków Scientific Society, the predecessor of the Academy of Learning, which was later transformed into the Polish Academy of Learning. On this occasion, the Polish Academy of Learning organizes a scientific conference in Kraków on 9 and 10 December.
Secretary General of the Polish Academy of Learning Prof. Jerzy Wyrozumski reminded that the establishment of the Scientific Society attached to the University of Kraków was one of the first realizations of the vestigial Polish state called the "Free City of Kraków," created by the Congress of Vienna after the fall of the Duchy of Warsaw.
The relevant resolution of the university authorities on the establishment of the Society was adopted on 24 July 1815, and on December 9 the statute of the organization was approved. Its first public meeting was held on 25 February 1816.
In 1817 the Society had 117 members, including 49 active members, 19 correspondents and 49 honorary members. In 1871, before transformation into the Academy of Learning, it had 282 members (109 active members, 159 correspondents and 14 honorary members).
According to Prof. Wyrozumski, developmental stages of the Society were determined by political events. The November Uprising 1830-1831 resulted in restriction on the freedoms of the Free City of Kraków, and thus hindered the work of scientists, but the dissolution of the Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning (created in 1800) as a result of post-uprising repressions opened up a nationwide field of activity before the Kraków Society.
In the aftermath of the Kraków Uprising of 1846, the Free City of Krakow was annexed to Austria. "The Society survived the storm, tried new forms of activity in the years 1848-1852, to eventually adapt to Austrian law, exit the relationship with the then totally germanised University, renamed +Kraków Scientific Society+" - noted the researcher.
In 1856 the Society obtained a new statute and developed effective activities in various fields: established a scientific library and museum of archaeology and natural history, ommittees: balneological, physiographic, linguistic, bibliographic, historical, artistic expressions, editorial of "Medical Review".
In 1872 tte Kraków Scientific Society transformed into the Academy of Learning, which was transformed into the Polish Academy of Learning after Poland regained independence in 1918.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland
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