Warsaw Society of Friends of Science
The Warsaw Society of Friends of Science ( Towarzystwo Warszawskie Przyjaciół Nauk , at times also called Royal Society of Friends of Science ( Towarzystwo Królewskie Przyjaciół Nauk )) was founded in Warsaw at the beginning of the 19th century and was the first important scientific society in Poland . After its closure in 1832, similar societies were established in their tradition in other Polish cities. In Warsaw, Towarzystwo Naukowe Warszawskie ( Warsaw Science Society ), founded in 1907, saw itself in the tradition of the Society of Friends of Science .
history
The idea of founding a society for the promotion of scientific knowledge and for the preservation of Polish cultural heritage arose at the end of the 18th century in occupied Warsaw. The plan was accepted by the Prussian king and the company was founded in 1801. The priest Jan Albertrandi was appointed as the first president, but Stanisław Staszic was the patron and most important supporter of the society .
“ For two years a Society of Polish Scholars has come together here in Warsaw under the title: Friends of Science, whose treatises are printed annually. At the head of these brave men is the learned Bishop Albertrandi, formerly Royal First Librarian, as President. He opened the company with an excellent speech in which he presented the fate of the sciences, their rise and fall, their gleam and disappearance, and at the end expressed the hope, through united efforts, to bring back the golden age of Polish literature, which Admired at the time of the first two Sigismunds and still in the first fifteen years of the Sigismund III reign. "
Initially, the Society rented rooms from the Piarists and held meetings in the monks' library on Długa Street. The company later moved to Kanonia-Straße 8, and finally Staszic built a representative building for them in downtown Warsaw, the Staszic Palace, named after the builder after his death .
From 1806 Staszic acted as president of the company, after his death in 1826 Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz took over the management. Major co-founders of the company were Samuel Linde and Stanisław Kostka Potocki . The Society appointed honorary members and corresponding members in other countries and continents. Important members were Joachim Lelewel , Hugo Kołłątaj , Christoph Cölestin Mrongovius , Joseph Maximilian Ossolinski , Johann Christian Schuch , Abraham Stern and Jan Śniadecki .
The society published a yearbook ( Roczniki Warszawskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk ) from 1802 to 1830 and published a number of works and brochures, including a series of chronicles about Warsaw ( Pamiętnik Warszawski ). It also established an important library, which became the largest public library in Warsaw due to the loss of the Załuski Library in 1794. The Society's library shared the fate of the Załuski Library and was annexed as spoils of war by Russian troops after the November Uprising was put down in 1831 and also taken to Saint Petersburg .
In 1828 the Society had 185 members who met twice a month. The company initiated the establishment of a Copernicus monument in front of the building of the company on May 11, 1830. 1832, the company was on the instructions of Tsar Nicholas I dissolved.
meaning
The 32 years that the society existed fall into a period of political dependence of Poland on neighboring states during the time of the Duchy of Warsaw and Congress Poland . The founding and working of the company were an important part of the “ Polish Enlightenment ” in the 19th century.
“ The importance of the 'Society of Friends of Science' was very important for the cultural development of Poland, thus also indirectly for the development of its political power. It is thanks to her that the spiritual life in this subjugated country did not die out, indeed that it even developed into greater bloom. Here, as if in a focal point, all the rays of the original, creative thoughts scattered in the Polish lands were concentrated. "
References and comments
- ↑ In addition to the Warsaw Science Society there were other in Poland - as established in 1857, Poznań Society of Friends of Learning in Poznan , which in 1892 founded Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk na Śląsku in Bytom , which was founded in 1906 Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk w Wilnie in Wilno or founded in 1909 Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk w Przemyślu in Przemyśl
- ↑ Jan Chrzciciel Albertrandi (also: Albertrandy) (1731-1808) was a Polish clergyman (Jesuit), bishop, archivist and archaeologist
- ↑ a b c Wiktor Gomulicki, Warsaw , in: A von Guttry and W von Kościelski (eds.), “Polish Library”, First Section, Second Volume, Georg Müller Verlag, Munich, p. 270 ff.
- ↑ means Sigismund I. (Poland) , Sigismund II. August and Sigismund III. Wasa
- ↑ Language (Polish) , in: Dr. Johann Georg Krünitz's economic-technological encyclopedia , Volume 161, Paulische Buchhandlung, Berlin 1834, pp. 35f.
- ^ Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz (1757–1841) was a Polish dramaturge and poet
- ↑ according to Towarzystwo Warszawskie Przyjaciół Nauk ( Memento from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) at Scholary-societies.org (in English)
- ↑ according to Iván T. Berend , History derailed: Central and Eastern Europe in the long nineteenth century. Romanticm and Nationalism , p. 85 (in English)
- ↑ After the initial refusal of the Russian governor, Grand Duke Constantine , to agree to the erection of the monument, the erection was only possible after the submission of Niemcewicz's address to Russian censorship, according to F. von Hasenkamp (Ed.), Neue Prussische Provinzialblätter , Volume 11, Königsberg 1866, p. 395f.