Warsaw Society of Friends of Learning
The Warsaw Society of Friends of Sciences (Polish Towarzystwo Warszawskie Przyjaciół Nauk, but mainly the Royal Society of the Friends of Science ( Towarzystwo Królewskie Przyjaciół Nauk ) called ) was founded at the beginning of the 19th century in Warsaw and was the first major scientific society in Poland. After its closure in 1832 similar societies originated in their tradition in other Polish cities. In Warsaw, the Towarzystwo founded in 1907 Naukowe Warszawskie ( Warsaw Science Society ) saw in the tradition consequence of the Society of Friends of Sciences.
History
The idea of establishing an organization to promote scientific knowledge and to preserve national heritage emerged at the end of the 18th century in occupied Warsaw. The plan was accepted by the Prussian king and 1801 saw the establishment of the company. As the first president of the Spiritual January Albertrandi was determined, promoters, and most important supporters of the company but was Stanisław Staszic ..
"For two years, a company of Polish scholars has here in Warsaw under the title: Friends of Science, united, whose treatises are printed annually. On top of these brave men stands as President of the learned Bishop Albert Randi, formerly Royal first librarian. He opened the company with an excellent speech in which he depicted the fate of Sciences, their rise and fall, their brightening and disappearance, and at the end of the hope expressed by united steadfast efforts the golden age of Polish literature out again to call, which at the times of the first two Sigismunde and still in the first fifteen years of the reign of Sigismund admired third party flourished. "
First, the company rented rooms at the Piaristen and held meetings in the library of the monks in Długa street from. Later, the company moved to the Kanonia -Straße 8, Staszic eventually built for them in the Warsaw city a prestigious building, named after his death, after the builder Staszic Palace.
From 1806 Staszic acted as president of the company, after his death in 1826 took over Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz the line. Significant co-founder of the company were Samuel Linde and Stanisław Kostka Potocki. The Company appointed honorary and corresponding members in other countries and continents. Significant members were Joachim Lelewel, Hugo Kołłątaj, Christoph Celestine Mrongovius, Joseph Maximilian Ossoliński, Johann Christian Schuch, Abraham Stern and Jan Śniadecki.
The Company issued from 1802 to 1830 a yearbook ( Roczniki Warszawskiego Towarzystwa Przyjaciół Nauk ) and laid out a series of works and pamphlets, including a chronicle series to Warsaw ( Pamiętnik Warszawski ). She put on a major library, 1794, the largest public library in Warsaw was due to the loss of the Zaluski Library. The library of the society shared the fate of the Zaluski Library and was annexed after the defeat of the November Uprising in 1831 by Russian troops as war booty and also taken to Saint Petersburg.
In 1828, the Company had 185 members, which met twice a month. The Company initiated the establishment of a Copernicus monument in front of the building of the company on 11 May 1830. 1832, the company was dissolved on the instructions of Tsar Nicholas I..
Importance
The 32 years that the company existed, fall into a period of political dependence of Poland from neighboring countries during the time of the Duchy of Warsaw and Congress Poland. Foundation as functioning of the Company were an important part of the " Polish Enlightenment " in the 19th century dar.
" Very great was the importance of the " Society of Friends of Science "for the cultural development of Poland, thus also indirectly to the development of its political power. It is thanks to that the spiritual life not died in this subject land, so that it became even larger bloom. Here were concentrated as in a focus all the rays of scattered in the Polish lands original, creative thought. "
References and Notes
- Education and Research in Warsaw
- Education
- History of Warsaw
- Scientific Society