Students of the Principal School of the Realm 1780-1795

Zawiera biogramy studentów Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego

Książka Haliny Zwolskiej to katalog prawie 1300 studentów Szkoły Głównej Koronnej z lat 1780-1795. Pod tą nazwą działał obecny Uniwersytet Jagielloński zreformowany przez Hugona Kołłątaja pod auspicjami Komisji Edukacji Narodowej i włączony w wielkie dzieło odnowy polskiego szkolnictwa. Katalog zawiera krótkie biogramy osób, które przewinęły się w tym okresie przez mury uczelni. Byli wśród nich wolni słuchacze studiujący na własny koszt, tzw. kandydaci stanu akademickiego, czyli przyszli nauczyciele (dzieleni na kandydatów pensjonowanych, dobrowolnych i zakonnych), uczniowie chirurgii, czyli przyszli felczerzy przysyłani i opłacani z miast królewskich oraz klerycy z Seminarium Akademicko-Diecezjalnego i innych seminariów krakowskich. Osobną grupę stanowiły kobiety uczęszczające na organizowane w Szkole Głównej kursy dla położnych. Informacje o studiach zostały opracowane na podstawie rękopiśmiennego zasobu Archiwum Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego i uzupełnione o inne wybrane źródła i publikacje. Jest to pierwszy tom realizowanego przez Archiwum UJ projektu i serii wydawniczej "Corpus studiosorum Universitatis Iagellonicae in saeculis XVIII-XX".

In the history of the Jagiellonian University, the period of the Enlightenment reform is of particular importance. The oldest university in Poland, known as the University of Kraków, underwent a fundamental change at that time. It was an element of the great educational reform in Poland that was carried out by the Commission of National Education, the state office for managing education in the whole Polish-Lithuanina Commonwealth, appointed by the Sejm in 1773 after the dissolution of the Jesuit Order and taking over its colleges and estates. he aim of the Commission was to create a modern Polish education according to current models and to introduce civic and patriotic education. Education and upbringing were to be an essential factor in the renewal of the state, which was then in decline, threatened by three neighboring powers: Russia, Prussia and Austria. University reform was carried out by Hugo Kołłątaj as an inspector of the Commission of National Education, and later as rector. In 1780 the reform came into effect. The University of Kraków was named the Principal School of the Realm (Schola Princeps Regni). The organization, finances and curricula underwent thorough changes. The archives and library were reorganized. New buildings and institutions were created: Physical College, Astronomical Observatory, Botanical Garden, St. Barbara and St. Lazarus hospitals. The tasks of the university also changed. Apart from didactic and scientific work it played a role of the head of the whole school system in Poland. Similarly in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania this role was played by the Principal School of Lithuania (i.e. the reformed University of Vilnius). The most important structural changes resulted from the abolition of faculties. In their place, in the years 1780-1783, four colleges were introduced: Physical, Medical, Law and Theological, and since 1783 two colleges: Moral and Physical. The Moral College was divided into schools of theology, law, and literature. The Physical College was divided into schools of mathematics, physics, and medicine. Each student could study any subject in both colleges. From 1780 to 1783, a separate institution, the Seminary of Candidates for Academic Estate, existed to train teachers. After 1783, candidates for teachers were educated at the colleges. In order to educate physicians, special courses for surgeons (feldshers), and an institution for them, the Surgeons’ Bursa, were established. Moreover, medical courses for women midwives were opened. This great work was brutally interrupted by the partitions of the Polish- -Lithuanian state. In 1795, after the Third Partition, it ceased to exist, and Kraków found itself within the borders of the Habsburg Monarchy. espite numerous studies on the history of the Jagiellonian University during the existence of the Principal School of the Realm, detailed biographical and prosopographical studies on the student community have been lacking so far. Research on Kraków university students has a long tradition and dates back to the 19th century. Data on students and professors from the period 1364-1780 are collected in the database Corpus Academicum Cracoviense (https://cac.historia.uj.edu.pl/). Data on students from the second half of the 19th century until Poland regained its independence is collected in a multi-volume publication Corpus studiosorum Universitatis Iagellonicae 1850/1851-1917/1918. The present book fills a serious gap. It is a catalogue of students from the years 1780-1795 and has an exceptional character. For other periods we have a much better source base. For the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era it is a series of matriculation books. For new times, it is the annually kept enrollment cards and student catalogues. For the period of the Principal School of the Realm there is no uniform documentation of this type. The student community has to be reconstructed on the basis of very diverse and fragmentarily preserved, incomplete sources. These include catalogues of colleges and seminaries, lists of students for particular years, certi ficates of attendance at lectures or of obtaining degrees, minutes of examinations, oaths of candidates for teachers (submissions), account books, visitors’ reports and others. The task of collecting this information was undertaken by Halina Zwolska, a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy and History at the Jagiellonian University and later an employee of the Jagiellonian University Archives from 1969 to 2005. She compiled the files of students of the Principal School of the Realm. It was a basis for a planned doctoral dissertation. However, due to her professional and fa mily obligations, the materials were not processed and the doctoral dissertation was not written. In the 1990s, the author completed and initially prepared the edition, but the work was not finalized. Nevertheless, it was still used by numerous researchers. In 2020, a decision was made to publish the book. In consultation with the author, Dr Marcin Baster and Dr hab. Maciej Zdanek of the Jagiellonian University Archives completed the data, unified the terminology, corrected the text, and made the final editing of the book. The student community was a very diversifiedin terms of age and previous education, coming from different social classes (with a predominance of the bourgeoisie) and different regions of the Polish-Lithuanian state, as well as from outside its borders, including Silesia, Spiš, Bohemia, and Prussia. It consisted of the following groups: 1) voluntary students studying at their own expense; 2) candidates of the academic estate, i.e., candidates for teachers, who were divided into three categories: candidates with a salary, i.e., maintained from public funds; candidates without a salary, studying at their own expense; candidates of religious orders sent and maintained by their orders which, with the permission of the Commission of National Education, ran public schools, such as the Basilians, Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre or Cistercians; 3) the so-called surgeons (feldsher), pupils of basic medical courses sent by royal towns that financed their education; 4) clerics from the Academic-Diocesan Seminary in Kraków and other seminaries. A separate group were women attending courses for midwives. The book contains information on nearly 1300 students and pupils who studied at the Principal School of the Realm during this period and 28 midwives. The biographies have been compiled according to a uniform scheme: surname and first name; basic personal data: date of baptism or date of birth calculated on the basis of the student’s age, place of origin (variously given in sources: city, village, province, diocese, country), name and surname of parents; social origin and profession; education stages: school and seminary education, studies at the Principal School of the Realm and other universities, subjects and degrees; category of student; sources of income and place of residence during studies; subsequent life course and careers with emphasis on work in education; list of sources of information; notes (uncertain identifications, contradictory and questionable data). The primary asset of information comes from unique university sources kept at the Jagiellonian University Archives. Although the data is very diverse and in many situations fragmentary, the book as a whole provides a solid basis for research into the number, composition and careers of Kraków’s students in the years 1780-1795.