The university jagellonne of Cracow (in Polish Uniwersytet Jagielloński W Krakowie ) is the oldest university of Central Europe after that of Prague. The name of Jagellon is that of a house or Polish royal dynasty of Lithuanian origin which reigned on Poland, Lithuania, Hungary and Bohemia. It is also known under the name of Akademia Krakowska (Academy of Cracow).

History

Founded in 1364, after several years of failure, by the king Casimir Large the which accepted the permission of the pope to establish a university with Cracow, then capital of Poland-Lithuania. However, the Studium Generale in Cracow functioned only in 1367 with only three faculties (liberal arts, medicine and right), the pope having refused to found a faculty of theology (then the noblest discipline).

Its development was stopped by the death of the king. The university was restored (1400) by the king Ladislas Jagellon and his wife Hedwige. The queen gave all her jewels to the university. At the 19th century the University was famous Jagellon to commemorate this dynasty kings of Poland.

Throughout the history of the University, thousands of students of all Poland, of Lithuania, Bielorussia, Ukraine, Russia, Slovakia, Hungary, Bohemia, Germany and Spain studied there. In second half of the 15th century, nearly 40% of the students came from other countries. During centuries, almost all the Polish intellectual elite was informed there.

The first chancellor of the University was Peter Wysz and the first professors were Czech, German and Polish, of which much had passed by the Université Charles of Prague. The university and its chancellor were partisans of the Conseil of Basle.

To haul establishes a press to print in Cracow before 1500. In 1520, Greek philology was introduced by Constanzo Claretti, Wenzel von Hirschberg and Libanus; Hebrew was also taught there.

Students of the Jagellonne University become famous

  • Nicolas Copernic or Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543), astronomer, author of the Héliocentrisme

  • Józef Cyrankiewicz (1911-1989), communist politician, Polish Prime Minister (1947-1970)
  • Norman Davies (born in 1939), British historian
  • Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972), psychiatrist
  • Jan Kochanowski (1530-1584), poet, one of the pioneers of the Polish Language literary
  • Jean de Kolno (1435-1484), exploring
  • Stanisław Koniecpolski (1590? - 1646), officer and politician, Large Hetman of the Crown
  • Marcin Kromer (1512-1589), historian, Prince-Bishop of Varmie
  • Stanisław Lem (1921-2006), writer
  • Johannes Longinus (1415-1480), historian
  • Carl Menger (1840-1921), economist and lawyer, founder of the Austrian school of economy
  • Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski (1503-1572), poet, diplomat and political thinker
  • Wacław Sierpiński (1882-1969), mathematician
  • Francišak Skaryna (1485? - 1540?), pioneer of the Belorusse Language literary, the first to print a work in Eastern Slavon (cf its translation of the Bible as an old Belorusse)
  • Bronisław Malinowski (1884-1942), anthropologist.
  • Henryk Sławik (1894-1944), diplomat, one of the Justes which saved Jews during the Holocaust
  • Wisława Szymborska (born in 1923), poet, Nobel Prize of Literature (1996)
  • Jean III Sobieski (1629-1696), military chief and one of the kings of the Union Polono-Lithuanian, victorious of the Bataille of Vienna
  • Jean-Paul II (Karol Wojtyła), 1920-2005), poet, writer, Archevêque of Cracow, then Pape
  • Krzysztof Zanussi (born in 1939), director

Professors

  • Albert Brudzewski (1445-1497), astronomer and mathematician

  • Stanislaw de Skarbimierz (1360-1431), vice-chancellor, theologist, lawyer
  • Paweł Włodkowic (1370-1435), lawyer, diplomat and politician, representative of Poland to the Council of Constancy
  • Tadeusz Sulimirski (1898-1983), historian and archeologist, specialist in the Sarmates

Inscriptions

With 42.325 students (2005) and 3.605 scientists, it is one of the principal universities in Poland.

Library

The college library is one of most important country, with nearly 5,5 million volumes. It includes/understands a broad collection of medieval manuscripts, for example the De Revolutionibus of Copernic or the Codex of Balthasar Behem.

It also gathered the underground literature (also called drugi obieg ) of the period of the communist dictatorship (1945-1989).

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