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Stefan Srebrny was one of the most prominent Polish classicists in the 20th century. Not only was he an outstanding academic, but he was also a reknown translator and stage director of the time. In the University Library of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń there are manuscripts by Stefan Srebrny which prove that his activity was broader than generally assumed. In this paper I will shed more light on his collaboration with the Polish Radio in Vilnius.

Maciej of Miechów is one of the most eminent representatives of the Kraków scientifi c community of the second half of the 15th century and the fi rst quarter of the 16th century. He was a versatile scholar, a valued teacher, an excellent administrator (he served eight times as the university’s rector) and a widely respected philanthropist. He gained fame and recognition, as well as a considerable fortune, by practising medicine and astrology. On more than one occasion, he provided medical and astrological advice to representatives of the elite and the poor of Krakow. Rather a practitioner, much less a theoretician, his activities focused on the utilitarian function of both astrology and medicine. He valued both fi elds of cognition, practised both, but could he be called an iatromathematician? An analysis of this thread is undertaken in this article.

The article concerns the issue of transferring the ashes of Adam Mickiewicz, a great Polish Romantic poet hailed as the National Bard, from the cemetery in Montmorency to Kraków, from the perspective of Józef Ignacy Kraszewski and Władysław Mickiewicz, the poet’s eldest son. The basis for this is the correspondence exchanged between the two, hitherto unpublished and little-known, preserved in two manuscript collections in the Jagiellonian Library with the signatures: 6520 (letters from Wł. Mickiewicz to J.I. Kraszewski) and Przyb. 101/65 (letters from J.I. Kraszewski to Wł. Mickiewicz).

Malaria is a life-threatening disease spread to humans by some types of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. The infection is caused by a parasite. It is mostly found in tropical countries. Poland has been transformed from endemic country with huge epidemics (up to the middle of 60th years of the 20th century) into the country with sporadic imported malaria cases. The evolution of some attempts to improve the Malaria situation in Poland in the years 1939–1967 is reviewed with particular reference to the situation in occupied and immediately post-war Poland.

Jakub Szymkiewicz (1775–1818) is mainly known in the history of medicine for his works: The Science of Theoretical and Practical Surgery and The Science of Children’s Diseases. In the literary sphere, he became famous as the initiator of the Society of Shovelers and its first president, as well as the co-founder of a satirical magazine, which was the press organ of the society, “Wiadomości Brukowe” (“Street News”), in which he published articles under the pseudonym “Nobleman on a shovel”. He was a bright personality in the Masonic movement, a reformer of one of the most active Lithuanian lodges, striving above all to make social reforms effective, and a member of the Vilnius Charity Society. He was also the fi rst Polish author of a scientific treatise on alcoholism. This article aims to present the fi gure of the Vilnius doctor in a broader historical context, to complete the threads of his biography as far as the surviving sources allow, and to revise the errors repeated in his biographies.

The assessment of the Polish authorities’ reaction to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 is ambiguous. Among researchers, historians, and journalists, there are often extremely different opinions on the preventive actions taken and the information policy of the PRL government. These differences are also visible in the assessment of the long-term effects of these actions. As a result of widespread disinformation during the disaster and subsequent conflicting narratives, so-called “radiophobia” and social experience marked by distrust and fear have grown, being structures of long duration and a cognitive matrix present in the reception of current events. The article aims to present interpretative doubts in the assessment of actions taken after the disaster and their contemporary consequences, primarily in the context of broadly understood nuclear threats.

In the late years of the 19th century, Jan Narkiewicz Jodko embarked on several sea journeys to explore the ports and monuments of the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. He published his impressions of one of such voyage, made at the turn of 1897/1898, as From the East (Warsaw 1899). His itinerary led from Alexandria to Constantinople. On the way, he visited Jaffa, Beirut and Tripoli sailing through the so-called Archipelago to Piraeus and on towards the Turkish coast, to finally arrive at his destination via the Dardanelles and the Sea of Marmara, with a stopover in Smyrna. In his publication, Narkiewicz-Jodko sought to shed light on the contemporary political situation in the Middle East and inform his readers on some artistic events. Among other things, his account was one of the first to familiarise the Polish reader with Turkish archaeological discoveries at the el-Ayaa necropolis near Sidon; he had an opportunity to see the marble sarcophagi discovered there at the Imperial Museum in Istanbul. Narkiewicz Jodko also described an important Polish trace in Smyrna: the tomb of General Ludwik Michał Pac (1780–1835), who had died there unexpectedly years before. In his mansion in Bębnówka Wielka, Narkiewicz-Jodko gathered a sizeable collection of works of art and memorabilia, including those from his travels. Moreover, Narkiewicz Jodko was known in his country for introducing there directly from Switzerland a new, more productive cattle breed. Along with other mansions in Podolia and Wolhynia, the residence at Bębnówka Wielka and the whole estate were completely devastated and looted in 1914–1917.

This article presents information about the life and work of Jan Černy (circa 1450– circa 1530), who is considered the first physician to write medical texts in the Czech language. His biography is depicted against the backdrop of the era, which includes phenomena and events such as the decline of the Luxembourg dynasty’s rule in Bohemia and the Hussite Wars. This period was characterized by a vibrant economic and cultural development in the Kingdom of Bohemia, which the article connects to Černy’s medical activities. The detailed part of the text discusses the opus magnum of this writer, which is “Knie-ha lékarská, kteráž slove herbář aneb zelinář,” printed in Nuremberg in 1517, with particular focus on Černy’s method of describing medical matters and selected linguistic aspects of this work. Additionally, the article provides a brief comparison of Černy’s writings with those of Stefan Falimirz, highlighting potential similarities in the linguistic layer. The aim of the article is to acquaint the Polish audience with Jan Černy and emphasize his contributions to the development of pharmacobotanical lexicon in West Slavic languages, as well as outline preliminary issues for further research.

The most famous garden in Wrocław, belonging to the doctor, humanist and collector Laurentius Scholz, has so far been described as divided functionally and formally into two, almost independent parts: a recreational and representative part (also serving as a place to pursue collecting passions and at the same time decorative) and a utilitarian part. – medicinal. The vast majority of flowering plants, especially rare ones at that time, were attributed to the former, while about 100 belonging to the group of herbs were attributed to the latter. Recent analyzes led to the conclusion that almost all (except seven of the total group of 240 species cultivated in Scholz’s garden) had medicinal properties. Therefore, the entire garden, also in its part perceived as flowery, served as hortus medicus. The research also confirmed numerous connections between the Wrocław site and one of the oldest botanical gardens in Europe – Hortus medicus Pataviani (i.e. the Botanical Garden in Padua).

The first cholera epidemic in Warsaw occurred during the November Uprising in April 1831. It was a disease unknown to Polish doctors. Answers to questions about etiology, properties (infectious – non-infectious) and effective methods of prevention and treatment were sought. The conditions of war and epidemics highlighted the organizational shortcomings of the health service and the shortage of doctors. Doctors from abroad came to the capital of the Kingdom of Poland to supplement the medical staff and learn about the unknown disease before it spreads to the entire European continent. The aim of the article is to present the methods of treating cholera in Warsaw during the first cholera epidemic and to emphasize its impact on the development of world medicine.