Collections of Experimental in Eighteenth-Century

Ewa Wyka

Scientific collections did not begin to emerge in Poland before the second half of the eighteenth century. Their creation was the consequence of the spreading from Western Europe of the ideas of seventeenth-century thinkers, such as Descartes, Leibniz, Bacon, Locke and Gassendi. In Poland this current of thought was called the philosophy of recentiorum, taken from the title of a book from 1746 called Propositiones philosophicae ex physica recentiorum by Antoni Wiśniewski, one of the first initiators of the Enlightenment in Poland. In the book Wiśniewski refutes scholasti- cism and stresses the importance of experimental physics. The inspiration for this recentiorum philosophy came to Poland from Christian Wolff, pro- fessor of mathematics and natural philosophy in the University in Halle, and was based on an eclectic, consensual proposal, typical of transition periods, that the truth is proven, not discovered. This philosophy tried to reconcile traditional theology with experimental . Its reception in Poland, within the Enlightenment movement, was the first step in the replacement of scholastic methods by the gradual admission of empirical, experimental into education. Wolff ’s views were accepted by the Church which, as a consequence, opened the doors of Jesuit colleges to empirical sciences. The Jesuit order dominated the schools in Poland at that time, similarly to the whole of Europe. New ideas of the Enlightenment penetrated into Poland first through scientists from protestant colleges in Gdańsk and Toruń, and later through the catholic clergy educated in Italy. The foundation of the Collegium Nobilium in in 1740 by Piarist monk Stanisław Konar- ski, was a landmark. It was a modern school with a well-equipped physical cabinet. The new trends did not appear in the two Polish universities of Kraków and until 1780.1

1 Władyslaw Smołeński, Przewrót umysłowy w Polsce wieku XVIII. Studia historyczne, Warsaw, 1979, pp. 62–104. 174 ewa wyka

In order to analyse the scientific collections in Poland in the second half of the eighteenth century, we may distinguish two kinds of collec- tions: private aristocratic collections and educational collections.

Aristocratic Collections

Collections of the Polish aristocracy were not significant. Polish aristo- crats were interested in scientific innovations, but they did not create consciously-composed and carefully-considered scientific collections.2 The most enlightened and open-minded noblemen owned only particu- lar objects such as telescopes, theodolites and electrostatic machines. Jan Śniadecki, for instance, professor of mathematics and astronomy at Kraków University, owned a few private astronomical instruments (Fig. 1), among them a 12-in repeating circle by Lenoir, a reflecting circle, and an artificial horizon.3 The Polish aristocracy in the aimed to increase the level of culture among artisans and to develop craft industry, rather than to start collecting scientific instruments. One of the most brilliant magnates was Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł (1702–1762), who established factories producing glass, porcelain, furniture and textiles, as well as build- ing a tapestry workshop. His library and collections of maps and weapons proves that he was a real connoisseur. He even edited work from his own press, was a great lover of science and art, and surrounded himself with artists and craftsmen. Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł, and later his equally- gifted son Karol Michał (1734–1790), created art collections but did not organise physical instrument cabinets, as happened amongst aristocrats in Western Europe. At their headquarters and home in Nesvizh, there was a watchmaker’s workshop, accommodating a maker called Jewna Jacob- son. An arithmometer, dating from about 1770 and signed by Jacobson, has survived from this workshop.4 It is a unique preserved instrument made by this clockmaker.

2 A great number of scientific collections were created in the manor houses of Ger- man princesses, which are today located in Poland. However, these collections took on the character of renaissance kunstkammers. Most of the Silesian kunstkammers were bro- ken up, yet some of the exhibits are known from preserved inventories. Michał Mencfeld writes about them in Skarbce natury i sztuki. Prywatne gabinety osobliwości, kolekcje sztuki i naturaliów na Śląsku w wiekach XVII i XVIII, Warsaw, 2010, pp. 36–69, 260–289. 3 Antoni Szachin, Letter to the Rector of Vilnius University, 24 May 1826: Kiev, City Archive, f. 16, opis 276, dzieło 65, f. 21. 4 Igor A. Apokin, Leonid E. Maistrow, Razwitije wyczyslitielnych maszin, Moscow, 1974, pp. 7–76; Leonid E. Maistrow, Naucznyje pribory, Moscow, 1968, p. 96.