The Akademia Zamojska: Shaping a Renaissance University
Chapter 1 The Akademia Zamojska: Shaping a Renaissance University 1 Universities in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth In the course of the sixteenth century, in the territory initially under the juris- diction of Poland and, from 1569 on, of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, three centres of higher education were established that could boast the status of university. The first to be founded, in 1544, was the academy of Königsberg, known as the Albertina after the first Duke of Prussia, Albert of Hohenzollern. In actual fact, like other Polish gymnasia established in what was called Royal Prussia, the dominant cultural influence over this institution, was German, although the site purchased by the Duke on which it was erected was, at the time, a feud of Poland.1 It was indeed from Sigismund ii Augustus of Poland that the academy received the royal privilege in 1560, approval which – like the papal bull that was never ac- tually issued – was necessary for obtaining the status of university. However, in jurisdictional terms at least, the university was Polish for only one century, since from 1657 it came under direct Prussian control. It went on to become one of the most illustrious German institutions, attracting academics of international and enduring renown including the philosophers Immanuel Kant and Johann Gottlieb Fichte. The Albertina was conceived as an emanation of the University of Marburg and consequently the teaching body was strictly Protestant, headed by its first rector, the poet and professor of rhetoric Georg Sabinus (1508–1560), son-in-law of Philip Melanchthon. When it opened, the university numbered many Poles and Lithuanians among its students,2 and some of its most emi- nent masters were also Lithuanian, such as the professor of Greek and Hebrew 1 Karin Friedrich, The Other Prussia (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2000), 20–45, 72–74.
[Show full text]