A contribution to the history of Polish science and culture or on the recovered archives of Józef Rostafiński (1850–1928)

Abstract

In 1883, Józef Rostafiński launched a questionnaire, called the Appeal (Odezwa), the objective of which was to look into the tradition of using plants among the people living in the three territories of the First Polish Commonwealth annexed in the partitions. Thereby, Rostafiński wanted to obtain source material concerning the custoims related to the use of herbs in cooking, rituals and folk medicine. Based on the data obtained, he published scientific works. The archival responses to Rostafiński’s Appeal were largely preserved in the collection of the Jagiellonian University. However, a portion was considered lost. In 2014, they were found among the documents left by Prof. Tadeusz Wilczyński of Lviv. Among the recovered archives of Rostafiński there are responses to the Appeal as well as other documents, e.g. letters by Paweł Smolikowski CR and Jan Karłowicz, which will be mentioned in the paper.

Keywords

• Józef Rostafiński
• Appeal
• Tadeusz Wilczyński
• The Magic Herbarium
• Pawł Smolikowski CR