The article aims to answer whether Gottlob Frege’s letter to Adolph Mayer, dated 8 July 1896, could help German mathematicians get acquainted with Giuseppe Peano’s mathematical work, including his mathematical logic. It is the first publication of this letter in English. At the beginning, I present the main characters of this story. Next, I refer to the letters concerning Peano and his mathematical results. Thus, I show the background of Frege’s letter to Mayer. In the last part, I collect information about Peano’s contacts with German mathematicians – where he was quoted and by whom, who was quoted by Peano, and in which period of his life. I conclude that Peano was known in Germany before Frege wrote to Mayer in 1896. However, the letter could have helped publish five of Peano’s articles in Germany, where Peano’s mathematical logic was hardly known then. Undoubtedly, the letter promoted that knowledge.

Emil Lucjan Habdank Dunikowski – a graduate of the Lviv (Lwów), Munich and Vienna Universities, belongs to the circle of the Polish most significant scientists who specialized in Earth sciences and pursued their careers in the Lviv of the Austrian era. Sociable, diligent, and curious about the world, he devoted his time to discovering the mysteries of geology, actively developing Polish research in Galicia. While performing his research-related tasks in various parts of the globe (for example in North Africa, North America, Europe, and Russian Primorsky Krai), he satisfied his passion for travelling, delivering accurately made descriptions of broadly defined nature. In biographical contexts, the Lvovian scientist is seldom mentioned. Despite his undisputable scientific achievements and extensive travel experiences, there has yet to be a comprehensive biographical and bibliographical study dedicated to him. This article outlines his scientific profile and presents some unknown facts from Emil Dunikowski’s private life and career, based on the documents obtained from the State Archives of Lviv Oblast in Lviv (Ukraine).

The article aims to review academic literature devoted to the Union of Brest and its followers, written between 1915 and 2022 by students and scholars associated with Warsaw. It includes major publications by alumni of universities and other higher education institutions in the capital of Poland, but also minor sketches (mostly unpublished) authored by Warsaw-based Greek Catholics. It explores the resurgence of scholarly interest in the Uniate question in the interwar period, its stagnation during the Polish People’s Republic, and its rekindling in the Third Polish Republic. It dwells on the realization that the authors’ viewpoint and the science policy of their employers – be it the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church or the Communist Party – was the determining factor in the works’ ideological skew. Another trend observed in the late 20th c. was that the religious affiliation of researchers and writers had lost its former significance mainly due to increasing privatization of religion.

Volodymyr Kulchytsky (Włodzimierz Kulczycki, 1852–1936) was a veterinarian, zoologist, prominent mammal anatomist, professor, pro-rector and rector of the Academy of Veterinary Medicine in Lviv. From 1882 to 1934 he worked at the Lviv Academy of Veterinary Medicine, first as an assistant, then as a lecturer, and from 1906 as a professor, head of the Department of Descriptive Anatomy, Topography, Histology and Embryology (later, after changes, the Department of Comparative Anatomy). He also worked as a veterinarian at the Lviv Horse Tram Society, as a city veterinarian and as a veterinarian for controlling cattle and meat on the Lviv railroads. Kulchytsky’s scientific output comprises about 60 publications (brief research papers, studies and scientific articles, discussions, reviews, etc.) on topics ranging from zoology, mammal anatomy, and parasites of oriental carpets. A completely unknown part of Kulchytsky’s scientific biography was the hippiatric research conducted on the morbidity of locomotive transport animals. The statistics he compiled included, first and foremost, a list of diseases of tramway horses, taking into account pathological conditions directly related to the type of work performed. The documentation makes it possible to indicate the relationship between the work performed (norms and dimension of work), the city’s topography, the construction of the tramway infrastructure, and the morbidity of streetcar horses.

In 1796, Tsarina Catherine II dissolved the estates of the Kamieniec bishops. She bestowed the town of Zinkivtsi (Zinkowce), located adjacent to Kamieniec Podolski, upon Aleksandra Branicka. In the early 19th c., she was to commission an impressive neoclassical palace with a sprawling park spanning several hectares. The property was to be sold to Józef Bietkowski around 1850. However, a comprehensive analysis of eleven 18th- and 19th-century maps of the vicinity of Kamenets Podolski denies the creation of such an estate in Zinkivtsi. Furthermore, the copious published materials and archives related to the Branicki family, along with the comparatively sparse historical records of the Bietkowskis, fail to confirm the presence of the palace and park complex in Zinkivtsi.

In the 12th c., Kamień Pomorski became the capital of the diocese and the most important religious center in Western Pomerania. For centuries, within the cathedral walls, there was a library created by the canons, which was the foundation of their workshop and everyday pastoral work. In 1818, a significant part of the book collection came to Szczecin, and in 1822 it became the property of St. Mary’s Gymnasium in Szczecin (Marienstiftsgymnasium). As a consequence of World War II – despite efforts to secure the book collections – some of the books from Kamień Pomorski were dispersed among various institutions or were stolen. As a result, under unknown circumstances, they ended up in private hands and later in various libraries in Poland and abroad. The article presents the previously unknown post-war fate of several medieval manuscripts from the cathedral chapter in Kamień Pomorski, the history of which is closely connected to the famous foreign exchange smuggling scandal of the 1960s and 1970s. At the time of confiscation, these manuscripts were the property of Leon Dygas, one of the ten defendants and people sentenced in the trial.

The development of medical sciences in the 19th c. forced contemporary medical doctors to constantly improve their knowledge. The easiest way was to acquaint oneself with current problems presented in medical periodicals and book publications. Most of them were addressed to researchers. A deficit of such literature was observed in the further education for physicians practising in the provincial areas. In the partitioned areas, doctors relied on books written in German or French. This article presents the first Polish translation of the three-volume work titled Patologia i terapia szczegółowa (‘Pathology and Detailed Therapy’) and discusses the thematic focus of this publication. The three-volume edition initiated the process of developing Polish contributions in this field, heralded by the first entirely Polish textbook published in 1900 by Władysław Biegański titled Wykład o chorobach zaraźliwych, ostrych (‘Lecture on contagious, acute diseases’).

The article aims to present previously unpublished memoirs of mathematician Franciszek Leja, spanning the years 1885–1958 – from his birth to his participation in the International Congress of Mathematicians in Edinburgh. Leja recalls the childhood of a peasant son struggling with poverty, his education at the folk school in Grodzisk and the public school in Leżajsk. Then he describes his studies at a gymnasium in Jarosław and at the University of Lviv (Lwów). He recalls the difficult path to obtaining a doctorate and habilitation at a time when he had to balance his scientific studies with work in Galician junior high schools (1910–1924) and briefly describes his scholarship in France and England (1912/1913, scholarship from the Kretkowski Fund). The penultimate section consists of Leja’s recollections from a 12-year period of work at the Warsaw University of Technology, where he was a professor of mathematics at the Faculty of Chemistry, and when he took over the chair of mathematics at the Jagiellonian University in 1936 and then from his scientific visit to France, which took place on the eve of the war. The last, unfinished chapter was devoted to his recollections of the arrest of Jagiellonian University professors on 6 November 1939, his clandestine teaching during the war, and his post-war visits abroad. The memoirs are preceded by Leja’s short biography. Numerous footnotes were added, expanding and correcting the information provided in the original text and illustrations.

Karen ní Mheallaigh, The Moon in the Greek and Roman Imagination. Myth, Literature, Science and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2020 (Greek Culture in the Roman World), DOI 10.1017/9781108685726, ss. 322

Karen ní Mheallaigh’s study The Moon in the Greek and Roman Imagination (Cambridge 2020) aims to discuss how the Moon was present in ancient Greek culture, literature, and science. The subject is examined through the lens of literary studies, yet the author remains open to the perspectives offered by the history of science. The book analyzes the motif of the Moon in Greek literature and natural philosophy: myths, various opinions about its physical nature, deliberations about its inhabitants, and imaginary lunar journeys. The subjects addressed in the book are thoroughly examined in the context of the era. The author, however, does not define the scope of the book precisely and tacitly omits the Moon in Roman literature and the history of astronomy unless it relates to natural philosophy. She also makes groundless guesses about scientific instruments in antiquity and compares ancient literary fiction to modern scientific knowledge.