Przyczynek do historii nauki i kultury polskiej, czyli o odnalezionych archiwaliach Józefa Rostafińskiego (1850-1928)

Abstract

In 1883, Jozef Rostafinski 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, Rostafinski wanted to obtain source material concerning the customs 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 Rostafinski’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 Wilczynski of Lviv. Among the recovered archives of Rostafinski there are responses to the Appeal as well as other documents, e.g. letters by Fr. Pawel Smolikowski CR and Jan Karlowicz, which will be mentioned in the paper.