(From the description of Kraków by M. Merian)

The 20th IANLS Congress will be held in Kraków, the historic capital city of Poland. Wawel Hill, on which stands the Renaissance castle of Polish kings, bears traces of settlement since the Middle Palaeolithic, and the oldest structures testifying that it was a centre of local power date back to the 8th century. Kraków was granted the status of capital city in 1038, formally lost it in 1795, and de facto in 1596. The city’s historical and cultural significance, together with the beauty of its architecture and art, led to Kraków being designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site right at the very beginning of the creation of that status, in 1978.
In early modern times Kraków was the heart of a vast multinational, multilingual and multi-religious state. Using Latin as the lingua franca provided a platform of communication and contact between these various groups. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (Res Publica Utriusque Nationis) was established through the union of the Kingdom of Poland (Regnum Poloniae) and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (Magnus Ducatus Lithuaniae) in 1569 by the Union of Lublin, including the territories of present-day Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, province of Livonia (nowadays Latvia and part of Estonia), and parts of Russia and Slovakia, with Royal Prussia (Prussia Regalis), Ducal Prussia (Prussia Ducalis), and Courland as fiefdoms.
Referring to the ancient nomenclature of Ptolemy’s Cosmographia, Poland-Lithuania was called Sarmatia Europea, the name popularised through Maciej of Miechów’s Tractatus de duabus Sarmatiis Asiana et Europeana from 1517. The ethnogenetic myth of the Sarmatians, who were never defeated by the Romans, embodied the ideas of knighthood and liberty among the Commonwealth’s nobility. However, even if the Romans did not conquer them, their language certainly managed to do so. In fact, Latin was one of the forces that held together this very heterogeneous ‘noble nation,’ ‘chivalric nation’ (naród szlachecki, naród rycerski) which referred to itself as the Sarmatians. Latin was the language of parliamentary debate, on a par with Polish and Ruthenian (the language of the Lithuanian nobility). It was the language of education, religion and politics, but also of everyday life.
What was especially unique about the use of Latin was the fact that it was not only spoken by the aristocracy, lower nobility (which constituted 5 to 12% of the whole society) and clergy, but also by the other social classes, including the representatives of burghers, Jews, and some peasants in the service of the nobility or in the army.
The subject of the congress in Kraków is Respublica Latina. This title refers to the renaissance idea of respublica litteraria, a group of scholars, who, despite the ideological divisions of those turbulent times, were able to find a common language—the language of a distant civilisation—and built a new civilisation on the foundations of that culture. The Polish version of the title refers to the current name
of Poland, Rzeczpospolita Polska (rzecz pospolita is the archaic literal translation of the Latin res publica); it also alludes to the former Commonwealth, which brought together many nations, who were able to communicate in a common language – and this was often Latin. We also wish to remind Poles, Ukrainians, and Lithuanians of the Latin roots of their common culture, and to make them aware that a vast part of their literary heritage was written in that language. The finest of these works should find their way into the canon; others are still lying in old libraries, waiting to be rediscovered; and those already identified are awaiting study and publication.
An important role in shaping the elite of the state was played by the Kraków Academy, founded in 1364 by King Casimir the Great, and renewed as a university in 1400, owing to the donation made in the name of the late queen Jadwiga (Hedvige d’Anjou) by her husband, Władysław Jagiełło (Jogaila), a Lithuanian duke who became the King of Poland and started the Jagiellonian dynasty.
The university enjoyed its heyday in the 15th century. Every year around 200 new students were enrolled: Poles, Ruthenians, Lithuanians, Hungarians, Germans, Czechs, Swiss, English, Dutch, French, Italians, Spaniards, and even Tatars. The Academy was particularly well known for the study of law, mathematics, and astronomy. Among the professors of this age were brilliant mathematicians, astronomers and geographers, such as Marcin Król of Żurawica (Martinus Rex), Jan (Schiling) of Głogów, Wojciech (Albertus) of Brudzewo, Maciej of Miechów, or lawyers such as Paweł Włodkowic (Paulus Vladimiri). The famous Kraków School of Mathematics and Astrology released such renowned scientists as Mikołaj Kopernik (Nicolaus Copernicus), or Jan Brożek (Joannes Broscius).
The last three decades of the 15th century saw the dawn of humanism, which became apparent both in university’s curricula and in the development of literary life, initiated by incomers such as Filippo Buonaccorsi, Laurentius Corvinus, Leonard Cox or Konrad Celtis, who set up the Sodalitas Litteraria Vistulana, named after the Vistula (Wisła) River flowing through the city. Soon, local poets flourished, such as Paweł of Krosno (Paulus Crosnensis) and his pupils: Jan of Wiślica and Jan Dantyszek (Johannes Dantiscus) or Andrzej Krzycki (Andreas Cricius). Although in the 1500s, young Polish humanists were increasingly choosing Italian, German and other universities, they often began their studies at the Kraków Academy; among them there are such great Latinists as Klemens Janicki, Jan Kochanowski, Marcin Kromer, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, Stanisław Orzechowski, and Stanisław Hosius.
During the Renaissance, Kraków was a centre of printing. The first printing house was established here in 1473. In the second half of the 16th century there were a dozen printing presses in operation, publishing texts in Polish, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Ruthenian. The first books in the Cyrillic alphabet were printed here in the 1490s, and a number of Hebraic printing shops published books for Jewish communities.
The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth enjoyed a level of religious tolerance unprecedented in a Europe torn by religious wars; this tolerance was guaranteed by law under the “Warsaw Confederation” of 1573. The pax inter dissidentes was also reflected in the diversity of humanistic schools of various denominations. In 1544 a Lutheran university was established in Königsberg in Ducal Prussia. Dozens of humanistic colleges operated in the Commonwealth: Lutheran (a.o. Gdańsk, Toruń, Elbląg, and Vilnius), Calvinist (Pińczów, Vilnius, Slutsk), the Polish Brethren (Raków), or the Czech Brethren (Leszno). Most of the humanistic schools belonged to the Catholic tradition, like the Lubrański Academy in Poznań (1517), the Zamość Academy (1594), and the Nowodworski College in Kraków (1586). However, it was the Jesuit education system that became most widespread; the first colleges were founded in Braniewo (1564), Pułtusk (1566), Vilnius (1570, gaining the position of university in 1579), and Poznań (1575). By the end of the 16th c. there were 12 Jesuit colleges, in the mid-17th c., 40, and 66 in the 18th c. The second biggest Christian denomination in Poland-Lithuania was the Orthodox Church. From the 1570s onwards, the Orthodox established their colleges modelled on the Jesuit ones, the Orthodox Brotherhood schools (e.g. at Vilnius, Kyiv, Lutsk, Lviv). The most important Orthodox humanistic colleges were the Ostrog Academy (1580) and the Kyiv-Mohylean College in Kyiv (1632). After the union of a part of the Orthodox Church with the Catholics (as the result of the Union of Brest in 1596), the Uniates, a new east-Christian community, founded their own humanistic gymnasia (Vilnius, Polotsk, Vitebsk). The multitude of these diverse schools, scattered throughout the Republic, whose curricula were based on Latin language and literature, had a decisive influence on the spread of Latin amongst people of various national origins. To complete the picture, mention should be made of the numerous Jewish yeshivas in places such as Kraków, Lublin, Lutsk and Vilnius. Although the Jews studied in Hebrew, representatives of the Jewish parliaments in Poland and Lithuania used Latin and Polish in their written dealings with state authorities.

This diversity somewhat diminished the importance of the University of Kraków. Its greatest rival became the increasingly powerful University of Vilnius, to which the Lithuanians had flocked. However, the Jesuits also proved to be a threat to the University in its own city, as they sought to take control of education in Kraków; in effect, the whole 17th century was dominated by the struggle between the University and the Jesuits.
The 18th century saw a deep crisis of the country, scarred by wars and internal conflicts which were fuelled by neighbouring states seeking to divide the Polish territory amongst themselves; to the consequence was the three partitions in 1772, 1793, and 1795. However, the time of the Enlightenment brought a great reform of the Polish schooling system. The establishment of the Commission for National Education in 1773 ushered in a new epoch in the history of the Kraków University. Hugo Kołłątaj was appointed as the executor of the reforms and the rector who restructured the University during the years 1777–1786. It was only at this point that lectures in Polish were introduced, as Latin had previously been the language of instruction in both higher and secondary education.
After the third partition of 1795), Kraków came under Austrian rule. In 1805, it was united with the University of Lwów (Lviv) and germanised. Re-polonization followed in 1809, when Kraków was incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Warsaw created by Napoleon. After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Kraków attained the status of an independent city, in which the university professors enjoyed a considerable political influence. Following the dissolution of autonomy and the incorporation of Kraków into Austria (1846), the University was reorganised according to the Austrian model, and German again became the language of tuition.
In 1869, the era of Galician Autonomy began, marking the restoration of the Polish language in administration and education. The University became a bulwark of Polish identity for many students; from 1894 these included women, coming also from the territories belonging to Prussia and Russia. The last two decades of the 19th century saw a development of the humanities, with the establishment of the conservative Kraków School of History lead by Józef Szujski, focused on the Renaissance, as well as the Neo-Latin literature: the series Corpus antiquissimorum poetarum Poloniae latinorum was launched by Kazimierz Morawski in 1887.
After Poland regained its independence in 1918, the development of the Jagiellonian University continued. Each year, over 4,000 young men and women attended the University. The period of the Second World War was especially tragic. On 6 November 1939, the German authorities deceived nearly 180 professors of the Jagiellonian University into gathering in Collegium Novum, then brutally arrested them and deported them to concentration camps. Another group of scholars, captured as military officers by the Soviets, who invaded Poland on 17 September 1939, was executed by the order of Stalin in Katyń (1940). Yet, despite the University being closed down by the occupying forces, an underground education commenced in 1942 for approximately 800 students.
In 1945, over 5,000 students were enrolled at the University. Following the redrawing of the eastern border, many scholars from Lviv and Vilnius found refuge there, as well as those who could not return to Warsaw because of its destruction by the Nazis. The post-war period was also marked by difficult and tragic events, particularly during the Stalin era, when many prominent scholars (e.g. the philosopher Roman Ingarden) were stripped of their right to teach as part of political repressions.
Currently, the Jagiellonian University has 16 faculties, 15 interfaculty units and 14 research centres. In the academic year 2025/2026, more than 30,000 students were enrolled in bachelor’s and master’s degree programs, alongside 1,500 doctoral students. The university employs over 9,000 staff, including nearly 5,000 lecturers, making it the largest employer in the Małopolska region. The Jagiellonian University also engages in extensive cooperation with universities abroad.
Today, there are three main centres of Latin studies in Kraków: the Institute of Classical Philology deals with ancient Latin, Middle Latin is studied at the Department of Medieval Latin in the Polish Academy of Sciences, while the main Neo-Latin hub is to be found at the Faculty of Polish Studies, in particular the Chair of Old Polish Literature, the Chair of Comparative Literature, and the Chair of Editorship and Auxiliary Sciences. Moreover, the Renaissance Studies Centre and Terminus: The Journal of Early Modern Literature and Culture are both affiliated with the Faculty of Polish Studies. Neo-Latinists work also at the Institute of Italian Philology of the Jagiellonian University, as well as at
the UKEN University, and Ignatianum University in Kraków. The institutional organisers of the 20th congress of the IANLS are the Faculty of Polish Studies (Renaissance Studies Centre) and the Faculty of Philology (Department of Italian Philology).
Venite!