Nowa propozycja periodyzacji dziejów botaniki w Polsce
A New Proposal for the Periodization of the History of Botany in Poland

Summary/Abstract: Periodization is used to divide a given branch of science into shorter, relatively homogeneous periods. In the first part of the present work, several previous periodizations of the history of botany in Poland are analyzed. The periodization by Stanisław Bonifacy Jundziłł (1761–1847), a clergyman, botanist, and later a botany professor at the University of Vilna (Vilnius), was based on political events, such as the beginnings of the reign of kings, as well as events related to the organization of science in Poland. Franciszek (Franz) Herbich (1791–1865), a military doctor and botanist, proposed two eras in the history of botany in Galicia (part of Poland under Austrian rule). He based the demarcation of these epochs on the activity of Willibald Besser (1784–1842), an eminent botanist working in Galicia. Josef Armin Knapp (1843–1899), a member of the Physiographic Commission of the Scientific Society of Kraków, distinguished five periods on the basis of events in the history of botany in Poland. Bolesław Hryniewiecki (1875–1963), professor of systematics and phytogeography at the University of Warsaw as well as a keen historian of botany, was the author of several periodizations. In the periodization proposal of 1927, he distinguished five periods, in the proposal of 1933 – six periods, and in the proposal of 1948 – only three ones. His proposals were based mainly on political events. Władysław Szafer (1886–1970), one of the most outstanding Polish botanists of his time, co-author of the project of nature protection in the world, who was interested in the history of botany, published his own attempt at periodization. He divided the history of botany in Poland into 10 periods, which were not distinguished on the basis of a uniform criterion. Zdzisław Kosiek (1920–1997), a historian of agriculture and long-time director of the Main Library of the Agricultural University in Kraków, divided the history of botany in Poland into five periods on the basis of political events. All the above proposals were based on criteria mostly unrelated to the history of the plant science in Poland, like the reign of kings, political events abroad, political events in Poland, or foreign events in science.

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