Professor Marcin Wadowita (1567 – 1641), an Example of a Brilliant Academic Career in Old Kraków
Professor Marcin Wadowita (1567 – 1641), an Example of a Brilliant Academic Career in Old Kraków

Summary/Abstract: The paper portrays the academic career of an exquisite Cracovian professor Marcin Wadowita (1567 and 1641). He was born in a small town of Wadowice . In his youth he used to look after pigs but towards the end of his life he was one of the most acknowledged scholars in Cracow, holding a function of the Dean of the Department of Theology and vice chancellor at the University of Cracow. When he died, the whole city mourned him. The University of Cracow at that time was undergoing a period of stagnation. Permanent lack of financial resources was making itself painfully felt. Additionally, the well-being of the University was constantly threatened by the Jesuit schools. Notwithstanding all the hardships, however, there appeared some exceptional scientific personalities, such as Wadowita, who managed to raise admiration of such figures as Pope Clement VIII. The author, discussing Wadowita’s academic career, will present it against a broader background of functioning of the academic environment in Cracow in the 2nd half of the 16th and the 1st half of the 17th century.

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