Resumen de The dissolution of the Society of Jesus and its influence on the development of mathematical and natural sciences education in the Principal School of the Realm in Cracow

Józef Piłatowicz, Katarzyna Maksymiuk

• The new model of Polish education was designed by the Komisja Edukacji Narodowej (KEN). The Commission, established in 1773, was the first ministry of education in Europe. It dealt not only with problems related to the learning–teaching process, but also promoted scientific development.

  The present analysis is an attempt at examining the process of implementation of the Enlightenment-based education system in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the second half of the eighteenth century. The main research objective is to answer the question whether the education reform introduced by the KEN could have a long-lasting influence on the education system in Central and Eastern Europe.

  The authors work on the thesis that the reform was possible due to the pope’s decision to dissolve the Society of Jesus, whose property was a sine qua non of the education reform, as it provided the reformers with funds necessary to introduce changes. The author raises the question whether qualifications of the scholars working there at that time were suitable to conduct research in the field of natural-mathematical sciences. This was necessary to educate a highly-qualified, “technical” elite of the society.