Ryszard Ergetowski – historyk nauki, bibliotekoznawca, badacz niemieckiej slawistyki

Abstract

Ryszard Ergetowski (3.04.1925–18.04.2005) was a university professor, a specialist in history of science and bibliology, an expert on the 19th century Polish-German scientific contacts and a researcher of the German Slavic studies of that period. After years of hard work, in spite of many painful experiences of the German occupation and the communist period, persecuted for constant refusal to join PZPR (the Polish United Workers’ Party), he managed to achieve his educational goals and reached the top of academic career. In 1970–1986 he worked in the PAN (Polish Academy of Sciences) Institute of History of Science and Technology in Wrocław; in 1981 he became the director of the Institute. In 1986 he began working in the Chair of Scientific Information and Library Science of Pedagogical University in Cracow. As a professor, he conducted classes in the history of science and the scientific research methodology, as well as gave monographic lectures. Being an active researcher, he wrote over 350 papers in Polish, German, Czech, and French (monographs, dissertations, studies, as well as reviews, reports, popular science articles and literary essays). He used to base his works on direct materials, found in queries in archives and libraries in Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland. The comparison method used in these works, elaborated by the Professor throughout years of scientific research, enabled introduction of many new significant aspects into the history of Polish and German science. In his scientific work Ryszard Ergetowski devoted a lot of attention to scientific and librarian activity of Jerzy Samuel Bandtkie. On the basis of rich epistolary material, collected over many years, Ergetowski wrote numerous works on the subject (Roczniki Biblioteczne 1964, 1967, Biuletyn Biblioteki Jagiellońskiej 1970, 1978, 1987, Kwartalnik Historii Nauki i Techniki 1985; collective works: K dějinam česko-slovensko-polských vědeckých styků, Praha 1989 and Joachim Lelewel – księgoznawca, bibliotekarz, bibliograf, Warszawa 1993) He also published a number of papers on the history of books and the history of Polish book collections abroad (Roczniki Biblioteczne 1970, 1978, 1987, 1994–1995). As a top-class scientist, he cooperated with many scientific institutions, e.g. Komisja Nauk Pedagogicznych PAN (PAN Committee on Pedagogical Sciences) in Cracow, Komitet Historii Nauki i Techniki PAN (PAN Committee on History of Science and Technology), Centralny Ośrodek Metodyczny Studiów Nauczycielskich (Methodological Centre for Pedagogical Studies), the Institute of Scientific Information and Library Science of the University of Wrocław, the Ossolińskis National Institute Library, Kleist-Gedenk und Forschungsstätte (Frankfurt an der Oder), Deutsches Polen Institut (Darmstat), Societas Jablonoviana (Leipzig), Berlin Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Slavisches Seminar (Freiburg), Seminar für Osteuropäische Geschichte (Heidelberg), Österreichisches Ost- und Südeuropa Institut (Vienna). For his achievements in the scientific field, in 1972 Ryszard Ergetowski was awarded the J.E. Purkyně Medal by the Czech-Polish Society of History of Medicine, in 1984 he received the Societas Jablonoviana Medal of the Karl-Marx University in Leipzig, and in 1988 he was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit.