The Enlightenment Museum as a Result of the Development of Education: The Case of the Musaeum Polonicum

Abstract

The article presents the concept of the Musaeum Polonicum, developed in 1775 and published in the magazine Zabawy Przyjemne i Pożyteczne. Its author, Michał Jerzy Wandalin Mniszech (1748–1806), was an intellectual educated in the spirit of the European Enlightenment, involved in the scientific, cultural and political life of the Republic of Poland. He planned the museum as a didactic base for the academy of sciences and arts. The collection was to have a distinct national character, with educational and research functions. It was divided into groups corresponding to the Enlightenment classification of sciences. In the history of Polish museology, the Musaeum Polonicum was the first initiative to establish a national museum, although the project was ultimately not implemented.The research methodology was based on the classical historical approach of studying source texts, while taking into account the research perspectives of contemporary museological discourse. Archival materials representing two thematic groups were analysed: early museological texts which applied in the cultural area of the Republic of Poland in the second half of the eighteenth century, and texts related to Polish education and schooling. The results of these analyses are set in a European context. The aim of the article is to introduce a new research perspective to historical museology and the history of collecting. Its main assumption concerns the treatment of Enlightenment museums as a result of the development of education.