At the end of the eighteenth century the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (formally the Kingdom of Poland and the Great Duchy of Lithuania) was one of the largest European countries with a multiethnic population, relative religious freedom and political system that pioneered the modern concepts of democracy. The Commonwealth disappeared in 1795 when Austro-Hungary, Prussia and Russia partitioned its territory. At that time, many Poles  settled in Lithuania. From 1803, the University in Vilnius with Polish as an important lecture language became a magnet for Polish scholars and students.

This website focuses on the development and professionalization of medicine in nineteenth-century Vilnius and is based on surveys of the archival records and the library holdings in Vilnius, Cracow, Poznan and Warsaw. Moreover, an influence of multiethnic (but dominated by Poles) society on the development of culture and academic researches in nineteenth-century Vilnius is presented.

Far away from Poland, hundreds of thousands of Polish archival records and manuscripts are kept in archives and libraries. They are partly forgotten, maybe even doomed to oblivion. The website reminds about this interesting, important and unique Polish national heritage in Lithuania.

The website was prepared in the Department of History of Medical Sciences, Poznan University of Medical Sciences (ul. Przybyszewskiego 37A, 60-346 Poznań, Poland, tel. +48 (0) 61 8547242, e-mail: wojtasz88@gmail.com).