Król Stanisław August jako członek zagranicznych, akademii i towarzystw naukowych, Gdańsk 2003, s. 32, il.

SUMMARY

King Stanislaus Augustus as a member of foreign academies and royal societies.

The household of S.A. was a great centre of intellectual life. The king was a member of a few academies and scholars societies. A circle of friendly scholars made international scientific relations easier as well as patronized other scholars. S. A. also made efforts to bring the Academy of Sciences into being in Warsaw. Unfortunately the project was not accomplished because of the lack of funds. The King, a member of Royal Society in London since December 11th 1766, contributed to the connections among the Royal Society and many scholars from Poland. He recommended new members of Royal Society : Marcin Poczobut, Tadeusz Burzyński, Jan Komarzewski. The king corresponded with various members of the Royal Society, for example with M. Maty, A. Aubert, W. Herschel or J. R. Forster.

Król Stanisław August jako opiekun nauk i sztuk (Smuglewicz, ok. 1765)

In 1777 on the occasion of making the King a new member of St. Petersburg Academy, he was sent publications on geography and philosophy. The Polish King used his new academic degree to stimulate the scientific collaboration, mostly in the field of geography and cartography. He visited the St. Petersburg Academy in May 1797. S. A. was also in contact with the Academy of Sciences in Berlin (he was its member since October 6th 1792). The king tried to convince J. H. Formey, a Secretary of the Academy to publish a world scientific directory. The king owned in his library numerous academic publications from London, St. Petersburg, Berlin and Paris. S. A. also contributed to make scientific connections with the Paris Academy which corresponding members were : Marcin Poczobut, Andrzej Strzecki and Jan Jaśkiewicz. In 1766 a member of Academy in St. Petersburg, Berlin, London, a famous mathematician, Leonard Euler came to Warsaw. He made acquaintance with the king's cartographer Charles Herman de Perthees. Euler corresponded with the Polish king through the next decade. He was also very sympathetic to the work of the Scientific Society in Gdansk.