Szkoły pałacowe w XVIII wieku. Rekonesans

Abstract

The article asks the question whether it is possible to use the term "palace schools" with regard to the second half of the 18th century. Since reformed and respected Piarist and Jesuit schools already existed at the time and they were soon to join the Commission of National Education schools educating noble elites' youth, it may be difficult to distinguish between these two types of schools. They represented various cultural environments and were usuaIly connected with magnates' courts, which attracted youth seeking education and advancement. The term "palace school" is most often used in connection with Charlemagne and Aachen, the Sultan's court in Istanbul, Piast-era Poland and the courts of Władysław Herman and Bolesław Wrymouth (11th-12th century); and in the Polish -Lithuanian Commonwealth - with the Renaissance courts of Bishops Piotr Tomicki and Stanislaus Hosius (16th century). However, apart from smaII private schools formed ad hoc for the education of magnates' children, the 18th century also saw several initiatives of a greater scope, carefulIy planned and intended to provide a large group of nobles' children with thorough education. Aside from the Radziwiłł foundation in Nieśwież, which was characteristic of a knights' academy, an educational institution which can be caIIed a palace school existed in Puławy. It was founded by Adam Kazimierz Czartoryski and his wife Izabela, nee Flemming in the 1770s, and it provided education for several generations of boys and girls. Another educational centre could be found in Rydzyna, where the Sułkowski family founded several schools, one of which was run by Piarists and closely cooperated with elite palace schools for boys and girls, mostly for Sułkowski family members. The third, least known and probably least coherently organised educational centre was formed at the court of Krakow Bishop Kajetan Sołtyk, who first recruited his nephews to join him in his Kielce paIace and forced them and their parents to accept his own educational model. After his return from captivity in Russia, the Bishop gathered a group of nobIe youth whose educationaI needs he intended to provide as well as create a schooI and empIoy teachers for the Iatter. These exampIes do not exhaust the subject but they are meant to draw attention to a Iargely uninvestigated issue.