This article concerns the conditions for the institutionalization of open academic debate. The author focuses on the changes that have occurred over time in the seminar’s place in academic practice. She describes three types of seminars, from various eras in university history. In each case, the bases for the institutionalization of academic discussion were generally-held convictions as to what knowledge is and how it should be sought. Seminars legitimized academic debate. The examples provided—of the medieval university, Humboldt’s university, and the so-called entrepreneurial university—have various sources of legitimation: religion, the authority of scholarship, or the economic ‘usefulness’ of science (devoid of other authority). The author attempts to show that the sources of legitimation are reflected in the forms of the seminar’s institutionalization: the composition of the participants, the conversational rules (its public or closed character), and the transparency of academic knowledge.

This article presents the results of research on carbonate rock samples taken from Triassic sediments of the northern area of Chorzów City. The aim of the research was to identify the mineral phases of these rocks, especially carbonate phases. The rocks from the roof part of the Bundsandstein profile and floor part of the Muschelkalk profile - Gogolin Beds - are typical sediments from the northern part of Chorzów City. These rocks were mined in the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century. The article also presents the results of research on samples of carbonate rocks taken from investigated strata. It provides a Petrographic description, the results of microscopic analysis executed in polarized, transmitted light, X-ray analysis, and microprobe measurements using a scanning microscope. The results of these analyses showed that dolomites dominate in the Bunsandstein strata. Dolomites (The sampled rocks?) are composed mainly of dolomite, but sparry calcite was also identified. Moreover, quartz, clay minerals, muscovite and iron minerals were observed in the Bundsandstein rocks. The Muschelkalk sedimentsare mainly represented by limestone. In some areas, conglomerates were also found. The conglomerates are composed of carbonate rock boulders connected by carbonate cement. Two generations of calcite were observed while investigating the limestone. The first generation calcite is micritic, and the second generation calcite forms sparry crystals different in size and shape. In some areas of the sparry calcite it is possible to observe perfect rhobohedral cleavage. Moreover, dolomite, rhodohrosite, and noncarbonate minerals like quartz, muscovite, and clay minerals were identified. The results of microscopic analysis also showed that the limestone is different in texture. The limestone presents the following textures: biomorphic, detrical, sparry, microsparry and micritic.

The collections of the Kórnik Library include a copy of a printed Mszał gnieźnieński [Gniezno Missal] of 1555, protected by a binding with characteristic architectural decoration. Detailed analysis shows that the binding was made between 1558 and 1566 in a workshop of an anonymous bookbinder from Poznań, thus confirming the presence of the Italian thread in the Poznań bookbinding ornamentation of the Renaissance period. At the same time, it is the latest known example of Polish renaissance architectural binding. It also provides evidence that although this characteristic composition formula appeared in the repertoire of the Poznań bookbinders about twenty years later than in Kraków, it lasted longer.

Worthy of attention is also the volume’s provenance related to Stanisław Warszewicki – his being “the most influential figure of the [Jesuit] Order after Skarga” in Poland. He is commemorated by a supralibros with Kuszaba coat-of-arms and the sigles “S V C P” pressed into the centre of the bottom part of the binding.