Professor Piotr Węgleński, who died on January 19, 2024 studied and worked at the University of Warsaw – at the Faculty of Biology and later at the Center for New Technologies. He was a member of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the vice-rector and later the rector of the University of Warsaw. He was responsible for introducing genetic engineering to Poland. He was a great boss – that is what we always called him – and a great academic teacher and was very active in popularizing science.

Andrzej Białynicki-Birula, Professor at the University of Warsaw died on April 19, 2021 at the age of 85. He was an outstanding mathematician, who made important contributions to algebra and algebraic geometry. He published many important articles in most prestigious journals such that Annals of Mathematics, Inventiones mathematicae, Topology, American Journal of Mathematics. Professor Białynicki graduated from the University of Warsaw and obtained Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1960. After his return to Poland he initiated and played a major role in modernization of research and university curricula in a broad spectrum of mathematical disciplines related to algebra. He has published several textbooks on linear algebra, algebra, algebraic geometry and cryptography, which are currently used at the University of Warsaw and many other Polish universities. Professor Białynicki-Birula served as the dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics (1977–1981) and as the vice-rector of the University of Warsaw (1985–1987). He was an ordinary member of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and a member of the Academia Europea. In recognition of his achievements Professor Białynicki-Birula received several prizes and distinctions, among them the Officers Cross of the Order Polonia Restituta. Professor Białynicki-Birula was also an art collector, particularly interested in a gothic sculpture, on which he was an expert. In his summerhouse near Belorussian border he was renovating and collecting ethnographic objects related to everyday life and work of peasants. He left a wife, Magdalena Borsuk-Białynicka, a professor of palaeontology, two daughters, a son and 11 grandchildren.

The authors of this paper examine the ancient concepts of translatio, imitatio and aemulatio. The text goes over some problems of the heritage of antiquity and its reception in European culture of the early modern period. These questions were discusssed during the international conference “Heredes et scrutatores. Attitudes towards Antiquity in the Renaissance and in the Early Modern Period”, which was held on 19–20 May 2016 at the University of Warsaw. It celebrated the 200th anniversary of classical studies at this university. The conference seeked to explore the changing attitudes towards the heritage of classical antiquity in post-classical European culture. The scholars participating in the meeting tried to (re)examine the diversity of these attitudes in the period between the Late Middle Ages and Early Modern Times and to reflect on a number of related problems, among which were the theoretical viewpoints that had been suggested to describe this diversity. One of them, which gave its name to this conference, distinguishes between two general approaches: that of the “users”, concentrated on adapting the classical legacy by means of procedures inherited from the ancient Romans, and that of the “researchers”, which replaced the former procedures with ones typical of scholarly cognition. The participants discussed theoretical issues and concrete cases illustrating the ways that the intellectuals of the Renaissance and Early Modern Times approached the Greek and the Roman legacy. The connections between past and present attitudes towards antiquity have also been be the subject of the debate.

The Faculty of Theology of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw is endowed with rich history. It existed at the Royal University of Warsaw, established in 1816.

It operated until the University was closed in 1831; then its activity was continued at the Main Seminary (1823–1835), and fi nally at the Roman-Catholic Clerical Academy (1835–1867). The Theological Faculty came into being again at the University of Warsaw in 1918. Aft er the World War II, the faculty became active in 1945, in 1954 it became part of the Academy of Catholic Theology and since 1999 it has been included into the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University. The achievements of the faculty are important, it has employed many eminent theologians and instructed thousands of graduates. Its merits for the Church and Polish culture are not to be neglected.

The following scientific grades in theology were awarded at the Theological Faculty of the Academy of Catholic Theology (1954–1999): 85 professional bachelor’s degrees, 4853 master’s degrees, 762 canonical licentiates, 313 doctor’s degrees, 92 nostrifications of doctorates and 89 post-doctoral degree.

The following scientific grades in theology have been awarded at the Th eological Faculty of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University (from 1 October 1999 to 16 June 2008): 3916 bachelor’s degrees, 5718 master’s degrees, 1315 canonical licentiates, 299 doctor’s degrees, 71 nostrifications of doctorates, 45 post-doctoral degrees and 23 professor’s degrees in theology. In addition, the Institute of Studies of the Family has awarded 1733 master’s degrees in studies of the family.

Nowadays, the Theological Faculty of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University is composed of six institutes: Institute of Theology, Institute of Media Education and Journalism, Institute of the Studies of Culture, Institute of Theology in Radom, Institute of Apostleship Theology, Institute of Studies of the Family. The Theological Faculty includes as well the Non-local Didactical Centre in Gdynia. Three clerical seminaries are affiliated at the Theological Faculty: Higher Clerical Seminary in Płock, Gdańsk Clerical Seminary in Gdańsk-Oliwa, Higher Clerical Seminary of Catholic Apostleship in Ołtarzew. The following institutions are bound with the Faculty of Theology of the Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University with the cooperation agreement: Archdiocese Clerical Seminary in Białystok, Higher Clerical Seminary in Łódź, Higher Clerical Seminary in Łomża, Franciscan Higher Clerical Seminary in Łódź-Łagiewniki, Higher Clerical Seminary of the Salesian Society in Ląd nad Wartą, Higher Clerical Seminary of the Salesian Society in Łódź.

Professor Henryk Bogdan Samsonowicz was born on 23rd of January 1930 in Warsaw in the family of a known University of Warsaw professor, geologist Jan Samsonowicz (1888–1959) and Henryka Samsonowicz nee Korwin Krukowska (1892–1987). He graduated in history at the Department of Humanity of the University of Warsaw, presenting a master's thesis on the policy of Gdańsk in the second half of the 14th century, written on a seminar by Marian Małowist. Professors Witold Kula and Aleksander Gieysztor have also played an important role in Henryk Samsonowicz's intellectual development, and later, during his stay in France, professor Fernandel Braudel. In 1954 he has defended his doctor's thesis, and in 1960 received his postdoctoral qualifications based on the famous work “ Studies of the patrician capital of Gdańsk in the 2nd half of the 15th century”. The academic interests of professor Henryk Samsonowicz have initially focussed on the history of the Hanseatic League, and later — on the importance of myth in history and on the beginnings of the Polish state in the 10th century. In his scientific work he has created a new model of historical narration, which combines various aspects of political, economic and cultural life in one whole. He has published over a thousand reviews, articles and dissertations in print. He has occupied a series of important positions he was, among others, a dean of the Department of History of the University of Warsaw; during the times of “Solidarity” he was appointed as the Chancellor of the University of Warsaw. In 1989 he became the Minister for the National Education in the first non-communist government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki. He was an acclaimed organiser of popularisation of historical knowledge in Poland.

Born and died in Warsaw. Irena Wojnar started studying the humanities during World War II, at the clandestine University of Warsaw. Between 1946 and 1949 she continued her studies at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Warsaw, in the so-called Seminar of Pedagogy II. In 1949 she was formally employed at the University and remained there until her death. Between 1958 and 1960, as a holder of the Ford Foundation scholarship, she studied at the University of Paris (Sorbonne), where she defended her doctoral dissertation “Situation actuelle de la jeunesse par rapport a l'art”. She did her fellowship and obtained habilitation at the University of Warsaw in 1965. In 1976 she became an associate professor and in 1985 a professor. From 1967 to 2004, prof. Wojnar headed the Laboratory and afterwards the Department of the Theory of Aesthetic Education at the Faculty of Pedagogy of the University of Warsaw. Professor Irena Wojnar was a member of the Committee on Pedagogical Sciences at the Polish Academy of Sciences (1976–2012, since 2016 an honorary member), the Prognosis Committee “Poland 2000 Plus” at the Presidium of the Polish Academy of Sciences (1970–2011, since 2011 an honorary member). Professor Irena Wojnar is an author of almost 300 publications: monographs, edited and co-edited collections, scripts, anthologies, translations and scientific articles. She promoted more than 400 MA and 29 PhD works.