Introduction

It is commonly known that the revival of natural sciences in the early modern period spread as far as Eastern Europe and, in particular, Poland. In the field of astronomy, for example, there is no need to further elaborate on the legacy of Nicolaus Wodka (1442–1494), Georgius Drohobich de Rus (1450–1494), Johannes Muller (1436–1476), Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) or Johannes Hevelius (1611–1687). This background provides an opportunity to investigate the framework of intercultural enrichment and also to examine the state of Polish sciences at this time in the context of East and West. The Eastern borders of early modern Poland would have had contact with both other Slavic cultures (e.g. Ruthenian) as well with the Ottomans; one may acknowledge real traces of Eastern Orthodox and even Islamic cultures in pre-modern Poland. In addition, one may detect a broader context of intercultural influences related to more distant civilizations, such as the Arabic world. This last point is important for, as some recent studies have stated, the influence of Arabic sciences. It did not cease during the late Middle Ages, but rather continued to have influence Europe in the late fifteenth and the sixteenth centuries, during the so-called ‘post-classical period of Islamic philosophy’.

In many historical sources, we can see that such traces were not viewed as ‘foreign sciences’, but had a distinctive value.