learned Scots in Poland (from the mid-sixteenth to the close of the eighteenth century), The

Canadian Slavonic Papers, Mar 2001 by Anna Bieganska

Johnston contributed significantly to Polish science by his original observations of nature. He was the author of the first handbook on dendrology. It is worth mentioning that he prepared 137 lengthy tables for his botany and zoology works. In medicine he is regarded as one of the fathers of mycology. As one of the royal physicians in Poland, Johnston neither accepted the post of a court physician offered him by the Elector of Brandenburg, Friedrich Wilhelm (1640-1688), nor the university chairs offered him at Deventer, Frankfurt an der Oder, Heidelberg and Leiden.26

Out of scores of persons who busied themselves with healing of the sick, at least one deserves to be mentioned. During the plague that raged in Cracow in the years 1677-1679, John Scot, a barber, became a leader of a group fighting the epidemic. While caring for Cracow's "untouchables," he discovered symptoms of the disease on the basis of post-mortem examinations, and eventually managed to localize the spread of infection. To reward Scot's meritorious service, the town authorities granted him a decent pension and honorary citizenship, while the surgeons accepted him as a member of their guild. On acquiring these honours and privileges, Scot was exempted from the payment of all taxes.27

History was another sphere of interest for several Scots in Poland. The above-mentioned Johnston compiled works of a number of authors and, in his books, presented a wide span of epochs and subjects, among them a two-part textbook for students on general history entitled: Horae subcisivae seu rerum toto orbe... gestarum idea (Leszno, 1639). Thus, it is not surprising that he named himself "polyhistor," and that he was also regarded as such by his contemporaries.

The historiography of Elblag was the passion of the Ramsays. Charles (1576-1650) and Janotta Duncan arrived in Gdansk from Dundee in 1591 to work for James Gellentin. At the age of twenty-nine Charles started to trade on his own in Elblag; in 1614 he was granted citizenship rights as a merchant. The family members were closely bound to the town, where they prospered and held the highest municipal offices.

His son Charles (1616-1669), designated later as senior of the historiographers, gained an exemplary education. In order to acquire fluency in the Polish language, he studied in Vilnius, Torun and Gdansk. In 1633 he went to Scotland and England for one year. In 1636 he enrolled at Jagiellonian University in Cracow for nine trimesters and eventually spent the period from 1638 to 1644 in England, France, Italy and Austria, studying law for four years. The sojourn in such centers of learning and art as Leiden, Rome, Vienna, Siena, Florence, Naples, Bologna and Venice, set a deep imprint on developing his interests in the humanities, particularly in history. When he returned to Elblag, he established himself there, received citizenship rights in 1648 and until his death took an active part in the political life of the town. Being closely tied to Elblag, Charles devoted his works to its history since 1229. The body of them comprised "Kurze Elbingsche Chronica," "Elbingensia" and "Collectanea Elbingensia." Only "Beschreibung des Hockerlands," along with his curriculum vitae and some titles of his manuscripts, were published in volume III of Acta Borussica (Konigsberg [Kaliningrad]-Leipzig, 1772).