The University of Rome was founded on twentieth April 1303, with Bonifacio 8’s Papal Seal, creating a “Studium Urbis”. During the papal period there was no autonomous teaching of geography, even though geographical information and
concepts were studied. The Chair of Geography at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” was established on sixteenth october 1875, with Professor Giuseppe Dalia Vedova, a scholar with a background of Austrian culture, German Positivism and Friedrich Ratzel’s theories on the environment. Another great Italian geographer, Roberto Almagiá, become his successor as the head of the Institute of Geography.
This short historical introduction, relative to the Institute of Geography at the
University of Rome, seems to me to be particularly apt as the Institute of Geography, Jagiellonian Univeristy of Kraków, will be celebrating the hundred-and-fiftieth
anniversary of the first Polish Chair of Geography at the Jagiellonian University (1849-1999). We can furthermore remember that in Italy during the middle of the nineteenth century the knowledge of geography in Italian schools was really poor or at least limited to a simple description of lists and numbers, regarding places, towns, products… Geography, moreover, frequently appears to be associated with statistics which is considered an essential subject for economics, history and geography. The new ideas coming from the countries beyond the Alps, in particular Germany, were not easily made widespread over Italy, due to the lack of a sufficiently organic and organised geographical community as well as adequate schools.
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Having said this, in order to emphasise the importance of this anniversary for Polish geography, I would also like to remember the relationship between the two
geographical Institutes, begun in 1984 thanks to the work of Bronisław Kortus and Osvaldo Baldacci. Fifteen years of meetings and exchanges represent a really important patrimony, which I hope will be further consolidated in the near future. We can furthermore say with great satisfaction that the relationship between the two Institutes reacted positively to the general objectives of the University of Rome at the end of the 70s, giving rise to exchanges with other Universities in foreign countries.
The targets were the following - intensification of relations for the development of scientific research in specific fields and promotion of greater knowledge in the studies being carried out.
The visits of Osvaldo Baldacci to Kraków and Bronisław Kortus to Rome paved the way to reciprocal collaboration. The libraries and the research facilities were made available to everyone.
The main themes of study have up to now been: historical cartography; thematic cartography and mapping; methods of teledetection; land use mapping; fluvial
geomorphology, development and functions of the city-centres; reconstruction of the old central urban areas; geography of religions; pilgrimages in Italy and Poland;
thermal tourism, urban and industrial pollution.
All these themes have been discussed by several scholars; for the Institute of Kraków, besides Bronisław Kortus, we can remember Elżbieta Bilska, Zygmunt Górka, Jerzy Groch, Antoni Jackowski, Rajmund Mydel, Izabela Sołjan, Kazimierz Trafas, Włodzimierz Kurek. And for the Institute of Rome, along with Osvaldo Baldacci, there have been Gianfranco Bussoletti, Giovanni Calafiore, Gino De Vecchis, Emanuele Paratore. Giovanni Calafiore and Antoni Jackowski dealt the theme relative pilgrimage with in particular depth. Prof. Calafiore, following his two stays in Kraków, wrote an article on The religious function of the town of
Częstochowa, published in 1991 in a book in Osvaldo Baldacci’s honour. Further proof of the close collaboration between the geographers of the two Institutes can be seen by the facit that in this book articles appear, written by Antoni Jackowski (Les pélegrinages en Pologne comme le phénoméne spatial et social), Bronisław Kortus (Environmental impacts of industrialisation in Poland), and Kazimierz Trafas
(Giovanni A. Rizzi-Zannoni; the Author of the first detailed Map of Poland).
I would like to conclude this statement by making some considerations about my personal experience, which has been both in the way of studies and human
relations. My collaboration has been particularly intense with some geographers of Kraków, like Antoni Jackowski and Kazimierz Trafas.
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Over the years I have come to admire Bronisław Kortus, who as a friend has always given me precious advice for my research, right from our first meeting at the Institute of Kraków. The volume Kraków; spatial conflict and prospects of territorial
reorganisation (Pubblicazioni Istituto Geografia, 1987) came as a result of my first visit. My second visit to Kraków also gave rise to the publication of another piece of work, this time in an important Polish magazine (Folia Geographica, ser. Geogr. - Oeconomica) Agriculture and tourism; compatible resources for the mountains?
(Examples from Italy and Poland), (Kraków 1991). I have a particularly dear memory of my visit with Kortus to Zakopane and the Tatra Mountains.
But my collaboration with Kortus was particularly intense during our work in putting together the two volumes published by the Libera Universitá Maria Santissima Assunta in 1990, Europe in the teaching of geography in Italy (G.De Vecchis) and Europe in the teaching of geography in Poland (B. Kortus) and in 1991 The teaching of geography in a changing Europe (Ed. G.De Vecchis). A number of famous
scholars contributed to the latter in the field of didactics, such as N.J. Graves
(London), B. Kortus (Kraków), F. Probáld (Budapest) and Arnošt Wahla (Ostrava). I would like to end by just mentioning another moment of collaboration, wich was particularly significative for me, and that is the contribution to the volume in Bronisław Kortus honour, with the article The teaching of geography in Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius), “Geografia. Człowiek. Gospodarka”, Kraków, Instytut Geografii Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 1997.
It is to be hoped this partrimony continue to grow, also with the participation of young lecturers. This is the message that I send along with my best wishes for a
prosperous and productive future for your Institute of Geography.
Prof. Dr. Gino De Vecchis
Universitá degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”
Istituto di Geografia, Roma
1.12.1. Kraków-Rzym: owocna współpraca na polu geografii, Streszczenie
Uniwersytet Rzymski został założony w 1303 r. przez papieża Bonifacego 8, zaś Katedra Geografii została powołana w 1875 r. Współpraca naukowa między Instytutami Geografii Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego i Uniwersytetu Rzymskiego rozpoczęła się w 1984 r. dzięki inicjatywie i aktywności dr. Kazimierza Trafasa, prof.
Bronisława Kortusa i prof. Osvaldo Baldacci.
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Następnie włączyli się do współpracy inni pracownicy ze strony obu Instytutów.
W dotychczasowym piętnastoletnim okresie głównymi tematami współpracy były:
użytkowanie ziemi, geomorfologia fluwialna, rozwój i funkcje starych centrów urbanistycznych, geografia religii, ośrodki pielgrzymkowe w Polsce i we Włoszech, funkcjonowanie uzdrowisk, zanieczyszczenie środowiska, a ponadto kartografia
historyczna i tematyczna oraz dydaktyka geografii. W tym ostatnim temacie Autor ceni sobie szczególnie współpracę z prof. B. Kortusem. Rezultatem dwustronnych wizyt studialnych i kontaktów naukowych jest szereg (cytowanych) publikacji geografów krakowskich i rzymskich we Włoszech i w Polsce.
Autor wyraża nadzieję na dalszą owocną współpracę między obu Instytutami Geografii oraz przekazuje życzenia dalszego pomyślnego rozwoju dla Instytutu Geografii Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego.
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