Zamostia Academy

Zamostia Academy (Замостська or Замойська академія; Zamostska or Zamoiska akademiia; Polish: Akademia Zamojska). An institution of higher education founded in 1595 by Jan Zamoyski, chancellor of the Kingdom of Poland; located in Zamostia (Zamość), a city in the Kholm region. The academy was operated by Jesuits, but initially it had a secular program of studies. Talented scholars were recruited to the school, and for many years it was the best educational institution of its kind in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Seven chairs of study were established there: civil law, Polish law, moral philosophy, physics and medicine, logic and metaphysics, mathematics, and rhetoric. Additional courses included readings from the authors of antiquity, beginner's rhetoric, syntax, grammar, and orthography. The study of Latin, Greek, and Polish was compulsory. In addition to Poles, Lithuanians, Prussians, Livonians, and other foreigners, many Ukrainians (both Catholic and Orthodox) studied at the academy and later became prominent church or cultural leaders (figures of note include Sylvestr Kosiv, Isaia Kozlovsky-Trofymovych, and Kasiian Sakovych). After the death of its founder and benefactor in 1605, the academy lost its initial dynamism and became increasingly clerical in its orientation. In 1784 the Austrian government closed the academy and replaced it with a secondary school.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]