Słownik biograficzny botaników polskich na tle dziejów polskiej biografistyki specjalistów z zakresu nauk o roślinach

Modern Polish botanical biographical research started with a biography of Carl Linnaeus in Stanisław Bonifacy Jundziłł’s Opisanie roślin (Description of Plants, 1791). Subsequent biographies of botanists can be found in various publications, such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, monographs, journals, and anniversary publications (broadly understood), among others. The largest dictionary, which began in the interwar period and continues to be published, is the Polski Słownik Biograficzny (Polish Biographical Dictionary). The 55 volumes published to date contain entries for over 28,500 individuals, including several hundred botanists. In the Słownik biologów polskich (Dictionary of Polish Biologists, 1987), there are over a thousand entries, of which 350 are devoted to botanists. A dozen or so botanists have entire monographs dedicated to them, and numerous biographical notes have been published in journals, though estimating their exact number is difficult. The largest collection was published in “Wiadomości Botaniczne” (“Botanical News”) (about 1,020 entries from 1987 to 2023). The Słownik biograficzny botaników polskich (Biographical Dictionary of Polish Botanists) was prepared as part of a grant from the National Program for the Development of Humanities in Poland. It contains 1,773 biographical entries with a standardized structure (e.g. basic information, education, career, achievements). The list of entries was available online, allowing anyone to check the progress of the work, report missing names, and correct any identified errors. The biographies were written by specialists. The Biographical Dictionary of Polish Botanists, with its extensive list of entries of standardized structure, serves as a summary of 230 years of botanical biographical research in Poland.