Maciej Miechowita – polski pionier państwoznawstwa

Maciej of Miechów, also referred to as Miechowita, was a Polish historian, geographer and physician, living at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. The aim of the article is to present the achievements of Maciej of Miechów in the sphere of state studies, which, along with political arithmetic, led to the formation of statistics as an independent scientific discipline. The authors traced the life path of the scholar and described those of his works that included elements of state studies: the second and third chapter in Book One of The Chronicle of the Poles and The Treatise on the Two Sarmatias of Asia and Europe. The authors also point out the manifestations of Miechowita’s charitable activities.