Marcin Poczobut

The medal in honour of Marcin Poczobutt (1728-1810) was commissioned by King Stanisław August Poniatowski (1764-1795) in 1775. It was made by Jan Filip Holzhaeusser (1741-1792), one of the most prominent medallists of the time. The work is part of the custom introduced by the monarch to honour people of merit for the country. Apart from stimulating aesthetic sensations, medals were intended to strengthen the recipients in their virtues and promote the desired social norms. The didactic function of art in the enlightened times of King Stanisław also included the intention to form citizens aware of the good of their homeland.

Before becoming famous in the field of astronomy and gaining recognition as an educational reformer and poet, Marcin Poczobutt, after entering the Jesuit order (1745), was educated in Prague (1754-1756), studying Greek, mathematics, and astronomy, which he further studied, between 1760 and 1764, in Germany, France, and Italy. Upon returning to Poland in 1764 he became a professor of mathematics and astronomy at the Jesuit-run Vilnius Academy. A year later he took over the management of the local astronomical observatory, which in 1770-1772 he reconstructed and equipped with equipment imported from Great Britain. His observations of Mercury were used to calculate orbits and to create maps of the planets. In 1767, already as a royal astronomer, he started to make accurate maps of the Commonwealth, using e.g. measurements of solar and lunar eclipses. From 1770 he was a member of the Royal Society of London. In the mid-1770s he dedicated the constellation of sixteen celestial bodies that he had studied to King Stanisław August, calling it Poniatowski’s Bull (Latin: Taurus Poniatovii).

The obverse of the medal in question shows a half-figure of the scholar in monastic dress in the right profile, surrounded by a Latin inscription, translated as: “Marcin Poczobutt, astronomer to the King of Poland, member of the Royal Society in London, born in 1728”. On the reverse side we see astronomical instruments - a globe, a telescope, a compass - and a book with the scholar's monogram, with a Latin inscription above, translated as: “Thus rises to the stars”, and a royal dedication at the bottom, translated as: “To fame well deserved presented by King Stanisław August 1775”.

Tomasz Markiewicz