Irena Kwilecka (1925–2022)

Abstrakt

Irena Reślińska (Kwilecka) was the eminent expert in the fields of Polish philology, linguistic and religiosity. Born in environs of Kalisz (in Great Poland), she studied Polish philology and sociology in Poznań in the years 1948–1952, and first was appointed as assistant at the University until 1964, and then in Department of Slavistics  (Zakład Słowianoznawstwa) of Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Bohemian Studies. Her teachers and mentors were Stanisław Urbańczyk and Stefan Vrtel-Wierczyński. In 1952 she married Andrzej Kwilecki (1928–2019) – later the famous sociologist. She received her PhD in 1964, habilitation in 1970, the title of professor in 1990, and she retired in 1996. The most important achievements of I. Kwilecka were: the discovery in 1955 of the manuscript inheritance of polish writer and predicant Thomas of Zbrudzewo (*ca 1500, † 1567), the discovery of Latin-Polish Dictionary of Bartholomew of Bydgoszcz ( *ca 1480, † 1548) – both these important sources to linguistic and religious life in Poland on the eve of modern era were the subject of numerous studies of Kwilecka and her team. She died in the middle of 2022.