The origins of the Department of the History of Old Polish Literature at the Faculty of Polish Studies, Jagiellonian University, date back to the late 18th century. In 1782, Studium Generale in Cracow, or the today’s Jagiellonian University, launched a department of literature (also referred to as “the department of elocution”), which in fact carried out studies in and teaching of poetics and Latin rhetoric. Thus, a continuity of a tradition that originated yet in the 15th century was maintained because a department of grammar and rhetoric was established at the University of Cracow as early as in 1406. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the Department of the History of Polish Literature was part of the Faculty of Philosophy, later of the Faculty of Humanities, and since 1951 of the Faculty of Philology, still operating. It was managed by outstanding Polish humanists, such as Stanisław Tarnowski, Józef Kallenbach, Ignacy Chrzanowski, Stanisław Pigoń and Stefan Kołaczkowski, and after the war by Stanisław Łempicki, Juliusz Kleiner and Henryk Markiewicz. In the subsequent years, the structure of Polish studies at the Jagiellonian University was changed. An Institute of Polish Philology was launched (later transformed into the present Faculty of Polish Studies) and comprised about a dozen of departments, including the Department of the History of Old Polish Literature. The Department was managed for many years by Prof. Tadeusz Ulewicz, and later by Professors Julian Maślanka, Wacław Woźnowski, and Andrzej Borowski. It is currently led by Jakub Niedźwiedź.