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Ignacy Domeyko or Domejko (Template:Lang-es, Template:Lang-be, Template:Lang-lt; July 31, 1802 – January 23, 1889, Santiago de Chile) was a 19th-century Chilean geologist, mineralogist and educator. He was born in Nesvizh, Imperial Russia (present-day Belarus) into a Polish-Lithuanian family and spent most of his life and died in his adopted country of Chile.
After a youth spent in partitioned Polish-Lithuanian lands, he participated in the November 1830 Uprising against the Russian Empire. Upon its suppression, he was forced into exile. He spent part of his life in France and eventually settled in Chile, of which he became a citizen and where he lived for some 50 years. Domeyko made major contributions to the study of Chilean geography, geology and mineralogy and his commentary on the condition of impoverished miners and their wealthy exploiters had a profound influence on those that would go on to shape the labour movement in Chile.
He is seen as having close ties with several countries and thus in 2002, when UNESCO organized a series of commemorative events, he was referred to as a "citizen of the world".
Life
Domeyko was born in the Russian part of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, at Niedźwiadka (Template:Lang-be — Miadzviedka) Manor (Bear Cub Manor), near Nieśwież (Nesvizh), Nowogródek (Navahradak) district, Minsk Governorate, Imperial Russia (now Karelichy district, Belarus).
In his youth he was a subject of the Russian Empire. Domeyko had, however, been brought up in the culture of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a multicultural entity whose educated and dominant classes had spoken Polish as a lingua franca and that, shortly before Domeyko's birth, had been dismembered in the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. For this reason, and because Domeyko subsequently spent most of his life in Chile, he is considered a person of national importance to Poles, Belarusians, and Lithuanians; along with Chileans.
Domeyko studied at the Imperial University of Vilna under Jędrzej Śniadecki. Involved with the Philomaths, a secret student organization dedicated to Polish culture and the restoration of Poland's independence, he was a close friend of Adam Mickiewicz. In 1823–24, during the investigation and trials of the Philomaths, Domeyko and Mickiewicz spent months incarcerated at Vilnius' Uniate Basilian monastery.
After participating in the November 1830 Uprising, in which Domeyko served as an officer under General Dezydery Chłapowski, in 1831 Domeyko was forced into exile in order not to face Russian reprisals. Journeying through Germany, he arrived in France, where he would earn an engineering degree at Paris' École des Mines (School of Mining).
In 1838 he left for Chile. On becoming a Chilean citizen in 1849, he declared: "I may now never change my citizenship, but God grants me hope that wherever I may be—whether in the Cordilleras or in Paneriai—I shall die a Lithuanian."
Domeyko lived in Chile until May 22, 1884, when he returned for an extended visit to Europe. He remained for four years in partitioned Poland—receiving an honorary doctorate from the Jagiellonian University in the Austro-Hungarian sector of Poland, and touring Europe—then returned to Chile.
During his career, Domeyko made substantial contributions to mineralogy and the technology of mining, studied several previously unknown minerals, advocated for the civil rights of the native tribal peoples, and was a meteorologist and ethnographer.
He served as a professor at a mining college in Coquimbo (La Serena) and later at the University of Chile (Universidad de Chile), of which he was rector for 16 years (1867-83).
Memorials
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Named for Domeyko are the mineral domeykite, the shellfish Nautilus domeykus, the genus Domeykosaurus, the ammonite Amonites domeykanus, asteroid 2784 Domeyko, the Cordillera Domeyko mountain range in the Andes, and the Chilean town of Domeyko.
A bronze bust of Domeyko stands in the Casa Central of Santiago's University of Chile, of which Domeyko was a long-time rector.
In 1992, a plaque in Spanish and Polish was placed on a building at Krakowskie Przedmieście 64, in Warsaw, Poland, commemorating Ignacy Domeyko / Ignacio Domeyko, "distinguished son of the Polish nation and eminent citizen of Chile."
On the 200th anniversary of his birth, UNESCO declared 2002 to be "Ignacy Domeyko Year." Several commemorative events were held in Chile under the auspices of Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski and Chilean President Ricardo Lagos.
In 2002, Poland and Chile jointly issued a postage stamp commemorating the 200th anniversary of Domeyko's birth.
Also in 2002, a 200th-birthday plaque honoring him was placed in the entry gate to Vilnius' Uniate Basilian monastery, where he and Adam Mickiewicz were held in 1823–24 during the investigation and trials of the Philomaths.
Notes
- ^ CULTURAL BULLETIN 21 (165), Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2002
- Algimantas Grigelis' preface to the book "Ignotas Domeika/Ignacy Domeyko 1802 - 1889, Ignacy Domeyko - A Citizen of the World - scroll down for English translation
- UNESCO. Ignotas Domeika 200. Retrieved on 2008-07-24
- Template:Lt icon "Lietuvos Respublikos Prezidento Valdo Adamkaus kalba atidengiant paminklinę lentą Ignotui Domeikai". President of the Republic of Lithuania. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
...ar Kordiljeruose mirsiu, ar Paneriuose - mirsiu lietuviu...
References
- Ignacy Domeyko (1962). Moje podróże: pamiętniki wygnańca (My Travels: Memoirs of an Exile). Wrocław: Ossolineum. Polish language
- Zbigniew Wójcik (1995). Ignacy Domeyko: Litwa, Francja, Chile (Ignacy Domeyko: Lithuania, France, Chile). Wrocław, Polskie Towarzystwo Ludoznawcze. ISBN 83-904914-2-7. Polish language
- Małgorzata Kośka (1998). Ignacy Domeyko. Warsaw, "DiG". ISBN 83-7181-062-8. Polish language
- Jadwiga Garbowska, Krzysztof Jakubowski (1995). Ignacy Domeyko: (1802-1889). Warsaw-Lida, Towarzystwo Kultury Polskiej Ziemi Lidzkiej. ISBN 83-901353-6-1. Polish language
- Zdzisław Jan Ryn (1994). Ignacio Domeyko - ciudadano de dos patrias (Ignacy Domeyko - citizen of two fatherlands). Antofagasta, Universidad Catolica del Norte. Portuguese language
- Zdzisław Jan Ryn (2002). Ignacy Domeyko - obywatel świata (Ignacy Domeyko - citizen of the world). Kraków, Jagiellonian University Press. ISBN 83-233-1552-3. review, Polish language
- Paz Domeyko Lea-Plaza. Ignacio Domeyko. La Vida de un Emigrante. Santiago, Chile.2002. Random House Mondadori (Editorial Sudamericana)ISBN 9562621618 Spanish language
- Paz Domeyko. A Life in Exile. Ignacy Domeyko 1802-1889. Sydney, Australia 2005. ISBN 0646447289 }.9. English language. Available from author. See website Paz Domeyko, www.pazdomeyko.com
See also
External links
- Template:Pl icon/Template:En icon 2002 Polish conference on Ignacy Domeyko. Contains a selection of articles and book reviews, some in English
- Algimantas Grigelis, Ignacy Domeyko—an early investigator of Andean geology, Episodes, Vol. 28, no. 4, December 2005
- "Ignacy Domeyko – Spiritual Bridge between Poland and Chile." An English-language article about 1999 Polish-Chilean celebrations of Domeyko's legacy.
- Template:Pl icon Malgorzata Markoff, "Dwie ojczyzny Ignacego Domeyki" ("Ignacy Domeyko's Two Countries"), Przegląd Polski (Polish Review), July 26, 2002. A Polish-language article about Domeyko in the literary supplement to Nowy Dziennik (The New Daily), a Polish-language daily published in New York City.
- Template:Pl icon Honorata Szocik, [http://naszczas2002.tripod.com/042/1str.html Życie Ignacego Domeyki, jego prace,
wkład do geologii i nauk społecznych], Nasz Czas 37 (576)
- Template:Be icon "Ігнат Дамейка — светач сусветнай цывілізацыі. (Ignat Dameyka — Luminary of World Civilization)". Матэрыялы VI Карэліцкіх чытанняў. Retrieved May 29 2005.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|dateformat=ignored (help) Proceedings of a 2002 Belarusian conference about Domeyko. - Template:Pl icon Ignacy Domeyko, 1802-1889. A Polish scout troop, named for Domeyko, maintains his memory.