The year 2019 ended with an important event for the Research programme - the publication series 'Studies and Materials' made its debut.

"Studies and Materials" is a publishing series with a strictly scientific profile. It presents, first of all, the results of research conducted by the POLONIK Institute, as well as materials created outside our institution, which make a significant contribution to the knowledge of Polish cultural heritage located outside the country.

The debut of the series began with a great polonica. The subject of a dissertation, the result of one of our research projects, is a Polish royal monument located in one of the capitals of our civilisation - Paris. Dr Paweł Migasiewicz's book, The Tomb of the Heart of King Jan Kazimierz in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés Church in Paris, discusses the history of one of the most important artistic Polonics in Europe, erected abroad in the 1770s. Prominent French royal artists were engaged to create the work, which presents a full-figure statue of the abdicating John Casimir - the last of the Polish Vasa dynasty - and ensured the high standard of the project and its execution. The sculptural work of high artistic quality preserved in this church has survived in a little transformed form, despite the turmoil of the French Revolution. The source, iconographic and historical research begun in 2018 has shed new light on this unparalleled work of art. The publication is undoubtedly an important contribution to the study of Polish heritage abroad of high European artistic value. It includes extensive translations of the abstracts into French and English.

The official inauguration of the series and, at the same time, the author's meeting with Dr Paweł Migasiewicz took place on 12 December 2019 at the Pod Blachą Palace in Warsaw. The event perfectly fitted into the series of cultural initiatives related to the exhibition 'The World of the Polish Vasa. Space - people - art' at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Subsequent items published as part of the "Studies and Materials" series will certainly be equally valuable and attract the attention of a wide audience.