About the Journal

Focus and Scope

The scope of the journal includes scientific studies on:

  • history and theory of art and heritage studies (including among others: research concerning structure, provenance, technology and conservation of heritage objects),
  • monument conservation (historical, theoretical, legal aspects as well as also conservation issues),
  • museum studies, museology and art collecting,
  • results of conservation research contributing to dating, assessing the authenticity of artworks or developing conservation projects,
  • artist's techniques and technologies, as well as materials science of cultural heritage objects (including research on artists’ techniques and its role in the development of knowledge of tangible heritage),
  • development of technological and conservation research methodologies, instrumental techniques and research tools.
Our history
The journal has been published continuously since 1966 (first as "Humanities and Social Sciences. Monument Studies and Conservation Science", since 1974 in the series "Acta Universitatis..."). 2019 marked its half-century of existence.  The founding committee consisted of Gwido Chmarzyński, Jadwiga Puciata-Pawłowska, Leonard Torwirt, Beata Wilde, and Jerzy Frycz. The position of editor-in-chief was assumed by Prof. Kazimierz Malinowski, who in the first volume published the pioneering methodological text "Historicology and Conservation", a manifesto of the strategy of development of the school of conservation in Toruń, which is still just as valid today regarding the the scientific interests and research characteristics of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. The editorial teams of subsequent volumes have included recognised representatives of Toruń's school of conservation, such as: Marian Arszyński, Zbigniew Brochwicz, Wiesław Domasłowski, Józef Flik, Maria Roznerska, as well as specialists in art history and museology: Bogusław Mansfeld, Andrzej Grzybkowski, Janusz Kębłowski, Zygmunt Kruszelnicki, Jerzy Malinowski, Józef Poklewski and Zygmunt Waźbiński, among others.