Birkowsk and Stanisław Staszic, as well as foreigners such as the English lawyer William Bruce, the Italian theologian Dominic Convalis and the Belgian mathematician Adriaan van Roomen. The Academy's chancellor was the incumbent Bishop of Chełm. The students were recruited mainly from the southeastern lands of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and from adjacent countries. Following an initial period of successful development, which at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries made the Academy one of the leading educational institutions in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, from the mid-17th century the Academy went into decline. The number of students rose from 70 in 1595 to 1635 to around 120 in the years 1635 to 1646. Its lost its lay character ten years after Zamoyski's death, when in 1615 it was taken over by the bishop of Chełm; the struggle over the control of the school between the bishops and lay officials of the Zamoyski family would continue for many years. It became increasingly difficult for the school to attract renown faculty. The academy was damaged in a fire of 1627, and from the Swedish invasion and wars of late 1640s/early 1650s. Several attempts at reform were undertaken in the following decades, none met with much success. Gradual improvement was interrupted in 1784, after the academy was shut down by the Austrian government (which had taken over that part of Poland in the late-18th-century partitions of Poland); it was closed and converted into a secondary school (Liceum Królewskie—Royal Lyceum). In 1811–66 the Lyceum's old Academy buildings were used as barracks for troops of the Zamość Fortress. The present-day I Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Hetmana Jana Zamoyskiego w Zamościu (Heman Jan Zamoyski General Lyceum in Zamość) traces its history to the Academy and is housed in the original building complex. It is one of several secondary schools in the city. See also Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Fables and Parables Lubrański Academy Notes References Encyklopedia Polski (Encyclopedia of Poland). Encyklopedia powszechna PWN (PWN Universal Encyclopedia), vol. 1, Warsaw, Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1973. Further reading Poddębski, Henryk, Akademia Zamojska, 1930, Digital Library at Warsaw University Jan Ambroży Wadowski, Anacephaleosis professorum Academiae Zamoscensis: manuscriptum saeculi XVII edidit ... Joannes Ambrosius Wadowski. Wiadomość o profesorach Akademii Zamojskiej; rękopis z w XVII, Druk. Gazety Rolniczej, Google Print (public domain) Bogdan Szyszka, Akademia Zamojska, 1594-1994, 1988, Regionalna Pracownia Krajoznawcza (Zamość) External links Akademia Zamojska, Encyklopedia WIEM Akademia Zamojska, Encyklopedia PWN Defunct universities and colleges