The Polish sociologist and bibliographer Wiktor Żółtowski (1900-1969) – founder of the French school of statistical history of intellectual creativity

Abstract

Wiktor Żółtowski is not widely known within the Polish scientific circles. He spent most of his life in France. Some (Robert Estivals) consider him to be the founder of the French school of statistical history of intellectual production, based on the bibliographical method. What makes his research original is combining the historical method used by François Simiand and the data contained in bibliographies in order to carry out a quantitative analysis of published scientific works registered in various lists, mainly in „Bibliographie de la France”. Żółtowski’s works can be positioned between the borders of book studies, the history of writing, and sociology.