Born on 6th May 1881 in Przemyśl, Rafał Taubenschlag, son of  Bernard Baruch and Cecylia Cyrl, nee Goldhart, was a legal historian who specialised in Roman law and papyrology. Professor at the Jagiellonian University and the University of Warsaw, corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. Between 1942-1947, Rafał Taubenschalg worked as a Visiting Research Professor of Ancient Civilization at Columbia University and was the creator of The Journal of Juristic Papyrology.

In 1949, he was awarded the Barczewski award by the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences, followed by an honorary doctorate from the University of Warsaw a year later. In 1955, during the International Congress of Papyrologists in Vienna, he was elected its honorary chairman by acclamation. The academic community celebrated professor’s  75th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his academic work with a commemorative book entitled Symbolae Raphaeli Taubenschlag dedicatae.

Rafał Taubenschlag died on 25th June  1958 in Warsaw and was buried in the Avenue of the Merit at the Rakowicki Cemetery in Krakow. Photo courtesy of the Jagiellonian Library.