Popular science magazines published in Poland between 1758 and 1939 are an important resource for all kinds of research including interdisciplinary analysis as well testing new methodological approaches. They provide insights into the changing understanding of science and its social functions, the status of the scientist, models of popularization of science, the channels and forms of communications, techniques of construction of the popular science text enhanced with graphics and illustrations.

This article examines three aborted publishing projects involving popular science magazines from the early 19th century, two of them in Cracow, one in Kalisz. Their history has been reconstructed thanks to the publishers' prospectuses found in collections of the Jagiellonian Library.