The Academy was founded by the Poznań bishop Jan Lubrański. It was the first institution of higher education in Poznań. It functioned in a building on Ostrów Tumski, which has survived to this day. From the very beginning of its existence, the university met obstacles posed by the Kraków Academy and, as a result, it did not obtain the right to confer academic degrees until the end of its existence.
The rivalry between the two schools lasted until the eighteenth century. The end of the Lubrański Academy came in 1780, when it was merged with the Academy of Wielkopolska (Greater Poland) into the Poznań Departmental School. The abandoned school building housed the chapter library and seminary. Currently the Archdiocese Museum is located here, it is one of the most valuable monuments of Ostrów Tumski. The National Museum in Poznan exhibits a painting by Jan Matejko, symbolically showing the act of founding a school by Bishop Jan Lubrański
