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Mathematics in Poland had good names in medieval times and in the first two centuries of modem times, e.g. Vitello, Copernicus, Broscius, Kochański. Since mid-XVII c., however, there begun a decline of the Polish-Lithuanian state and its culture which led to the loss of sovereignty and to partitions 1795-1918. On the other hand, it was a time of Newton and Leibniz who invented calculus and of their followers, the time of its fast development in XVIII and XIX centuries and the emergence of its many new branches, the totality of which is called mathematical analysis. That development was followed in Poland with a large delay and for a long time it resembled a pursuit after a fast running train. In spite of a long run, the pursuit eventually proved successful. The article traces its history since the translation of Bezout's extensive manual by Jakubowski (1781), soon followed by other translations from French, accompanied by the emerging Polish terminology related to higher mathematics. In consequence, the level of authority of Polish mathematicians concerning the area of higher mathematics was gradually increasing. The first Polish manual of mathematical analysis appeared in 1822 (Buchowski), then there were other ones, and the number of research papers in the area, predominantly concerning differential equations, grew as well. Near the end of the XIXth century some of those papers gained a high status and became widely known, e.g. some by Sochocki (analytic functions), Zaremba (differential equations), Zorawski (Lie groups). The number of Polish mathematicians and books in Polish grew, and in the last decade of XIX c. there appeared Polish mathematical journals. In 1918 there was a wave of a common enthusiasm upon regaining independence. Polish mathematicians have used the opportunity and soon there appeared mathematical schools in Warsaw and in Lvov, centered upon "the theory of sets and its applications". However, the choice of such a main area of interest meant a conscious neglect of mathematical analysis. Nevertheless, an interest in the latter, although for the time being in the shadow of flourishing schools, has not been altogether abandoned. And when, after War World II, the center of gravity of common mathematics has moved away from the main subjects of the Polish school, it was precisely mathematical analysis which allowed Polish mathematicians to keep abreast. Nowadays Polish mathematics has many areas of interest, including domains of modern mathematical analysis, and in most of them its high level is confirmed by an international cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]