Jagiellonians

There are many matters in the history of Polish-English relations that have so far escaped the attention of historians dealing with this subject. Religious issues that are the subject of this article, which is the result of a monthly query in the British Library, Bodleian Library, and The National Archives of England and Wales, seem to be undervalued. The aim of the article is to present selected religious and political issues as important factors in the shaping of Polish-English diplomatic relations at the turn of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Polish translation of the opening part of Book One of Goslicius' De optimo Senatore (1568).
In O senatorze doskonałym studia. Prace upamiętniające postać i twórczość Wawrzyńca Goślickiego pod redakcja Aleksandra Stępkowskiego (Warszawa: Kancelaria Senatu, 2007) p.216-226

The scientific research on the history of Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Jagiellonian era, being conducted nowadays in the Polish scientific community as well as among foreign historians, does not place particular emphasis on the economic history of this country.
It is evident that the scientists have not been particularly interested in the very important issue of the use of the aquatic resources in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and their impact on the economic activity conducted there in the Jagiellonian era by the representatives of the dynasty and other private landowners. This lack of interest was brought to my attention while I was studying the administration and exploitation of the forest resources of Lithuania. It identified the need of addressing this issue, especially with regard to the increasing scientific enquiries leading to recognizing and understanding the mutual influence of humans and environment.
This paper is devoted to one of the aspects of exploiting the aquatic resources of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 16th century, which is the development of the legal, administrative, ownership, economic and technical conditions in which the rivers and lakes owned by the Grand Duchy in the western Grodno region have been used for fishery in strict relation to the resources of this geographical environment.
Among the issues that constitute the discussed scientific achievement, arranged according to the chronology-issue system was the characteristics of the political and administrative development of the territory of the western Grodno region from the late 14th century almost to the close of the 16th century. The dissertation also presented the administrative foundations of the emerging Grodno county. The starting point for further analysis was to attempt to reconstruct the geographical environment of the western Grodno region for the period of the Middle Ages and the early Modern Era in relation to its various elements. I took it as an important issue, because of the crucial impact of the natural conditions of the region on the development of its economic potential, also in terms of exploitation of aquatic resources, which have been of our interest.
Autor characterized the legal regulations regarding the exploitation of aquatic resources in the royal lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th and 16th centuries one by one, since the whole system of this exploitation was based on them. Also discussed the important matters related to the development of the ownership structure of the aquatic resources of the western Grodno region in the private properties of nobility, Lithuanian boyars and most importantly in the Grand-Ducal lands until the end of the 16th century.
It has been particularly significant for the subject matter of the dissertation to present the forms of management of the standing and running waters used in the Grand-Ducal lands of the western Grodno region. In the dissertation shown their evolutionary nature – transitions from the management, through territorial administration officials to qualified niewodniczy (fishery official). Reconstructed the composition of the territorial administration officials group along with the other Grand-Ducal subjects connected with the exploitation of the aquatic resources. Such reconstruction has been undertaken for the first time in historiography.
The reconstruction of the organisation of the aquatic resources exploitation is a separate, important issue which has been raised. The dissertation concentrated mainly on the role of niewodnictwa, as the administrative-economic structures created for their intense exploitation, catering for the needs of the grand dukes of Lithuania.
An important part of the discussion was the characterization of the tools to catch fish, closely related to the forms of fishing used at that time. In the dissertation discussed the composition of the fish fauna of the waters of western Grodno region on the basis of the sources until the end of the 16th century, referring to comparisons to its state in the twenties and thirties of the 20th century and its state now. The last problem was to introduce the fish farming of the region, supplementing fishing in the natural waters and to outline the impact of the development of milling on the state of aquatic resources of the region in the light of the selected sources of the 15th and 16thcenturies.
An indispensable complement of the dissertation was the cartographic representation of the analysed area in terms of the contemporary hydrographic structure and the hydrographic structure of the 16th century – reconstructed in the studies on the basis of original maps which were analysed in terms of content, using the sources.

Public houses-inns, taverns, and alehouses-during the Jagiellonian Dynasty (1385-1572) in Cracow functioned as important establishments in the diplomatic services of kings, city officials, and the nobility. Not only did these locales offer drink, food, and accommodations to emissaries for their travels and work, but they provided much more. For the diplomats, the inns, taverns, and alehouses were sites to learn the latest news, gossip, and public opinion. They provided a place to fraternize and they were also trusted locations for sensitive diplomatic negotiations. Public houses likewise served as "post offices" where envoys could receive their letters. Although scholars have studied these establishments, the diplomacy, and urban history throughout Europe in various epochs , they have neglected to analyze the role of the Cracovian public houses in diplomatic services in the Jagiellonian era. This article provides a comprehensive examination of sources, including royal and municipal accounting and personal correspondence, to reveal the role of public houses in the diplomatic practices of the Jagiellonian dynasty.

Although Polish historiography does not usually regard 1541 as an important date, contemporary reactions in the country show that the fighting around Hungarian capital, Buda, and the subsequent Ottoman
occupation of the city received much more active attention than the Battle of Mohács or even the siege of Vienna in 1529.
Here, I attempt to outline the policy and objectives of the Polish court in 1540 and 1541, using diplomatic reports and manuscript documents. Some degree of ambivalence may be detected in court policy. Although King Sigismund was attempting to maintain good relations with both the Habsburgs and the Ottoman Empire, he was also trying to secure the future of his daughter and grandson. At first, the Polish emissaries tried to persuade the parties to observe the terms of the Peace of Várad, but when Sigismund saw the escalation of events and the resistance of the Hungarian elite in 1541, he increasingly adopted the view that he should let his daughter decide whether to stay in Hungary and try to secure the throne for her son.
It should also be pointed out that there was no coherent ‘Hungarian policy’. For one thing, the anti-Habsburg, pro-Szapolyai groups in Polish elite circles made their intentions clear, and for another, the uncertainty of news from Hungary caused serious difficulties for Polish diplomats in making rapid and resolute decisions at crucial moments.

The text of the privilege granted by the king of Poland and grand duke of Lithuania Aleksander Jagiellończyk is published from its original preserved in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw (Archiwum Główne Akt Dawnych) according to the modern principles of editing Ruthenian documents.

DIALOG Warsaw 2015 This pubHcation has been co-financed by the Rector of the University of Warsaw and the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Warsaw. Editorial review: Prof dr hab. Marek M. Dziekan DTP: "Radon" Radoslaw Kierelowicz vel Kierylowicz Cover design: Zofia Lasocka

Portret -niezwykłe źródło poznania postaci. Odwzorowanie konkretnej rzeczywistości -raz świadomie kształtowanego wizerunku, kiedy indziej obraz widziany subiektywnym okiem artysty. Przedstawienia portretowe w sztuce dawnej miały na celu wywarcie na widzu konkretnego wrażenia -nie zawsze ukazywały faktyczny wygląd fundatorów, ale to, jak chcieli być widziani. Często to nie realizm przedstawienia był najistotniejszy, a oprawa -strój, insygnia, herby, tło -pojedyncze elementy dookreślające modela.

Propozycja scenariusza lekcji dla klasy IV szkoły podstawowej, odpowiadającego nowej podstawie programowej, a zarazem rozwijającego myślenie historyczne i pokazujące warsztat naukowy historyka. Lekcja oparta jest o tworzenie kalendarium życia św. Jadwigi w oparciu o lekturę jej żywota i selekcję kluczowych wydarzeń z jej biografii.

Jestem dydaktykiem historii z praktycznymi doświadczeniem w pracy w szkole podstawowej, a prywatnie – mamą czwartoklasisty. Projekty scenariuszy lekcji, zamieszczane na Academia.edu, są odpowiedzią na nową podstawę programową i wątpliwości, zgłaszane do niej przez nauczycieli. Proponuję rozwiązania, które koncentrują się na pracy historyka, a nie na przedstawieniu listy faktów do przyswojenia – zgodnie z założeniami współczesnych międzynarodowych badań nad edukacją historyczną. Stopniowo będą pojawiać się kolejne scenariusze. Jeśli zdecydujecie się Państwo je zrealizować w pracy z uczniami, będę wdzięczna za informację zwrotną: co się sprawdziło, a co wymagałoby zmian.

My thesis focuses on the interconnection between the phenomenon of the classical reception—that is the reception of the classical Greek–Roman antiquity and its legacy—and representation of the King (royal imagology) in early modern Polish Kingdom in the sixteenth century. For the analysis of these concepts, my study examines the figure of Sigismund II Augustus Jagiellon (1520–1572), the last Jagiellonian King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania and the first King of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. His reign was marked by dissemination of the classical images and figures in literature and art.
My research stresses the hypothesis that the classical images and symbols were regularly used in shaping and promotion the image of Sigismund Augustus. In particular, these classical symbols deriving from the antiquity strengthened the image of the royal authority in complicated circumstances, such as confrontation with the nobility, reformist Executionist movement, and preparation of the Polish–Lithuanian Union. Promotion of the royal image was made in several ways: via direct visual and textual propaganda and through connotations and context that arose simultaneously. My thesis argues that Sigismund Augustus was regularly compared with or instructed based on the prominent examples of the classical antiquity—Cyrus, Alexander the Great, Octavianus—and this contributed to strengthening of his political positions in early modern Poland. Methodology applied in my research includes art historical and historical methods, literature analysis, involves comparative analysis and broader European context, analysing early modern Central-Eastern Europe as an integral element of Renaissance European politics and culture.

Publikacja jest próbą monograficznego opracowania kultu świętych patronów państwa polskiego w czasach jagiellońskich. Pracy tej nie należy jednak traktować jako zbioru tradycyjnych monografii poszczególnych świętych, lecz jako wszechstronne opracowanie znaku władzy uczestniczącego w różnych sferach życia politycznego i religijnego. Skonstruowana w pierwszej połowie XV stulecia w środowisku katedry kra­kowskiej koncepcja grupy patronów Królestwa Polskiego ujmowała postaci świętych Stanisława, Wojciecha, Wacława i Floriana. Od tej pory, aż do końca XVI w. znakiem tym posługiwano się w kontekście takich zjawisk, jak: zmagania polityczne między dworami władców a episkopatem, spory między hierarchami kościelnymi, krystalizowanie się narodu polskiego czy osobista dewocja ludzi władzy. Autor omawia kolejne przekazy pisane oraz ikono­graficzne, bada ich możliwości transmisyjne oraz pyta o ich znaczenie dla nadawców i odbiorców, chcąc wpisać je w całość kulturową. Choć analiza zjawiska sprawia wrażenie kontemplowania wybrakowanej mozaiki kultu świętych orędowników, to w rezultacie pozwala zrozumieć ideę świętego patronatu nad państwem polskim w czasach jagiellońskich.

Over just a few decades, starting in the last years of the 15th century, three summer palaces that were all very similar to one another were built in the Bohemian and Hungarian Lands. One stands close to Prague Castle, and since the 19th century has been known as the Belvedere, another on the edge of the former game reserve of Ovenec near Prague, and the third in the Nyék game reserve near Buda. They all had long rectangular cores surrounded by an arcaded walkway on the ground floor, and although they were among the first Renaissance buildings either in this region or the whole transalpine area, no direct model in this form can be found for them in Italy. This article aims to present a new analysis of the relationship between the three buildings, and one that leads to a new view of the genesis of the architecture of the Prague summer palace, which was built in the years 1538–1563 by Paolo della Stella, Giovanni de Spatio and Bonifaz Wohlmut. Paolo della Stella, who was sought out by King Ferdinand I in Genoa in 1537, and has until now been considered the architect of the palace, seems only to have been responsible for details of the building that were influenced by the contemporary work of Michele Sanmicheli and Jacopo Sansovino, while the overall plan with columned arcades encircling the building has its origin in the Central European architecture of Matthias Corvinus and Vladislav Jagiellon. Ferdinand gained a detailed first-hand knowledge of this architecture in 1527, and because apart from a brief visit to Trent in 1536 he was never in Italy, his experience in Hungary was his main opportunity to get to know Renaissance art, and of a very high standard. The other architectural inspiration for the Prague Belvedere was the summer palace in the Ovenec game park, which was built with the help of stonemasons from Buda around the year 1495, and appears to be older than what is known as Building II of the complex in Nyék, probably built around 1502. The ultimate source for the idea of encircling arcades was probably the Medici villa of Poggio a Caiano, built starting in 1495; its plan was brought to the Buda court of Vladislav Jagiellon by one of the Florentine masters.

The aim of the present contribution is to provide a first sketch of the possibilities for further research in the field of dynastic memory and identity of the Jagiellonians in the preserved genealogical material. We tried to give an overview of the vast corpus of genealogical literature, sermons, treaties, depictions and artistic representations dating to the sixteenth and early seventeenth century.  What appears as evident is that the Jagiellonian identity in the genealogies of the Holy Roman Empire is first and foremost regnal.

The paper focuses on the withrawal of the Lithuanians  by examinig previous battles and contemporary Latin and German sources also.  My goal was to prove that the feigned withdrawal was a common and efficient maneuvre of the Lithuanians and thus offer an insight into the Baltic warfare

in: Wissenschaftliches Jahrbuch der Tiroler Landesmuseen 2016, p. 50-137.

The text presents a catalogue raisonné of the portait
paintings by the German Renaissance painter Hans Maler
(ca. 1475–1526/29). It is the first catalogue of Maler’s
portraits since the 1960s and only the third since the late
19th century. Maler was born in Swabia, probably in Ulm,
where he was trained as a painter and during his earlier
career produced religious paintings. In 1515/17 he moved
to Tyrol and settled in Schwaz east of Innsbruck, one of
the leading European mining centres of its time. Here,
in Schwaz Maler shifted his artistic focus to portrait
paintings; about 40 portraits from his workshop dating
from ca. 1515 to 1526/29 are known nowadays. Maler
painted local mine owners and officials, south-German
merchants and financiers invested in the Schwaz mining
industry (Fugger) and members of the Habsburg family and
their court. The group of portraits by Hans Maler provides
a unique insight in the political, financial and social
elite of Northern Tyrol in the years about 1520 when the
mining city of Schwaz was a dominating force in Central
European economy and politics.

Stylistic pluralism, combining Gothic elements with Renaissance ones, is a characteristic feature of the works of architecture and monumental sculpture commissioned by the King of Poland Sigismund I the Old (reg. 1507-1548) 1 A coexistence of elements derived from two distinct artistic traditions: Central-European, using Late Gothic forms, and Italian, speaking the classical language of architecture, is visible, especially in his architectural foundations. Undoubtedly, the central place where both of these traditions met and interacted with one another was at the royal court in Cracow, while the driving force which propelled this interaction was the extension of Sigismund I's royal residence at the Wawel Hill, whose construction continued for over thirty years. The castle, completed shortly before the monarch's death, both in its general outline (the silhouette, overall layout and spatial disposition), and in its sculptural and architectural decoration-which had survived to this day in the form of, among others, some capitals in the galleries and doorand window-frames decorated with architectural sculpture-appears to be a unique blend of the diverse working experiences of the masons and builders employed by the king. No wonder, then, that the more recent literature has emphasised the conventional character of terms used so far to describe the style of the castle and its stone carvings. It has been noted that especially concerning portals in the east wing of Wawel Castle, executed by the workshop of Master Benedikt, descriptions such as "Gothic", "Renaissance" or "Gothic-Renaissance" are patently inadequate. 2 An organic mixture of Late Gothic ornaments with classical ones, a feature unique to these works of art, has prompted scholars to abandon the traditional art-historical terminology and induced them to search for new interpretative avenues to define this "style between the styles". 3 Therefore, the most recent research no longer 1 I express my gratitude to Dr. Joanna Wolańska for translating this text into English.

Title: The character of Jadwiga of Anjou in light of Poland’s contacts with the Holy See in the period of Great Western Schism in 1388/9-1399.

The author attempts to outline the personal qualities of Queen Jadwiga in light of the relations
between Poland and the Holy See in the era of the Great Western Schism. To this
end, the queen’s correspondence with Urban VI and Boniface IX in the years 1388/9 to
1399 was analyzed. The period under analysis was a time when the queen had come of age,
and the dispute concerning the validity of her marriage to Jagiełło, despite her previous
relationship (sponsalia de futuro) with William the Courteous, was no longer of particular
significance. The article analyses papal letters, as well as queen’s letters concerning e.g. the
abuse of authority by pontifical officials, the great jubilee in Krakow, appointments of the
bishops of Krakow in 1392 and the birth of her child in 1399. Urban VI and Boniface IX
were afraid of a change in Poland’s allegiance during the schism; therefore, they tried not
to strain the relations with Jadwiga and Jagiełło. The queen made excellent political use
of such fears, fully liaising with her husband in the state’s policy towards the Church. On
the one hand, she remained faithful and loyal to the Roman pontiffs; on the other hand,
always siding with her husband in matters of importance, she did not accept any excessive
interference of the Holy See into Poland’s internal affairs.

The queen’s palace which was probably located at Prague Castle since the time of Vladislaus II of Bohemia and Hungary was inhabited by Anne of Bohemia and Hungary, the wife of King Ferdinand I, until 1541 when a fire dwstroyed it. The palace disappeared without a trace from the castle topography and various opinions have been expressed on its exact location. The article presents the options that are based on the analysis of sources, especially the description of the 1541 fire by Václav Hájek of Libočany, hypothesising that the palace had two parts. The main one was to the north of the White Tower, on the site of today’s central wing, while the other one was to the south of the tower, encompassing the compound that was called the Lion’s Court at the time of Rudolf II.