Primate Mikołaj Prażmowski and the Unwelcome Papal Legation in Poland-Lithuania (1668–69)

The article presents the reasons for refusing to receive the papal legation of Pope Clement IX in the matter of John Casimir Vasa’s abdication (1668) and, especially, the subsequent royal election (1669), by the Catholic Primate of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Mikołaj Prażmowski. Prażmowski’s refusal to receive the legation has been overlooked in the literature on the subject so far. The author, on the basis of the diplomatic dispatches of the apostolic nuncios and on their instructions, will analyse the problematic relations of Prażmowski with papal diplomats, and explain why the papal legation ended in fiasco. The researcher concludes that the fiasco of papal legation was another clear indication of the Papacy’s lack of sufficient leverage in the post-Westphalian world, as it was fundamentally weakened by the deep divisions between the Catholic powers of France and the Habsburgs, which Westphalia had signally failed to resolve. Nowhere was this more apparent than in Poland-Lithuania, where the battle between Catholic supporters of the Habsburgs and France over the succession had profoundly divided the republic

Odpowiedzialność uczonych we współczesnym świecie

Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 dofinansowane zostało ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę

Final Reports of Papal Diplomats as a Cultural Message: The Case of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

This paper focuses on the cultural and political importance of papal nuncios’ final reports (relazioni finali) as one of the basic sources of knowledge about the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth in the Roman Curia. The final report was a document, in essence a summary, which a diplomat was required to complete at the end of his mission (or immediately after). During the creation of the office of permanent nuncio to the major European courts, the preparation and delivery of the final report often took place orally. Gradually, the relazione evolved into a written version. Throughout the sixteenth century, when knowledge about Poland-Lithuania in Rome was rather poor, the relazioni finali consisted of colourful descriptions of the geography, the history, and the social and political relations of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the seventeenth century, this document became more political in character. It related directly to the activities of the papal diplomats, rituals and ceremonials, and any particular problems regarding the missions, rather than extensive descriptions of relatively banal curiosities. Throughout the seventeenth century in particular, when a permanent papal diplomatic presence had just been established in Poland-Lithuania, the final reports were an important contribution to future missions. Newly-appointed nuncios therefore willingly used the extremely important information contained therein. The practice of writing relazioni finali made it easier for the Holy See to consolidate its diplomatic influence and presence in Central and Eastern Europe in the early modern period. It also fostered papal interest in the social and political features of the enormous ‘noble’ republic.This paper focuses on the cultural and political importance of papal nuncios’ final reports (relazioni finali) as one of the basic sources of knowledge about the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth in the Roman Curia. The final report was a document, in essence a summary, which a diplomat was required to complete at the end of his mission (or immediately after). During the creation of the office of permanent nuncio to the major European courts, the preparation and delivery of the final report often took place orally. Gradually, the relazione evolved into a written version. Throughout the sixteenth century, when knowledge about Poland-Lithuania in Rome was rather poor, the relazioni finali consisted of colourful descriptions of the geography, the history, and the social and political relations of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During the seventeenth century, this document became more political in character. It related directly to the activities of the papal diplomats, rituals and ceremonials, and any particular problems regarding the missions, rather than extensive descriptions of relatively banal curiosities. Throughout the seventeenth century in particular, when a permanent papal diplomatic presence had just been established in Poland-Lithuania, the final reports were an important contribution to future missions. Newly-appointed nuncios therefore willingly used the extremely important information contained therein. The practice of writing relazioni finali made it easier for the Holy See to consolidate its diplomatic influence and presence in Central and Eastern Europe in the early modern period. It also fostered papal interest in the social and political features of the enormous ‘noble’ republic

Wstęp

Zadanie pt. Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki nr 885/P-DUN/2014 zostało dofinansowane ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę

Czytanie pamięci – doświadczenie – emocje. Narracje literackie dla młodego czytelnika – teoria i praktyka odbioru (Rutka Joanny Fabickiej)

The article is based on empirical research related to reading, experience and emotions, conducted in primary schools for several years. The story of Joanna Fabicka Rutka (2016) has become the exemplification for the mentioned empirical research. A polysensory, but also poetic in the illustration of the world, fairytale literary narrative about the destruction and the recovery of a lost childhood, kept in the poetics of magical realism. The book deals with the topics of dialogue between genders, friendship, the power of imagination, memory, understanding, naming and tame emotions, loneliness and fear of death. The book also shows the problem of settling with a difficult past (here: war trauma), the responsibility of adults and growing up to dreams. Visualization of the effects and affect of narrative fragments and metaphorisation of images reinforced by real experience, as noted in the story, may affect the reader’s emotional involvement and influence the construction of new meanings and meanings of the work, which all translates into support of understanding, shaping the imagination and ethical formulation of reflection on the world.Artykuł opiera się na badaniach empirycznych związanych z czytaniem, doświadczeniem i emocjami, prowadzonych w szkołach podstawowych od kilku lat. Egzemplifikacją dla badań empirycznych stała się, w tym przypadku, polisensoryczna, ale i poetycka ze względu na obrazowanie świata – baśniowa narracja literacka o zagładzie, o odzyskiwaniu straconego dzieciństwa, utrzymana w poetyce realizmu magicznego opowieść Joanny Fabickiej Rutka (2016). Książka porusza tematy dialogu pokoleń, przyjaźni, siły wyobraźni, pamięci, rozumienia, nazwania i oswojenia emocji, samotności i lęku przed śmiercią, a także ukazuje problem rozliczenia z trudną przeszłością (tu: wojenną traumą), odpowiedzialności dorosłych oraz dorastania do marzeń. Wizualizacja efektów i afektów fragmentów narracji oraz metaforyzacja obrazów wzmacnianych doświadczeniem rzeczywistym – jak zauważono – może wpływać na emocjonalne zaangażowanie czytelnika oraz wywierać wpływ na konstruowanie przez niego nowych znaczeń i sensów utworu, co przekłada się w tym przypadku na wspomaganie rozumienia, kształtowanie wyobraźni i formułowanie etycznej refleksji nad światem

Introduction

The crisis of political history, particularly profound since the 1960s and the subsequent cultural turn, has penalised the scientific investigation of “international” relations in the early modern period for many years. Over the last decades, though, there have been several calls for new methodological and conceptual approaches to diplomatic studies, some of them extraordinarily fruitful and inspiring. Nowadays, as Tracey Sowerby observed, «the New Diplomatic History, no longer so new, has become a broad church. It has successfully integrated wider concerns into a field that was once dominated by the study of bureaucracy and foreign policy». Integrated, but not replaced, which is also essential to emphasise. That is mainly why scholars no longer consider diplomacy and foreign policy making as coterminous, but do assimilate plenty of diff erent aspects diplomatic practice entailed [...]

The 'Obstacle of Sex' : Christina of Sweden and Her Aspirations to the Polish-Lithuanian Throne

An important field of research related to early modern sovereignty is the topic of female political authority. This article aims to utilise the category of gender to analyse potential obstacles that Queen Christina of Sweden had to overcome in order to obtain royal dignity in an elective monarchy, the early modern Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Could the election of a female monarch constitute an acceptable and functional alternative for the Catholic and conservative noble society of this vast composite state? Former examples of Jadwiga of Anjou (1384) and Anna Jagiellon (1576) elected and crowned Kings of Poland seemed to suggest as much. The case of Christina's aspirations is all the more interesting, as her prominent supporter during the royal election of 1669 was the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Clement IX. It is, in fact, the diplomatic correspondence created by the papal Secretariat of State that constitutes the historical basis for the research presented here

Vorwort

Zadanie pt. Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki nr 885/P-DUN/2014 zostało dofinansowane ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę