The use of books in 16th-century Vilnius

The main goal of the paper is to answer the question of what was unique about the use of books in Vilnius between 1522 and 1610. The reason to take a closer look at the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is the fact that it has always been a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious city. This observation allows the author to assume that the use of books there could have been different than in other European cities of the time. To find possible answers to the question posed, the author traces the changes in production, distribution and reading of books in the city. The research is based on several sorts of sources, such as printed books, manuscripts and documents from Vilnius archives (mainly the municipal archive, the Catholic chapter, the castle court etc.). He was supported by contemporary studies about early modern Vilnius scriptoria and printing houses (Kawecka-Gryczowa, Topolska, Nikalaieu), bookbinders (Laucevičius), book writing (Ulčinaitė, Narbutienė, Narbutas) and the history of the city (Frick). At the beginning of the paper the author recalls the main facts about Vilnius in the 16th century. The city had increasingly grown in importance as a political, economical and cultural centre of the Jagiellonian monarchy.The central part, divided in four chronologically arranged chapters, focuses on several problems, among them: the beginnings of Cyrillic prints and Skaryna’s printing house, languages and alphabets of books (Latin, Ruthenian, Polish, Lithuanian, German, Hebrew, Yiddish and Arabic), book production, dissemination, storage and reading. The author notices that a significant contributing factor to the spreading book culture in Vilnius was the royal court and chancery. He puts emphasis on the significance of humanistic schools that were established in Vilnius in the 2nd half of the 16th century by four different Christian confessions (Calvinist, Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox). The most influential one was the Jesuit Academy of Vilnius. This process was accompanied by the establishment of no less than 11 printing houses. Having said that, the author argues that books printed in Vilnius, imported to the city and held in its libraries reflect a fruitful competition between main religious communities. At the end, the author reaches the conclusion that the use of books in Vilnius was similar to other European cities of the time, yet the capital of Lithuania still seems to be a good deal more complex a case. He ventures a hypothesis that the book can be deemed as one of the tools or factors by which religious or ethnic identity in Vilnius was defined

Poetic mapping of the Polish crown at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries and its relation to cartographic imitation in Renaissance poetry

The paper is devoted to the problem of imitation of maps in the late Renaissance Polish poetry (between 1580 and 1630). At the beginning of the paper, the author writes about the unprecedented growth of Polish lyric poetry at the time. He reminds that in that period the Polish elite - among the poets - was especially interested in cartography. In the next paragraphs, he reveals his sources and methodological approach. The main thesis of the paper is that the poets widely used map-based technics in constructing their poems. Imitation (Latin: imitatio) played a crucial role in this process. To illustrate the ways of map imitation, works of six poets were chosen: S.F. Klonowic, J. Kochanowski, K. Miaskowski, S. Petrycy, M.K. Sarbiewski and Sz. Szymonowic. The paper consists of three parts. In the first, a similarity between cartographical representation of a river in poetry and on a map is shown. On this example, the author shows the topoi used both in poems and maps. In the second part, the concept of imitation of a map is discussed. In the third part of the paper, the author shows how the late Renaissance poets described the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The author argues they tried to render the polycentric character of their vast country. In conclusion, he draws a similarity between controlling space in poetry and maps. He suggests that the idea of ruling over space might be related to the 16th-century idea of a God-like poet

The Battle of Orsha (1514) on Maps: Mapping the Muscovian War as Renaissance Politics of Memory

On 14 September 1514, in the vicinity of the town of Orsha, the combined Lithuanian-Polish forces defeated the Muscovian army. Among many texts commemorating the battle are maps published between 1526 and the mid-seventeenth century. The author argues that each cartographical representation of the battle can be interpreted as an example of Renaissance politics of memory. The struggle could be an element of the Jagiellonian dynastic propaganda, an argument in the competition between the Lithuanian Ruthenia and Muscovy, a fragment of the republican discourse or a part of narration about the great past of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.14 września 1514 r. w okolicach miasta Orsza połączone siły polsko-litewskie pokonały wojska moskiewskie. Wśród wielu tekstów upamiętniających bitwę znajdują się również mapy, wydane drukiem między rokiem 1526 a połową XVII w. Autor dowodzi, że każde odwzorowanie kartograficzne bitwy może być interpretowane jako przykład renesansowej polityki pamięci. Bitwa mogła być elementem propagandy dynastycznej Jagiellonów, argumentem w rywalizacji między Rusią Litewską a Moskwą, fragmentem dyskursu republikańskiego lub częścią narracji o wielkiej przeszłości Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego

Nowa edycja traktatu Andrzeja Wolana o wolności

Andrzej Wolan, De libertate politica sive civili. O wolnosci Rzeczypospolitej albo slacheckiej, tłum. Stanisław Dubingowicz, wyd. i oprac. Maciej Eder, Roman Mazurkiewicz, Wydawnictwo Neriton, Warszawa 2010, s. 478 (Seria: Humanizm. Idee, Nurty i Paradygmaty Humanistyczne w Kulturze Polskiej, Inedita, t. III

The panegyric "To Jacob of Sienno" and the beginnings of the humanistic poetry in Krakow in the 15th century

The paper has two aims: one is to publish a critical edition of an early humanistic poem, the other is to explain the circumstances in which it was written. The study engages the traditional methods of textual criticism. The author analyses several sources, among them the manuscript 802 preserved in the Kórnik Library which contains the poem. In the first part of the paper Jacob’s biography is reminded. Jacob of Sienno (Jakub z Sienna, 1413–1480) was a diplomat, a politician, the bishop of Kujawy and next the archbishop of Gniezno. He was born in an nobleman family, studied in Rome and in the mid 1430’s pursued his ecclesiastical and political career. He turned back to Italy many times, both as a royal diplomat and a political refugee during his conflict with king Casimir IV Jagiellon. The author stresses the fact that in his Italian journeys he must have come in contact with the early Humanistic culture, which is proved for instance by his collection of Renaissance decorated books acquired in Italy. In the second part the author reveals the circumstances in which the poem was written. The deliberations here touch upon the problem of authorship. Although some researchers made aconjecture that the author would have been Leonardo Mansueti (1414–1480), the Master General of the Dominican Order and Jacob’s friend, a hypothesis that an anonymous Cracow scholar would have been the grateful poet is more convincing.The author reminds a long-standing relationship between Jacob and the University of Cracow. As a patron of the university the bishop made it a gift of his library. The third part contains analysis of the text. The poet drew a picture of a bishop-good shepherd and a wise statesman devoted to the country. To construct such a figure, typical for Renaissance literature in the next century, he employed the classical rhetoric, astrology and especially the Stoic philosophy. The analysis leads to the conclusion that To Jacob of Sienno can be one of the first Humanistic panegyrics in Poland. It can be considered a result of Jacob’s patronage on literature and fine arts. At the end the author asserts that the bishop courts in Poland in the 15th century were important centres of Humanistic culture, among them Jacob’s court. Future research on this topic can shed new light on the beginnings of the Renaissance in Poland. Additionally, the paper provides critical edition of the Latin text and its Polish translation with commentaries

Stanisław Pachołowiecki’s Atlas of the Principality of Polotsk (1580) : propaganda, genology and the development of geographic knowledge

Stanisław Pachołowiecki’s Atlas of the Principality of Polotsk (1580): Propaganda, Genology and the Development of Geographic Knowledge. This paper is dedicated to the maps of Stanisław Pachołowiecki (2nd half of the 16th century) printed in Rome by Giovanni Battista Cavalieri in 1580. In August 1579, the Polish-Lithuanian army retook the city and the voivodeship (principality) of Polotsk from Russian hands. Pachołowiecki, a cartographer working for Stephen Báthory, prepared maps depicting the Siege of Polotsk, the whole principality of Polotsk and plans of six other fortresses and cities conquered by Báthory’s army. This study presents an answer to the following question: What means were used in the development of the new geographic knowledge by people engaged in the preparation and use of Pachołowiecki’s atlas? Jakub Niedźwiedź takes a closer look at the application of rhetoric, mainly figures and tropes drawn (or translated) from literature into the cartographic text. According to Niedźwiedź, the atlas’ authors used literary and graphic genres and topoi that were known, fashionable and attractive to the reader in those times. The study is divided into sections containing analyses of three genres that organise the meaning of the map. The first genre described is epinikion-panegyric. The author demonstrates how the ruler-commander laudation topoi were transformed in 16th century poetry and cartography. The context consists chiefly of laudatory poems written by the two most prominent Polish poets of the time, Jan Kochanowski and Mikołaj Sęp Szarzyński. The second genre investigated by Niedźwiedź is emblem, a combination of word and image. The author indicates the relationship between 16th century cartography on the one hand, and emblems and heraldry on the other. These deliberations are accompanied by references to the Renaissance imitation theory. The third genre is atlas. In this section, the author argues that Pachołowiecki’s maps compound the first thematic atlas in the history of Polish cartography. All these genres were subjected to the rules of cartographic representation. The final comments regard the influence that Pachołowiecki’s maps exerted on the output of the leading cartographers of late 16th century, including Maciej Strubicz and Gerard Mercator among others

The Use of Books in 16th-century Vilnius

The main goal of the paper is to answer the question of what was unique about the use of books in Vilnius between 1522 and 1610. The reason to take a closer look at the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is the fact that it has always been a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious city. This observation allows the author to assume that the use of books there could have been different than in other European cities of the time. To find possible answers to the question posed, the author traces the changes in production, distribution and reading of books in the city. The research is based on several sorts of sources, such as printed books, manuscripts and documents from Vilnius archives (mainly the municipal archive, the Catholic chapter, the castle court etc.). He was supported by contemporary studies about early modern Vilnius scriptoria and printing houses (Kawecka-Gryczowa, Topolska, Nikalaieu), bookbinders (Laucevičius), book writing (Ulčinaitė, Narbutienė, Narbutas) and the history of the city (Frick). At the beginning of the paper the author recalls the main facts about Vilnius in the 16th century. The city had increasingly grown in importance as a political, economical and cultural centre of the Jagiellonian monarchy. The central part, divided in four chronologically arranged chapters, focuses on several problems, among them: the beginnings of Cyrillic prints and Skaryna’s printing house, languages and alphabets of books (Latin, Ruthenian, Polish, Lithuanian, German, Hebrew, Yiddish and Arabic), book production, dissemination, storage and reading. The author notices that a significant contributing factor to the spreading book culture in Vilnius was the royal court and chancery. He puts emphasis on the significance of humanistic schools that were established in Vilnius in the 2nd half of the 16th century by four different Christian confessions (Calvinist, Catholic, Lutheran and Orthodox). The most influential one was the Jesuit Academy of Vilnius. This process was accompanied by the establishment of no less than 11 printing houses. Having said that, the author argues that books printed in Vilnius, imported to the city and held in its libraries reflect a fruitful competition between main religious communities. At the end, the author reaches the conclusion that the use of books in Vilnius was similar to other European cities of the time, yet the capital of Lithuania still seems to be a good deal more complex a case. He ventures a hypothesis that the book can be deemed as one of the tools or factors by which religious or ethnic identity in Vilnius was defined

Some remarks on the exhibition "The Vistula River : The queen of the Polish rivers" in the National Museum in Cracow

Some Remarks on the Exhibition The Vistula River: The Queen of the Polish Rivers in the National Museum in Cracow. In this paper, the author shares some comments on the exhibition Wisła królowa polskich rzek (The Vistula River: The Queen of the Polish Rivers) organized in the National Museum in Cracow 29.03.2022-4.09.2022). The curator Iwona Długopolska gathered maps, atlases, engravings and literary works from the 16th-mid 19th centuries from the collection of the National Museum. All of them deal with the Vistula River. The author focuses on the cultural dimensions of the representations of the river. At the beginning of the paper, there are remarks about the physiology of viewing. The author stresses the fact that exhibitions can be a way of carrying out historical research. In the next parts, he puts forth a classification of the interpretations of the river as a cultural phenomenon into four major groups, i.e. the economy, the war, the city and the expressions of the Polish national identity. He also links literary works by Polish authors with the visual representations of the Vistula