Sola pulcherrima super solem - "nad słońce i nad miesiąc cudniejsza" (modlitwa maryjna z modlitewnika Gertrydy i modlitewnika Nawojki)

A new critical edition of a collection of nearly one hundred Latin prayers connected with Gertrude of Poland (ca 1025-1108), Polish princess, wife of Izaslav of Kiev, has revived an interest in this exceptional example of literature and religiousness o f the eleventh century. The multiplicity of issues connected with the prayer book requires further consideration. An example might be the iconographic concord of prayers both with the accompanying miniatures and the works of art, which Gertrude encountered in the west as well as in the east -from Rhineland, where she was educated to Ruthenia, where she stayed longest. The paper examines the issue in relation to the Marian subject matter. A problem that has not as yet been touched upon is the history o f the prayers in the centuries that followed, as a singular example from the 15th century regarding one such prayer reveals. The prayers are mostly theocentric and Christocentric in character, but in many of them the intercessive role of St. Mary is evoked. In Ruthenia Gertrude was exposed to representations of the Deesis type, characteristic of eastern Christianity. From the prince’s box in St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kiev she saw them in a form of three tondi, situated on the arch encasing the central apse, while in the apse itself was a monumental depiction of St. Mary-Oranta, eternal and omnipotent advocate in heaven, referred to in prayers as “oratrix celorum”. Of the four prayers directed exclusively to Mary two are laudatory and supplicatory and the other two just laudatory. The latter are characterized by a sophisticated literary form, division into phrases, employment of internal and external rhymes and a number of rhetorical figures (alliteration, oxymorons). A solar epithet appears here among others (“sola pulcherrima super solem”). A lot of Marian epithets, such as the Mother of God, Our Lady and the Queen of the whole world (“Dei genitrix”, “domina et regina totius orbis”) find their equivalent in one of the five miniatures. In prayer no. 86 the praise refers not only to the significance of St. Mary as the Mother of God, but to her purely feminine and maternal functions and her role of a participant and witness to the life and passion of Christ. They find their equivalents in Marian and Christological artistic series of the time. One of them is a series of scenes on the wooden door of the church Sankta Maria im Kapitol in Cologne, made ca 1050. The church was rebuilt by abbotess Ida, one of Gertrude’s aunts, who also funded the door. In this church Gertrude’s mother, Richeza, was buried. Gertrude could see the door during her stay in Rhineland in the years 1075-1076. A number o f depictions are included in miniatures in the manuscripts from the Ottonian epoch, e.g. a Scripture-Book of abbotess Hitda of Meschede from ca 1020, with an Annunciation scene. Gertrude knew a different presentation o f this scene from monumental mosaics in Kiev. The maternity o f St. Mary was presented in many different types of the Nativity. An exceptionally extended depiction in the eastern spirit, including a reference to apocryphal texts, is shown in one o f the Codex’ miniatures. Prayer no. 86 in its Polish, slightly transformed version appeared after several centuries in the so-called Nawojka’s Prayer Book, which most probably belonged to Natalia Bninska, nee Koniecpolska (ca 1463-1531) in a manuscript from the end of the 15th century. The manuscript was lost and today is known from a copy made in the first half of the 19th century, including a copy of the old silver cover - a box from the 17th century. According to the inscription on the box it was supposed to be St. Jadwiga, Duchess of Silesia’s (ca 1178-1243) collection of prayers; a tradition which was immediately questioned. It seems, however, to possess a grain of truth. Gertrude’s Codex, having changed hands many a time, was presented to the chapter o f the Cividale del Friuli Cathedral in 1229, where it has been kept since. It was presented by St. Elizabeth, Princess o f Thuringia at the instigation of her uncle Berthold, patriarch o f Aquilea. Elizabeth was Jadwiga of Silesia’s niece and Berthold was her brother. If the prayer had not been copied at the time when Gertrude’s Codex was in Cracow (and it was there as many as three times), then it could have been Jadwiga’s relatives who had it copied. At an unspecified time it was translated from Latin into Polish for Jadwiga or for the next generations of women in Poland and the translation was transformed until the 15th century version was reached

Heveliana 2011–2016

A number of publications devoted to Jan Heweliusz have been published between 2011 and 2016. On the occasion of the 400th anniversary of his birthday celebrated in 2011, four books have been published gathering the conferences and lectures, with a great deal of foreign authors presenting various aspects of the Gdańsk astronomer’s activities and achievements. In 2014, the publishing of Hevelius’s correspondence was initiated with the volume Prologomena. This article critically discusses the mentioned publications, pointing out their advantages and shortcomings.The preliminary study of the volume by Chantal Grell was also published in a Polish translation as a separate book. The author has indeed – more precisely than her predecessors – presented the years of Hevelius’s studies and the network of his correspondents, however overly emphasized his polemics with the French and English scholars. Her final conclusion, qualifying Hevelius as an amateur isolated from the leading currents of the seventeenth century, is contradictory to the evidence of his correspondence, which will be published over the next years.W latach 2011–2016 ukazało się sporo publikacji poświęconych Janowi Heweliuszowi. Z okazji czterechsetnej rocznicy jego urodzin, obchodzonych w 2011 r., zostały opublikowane cztery książki zbierające pokłosie konferencji i prelekcji, z dużym udziałem autorów zagranicznych, przedstawiających różne aspekty działalności i osiągnięć gdańskiego astronoma. W 2014 r. zainicjowano edycję korespondencji Heweliusza tomem Prologomenów. Artykuł omawia krytycznie wspomniane publikacje, wskazując ich zalety i braki.Wstępne studium tomu Prologomena Chantal Grell ukazało się także w tłumaczeniu na język polski jako osobna książka. Autorka dokładniej niż jej poprzednicy przedstawiła lata studiów Heweliusza i sieć jego korespondentów, zbytni nacisk kładąc jednak na polemiki z uczonymi francuskimi i angielskimi. Jej końcowa konkluzja, kwalifikująca Heweliusza jako amatora odizolowanego od głównych prądów w nauce XVII w., jest sprzeczna z wymową jego korespondencji, która będzie publikowana przez następne lata

Temporal relationship between systemic endothelial dysfunction and alterations in erythrocyte function in a murine model of chronic heart failure

Endothelial dysfunction (ED) and red blood cell distribution width (RDW) are both prognostic factors in heart failure (HF), but the relationship between them is not clear. In this study, we used a unique mouse model of chronic HF driven by cardiomyocyte-specific overexpression of activated Gαq protein (Tgαq*44 mice) to characterise the relationship between the development of peripheral ED and the occurrence of structural nanomechanical and biochemical changes in red blood cells (RBCs).Systemic ED was detected in vivo in 8-month-old Tgαq*44 mice, as evidenced by impaired acetylcholine-induced vasodilation in the aorta and increased endothelial permeability in the brachiocephalic artery. ED in the aorta was associated with impaired nitric oxide (NO) production in the aorta and diminished systemic NO bioavailability. ED in the aorta was also characterised by increased superoxide and eicosanoid production. In 4- to 6-month-old Tgαq*44 mice, RBC size and membrane composition displayed alterations that did not result in significant changes in their nanomechanical and functional properties. However, 8-month-old Tgαq*44 mice presented greatly accentuated structural and size changes and increased RBC stiffness. In 12-month-old Tgαq*44 mice, the erythropathy was featured by severely altered RBC shape and elasticity, increased RDW, impaired RBC deformability, and increased oxidative stress (GSH/GSSH ratio). Moreover, RBCs taken from 12-month-old Tgαq*44 mice, but not from 12-month-old FVB mice, co-incubated with aortic rings from FVB mice, induced impaired endothelium-dependent vasodilation and this effect was partially reversed by an arginase inhibitor (ABH, 2(S)-amino-6-boronohexanoic acid).In the Tgαq*44 murine model of HF, systemic endothelial dysfunction accelerates erythropathy and, conversely, erythropathy may contribute to endothelial dysfunction. These results suggest that erythropathy may be regarded as a marker and a mediator of systemic endothelial dysfunction in HF. In particular, targeting RBC arginase may represent a novel treatment strategy for systemic endothelial dysfunction in HF. RBC arginase and possibly other RBC-mediated mechanisms may represent novel therapeutic targets for systemic endothelial dysfunction in HF.Endothelial dysfunction (ED) and red blood cell distribution width (RDW) both have prognostic value for heart failure (HF), but it is not known whether these pathologies are related. We comprehensively characterized endothelial and RBC functional status in a unique murine model of chronic heart failure with a prolonged time course of HF progression. Our results suggest that ED accelerates erythropathy and, conversely, erythropathy may contribute to ED. Accordingly, erythropathy in HF reflects ED and involves various changes (in functional, structural, nanomechanical, and biochemical levels) that could have diagnostic and therapeutic significance for HF

French visitors to Hevelius’ observatory

In his youth Johann Hevelius visited many European countries, including France. There he possibly met Marin Mersenne and Ismael Boulliau, and certainly Pierre Gassendi and Athanasius Kircher. Later, for decades, it was Pierre Des Noyers (1606–1693), a secretary of Queen Louise Marie Gonzaga, who played a very important role in the astronomer’s contacts with French scholars and with both French and Polish royal courts. Des Noyers certainly made his first visit to Hevelius’ observatory at the beginning of 1646, when Louise Marie, the new queen of French origin, arrived in Poland. This visit gave rise to many personal contacts, a lively correspondence and collaboration between Des Noyers and Hevelius. In 1648, a group of envoys led by Count Louis d’Arpajon came to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and they stayed in Gdańsk (Danzig) for a long time. They made the acquaintance of Hevelius; especially among them François Bernier (1620–1688), a student and long-time companion of Gassendi, later the author of an important outline of his philosophy. Bernier returned to France via Italy where, at Hevelius’ request, he purchased for him lens glass in Murano near Venice. Years later he again rendered a service to Hevelius: Bernier’s account of Hevelius’ observatory helped to place in 1663 the Gdańsk astronomer among the scholars financially supported by Louis XIV (with an annual pension paid to him for nine years). Consequently, Hevelius dedicated two of his works to Louis XIV: Cometographia (Gdańsk 1668) and Machinae coelestis pars prior (Gdańsk 1673). Hevelius, like Tycho Brahe before him, had the opportunity to play host to crowned heads at his observatory and his home. During the negotiations in Gdańsk for the Peace Treaty of Oliva, King John Casimir and Queen Louise Marie visited Hevelius. It was then that Des Noyers watched with admiration the astronomer’s sophisticated observatory, which in those days was the largest observatory in Europe. In 1661, on his way to the Polish royal court in Warsaw, Ismael Boulliau (1605–1694), a famous French astronomer and “political scientist”, stopped at Hevelius’ place and stayed there for quite a long time. The two astronomers carried out joint observations. In his letters, written from Gdańsk, Boulliau admired the instruments built by Hevelius and his efficacy in using the instruments. Later, the two exchanged dedications to each other in their published papers. Yet, “Fig. W” in Hevelius’ Machinae coelestis pars prior (Gdańsk 1673) does not portray Boulliau, as some claim, but an astronomer’s assistant. In Autumn 1663, two brothers – Armand and Antoine de Gramont, the sons of Marshal de Gramont, who fought in King John Casimir’s military campaign against Moscow – visited Hevelius’ observatory. Hevelius mentioned their visit in one of his letters. In the early 1670s, Des Noyers stayed in Gdańsk for a longer time. He left for Warsaw during the reign of Michał Wiśniowiecki who appeared to be hostile to France. In his letter to Boulliau Des Noyers described receptions in the astronomer’s house and observations he made together with other learned people from Gdańsk. When he came again from France in late 1679, Des Noyers was a sad witness to results of the tragedy that had struck Hevelius in September of that year, when his house and his observatory were burnt in a fire. Des Noyers and Boulliau mourned in Paris at the news of the disaster and at the possible loss of the manuscripts of unpublished Hevelius’ works. Luckily, those had survived. However, the astronomer’s sophisticated instruments had perished in the fire. That was why, visitors from France who followed had no longer a chance to see famous Hevelius’ instruments. In Autumn 1681, Jean Francois Regnard (1655–1709), in later years a well-known poet and author of comedies, visited Hevelius. Subsequently, he reported his discussions with Hevelius and presented him as a great supporter of the Copernican theory. Undoubtedly, French envoys and courtiers, such as Vaubreuil and Darcy, visited Hevelius on their way to the Polish court via Gdańsk. Through them Hevelius sought – unsuccessfully – to renew his pension from Louis XIV. The King of France gave him only a one-time subsidy in the aftermath of the fire. At an unspecified time Hevelius was visited by François Paulin Dalerac, a courtier of Queen Maria Kazimiera; this visit is mentioned in Dalerac’s memoirs. Maria Kazimiera, unmarried at that time, might have accompanied Louise Marie during her visit to Hevelius’ observatory. No records are available to prove that she visited Hevelius as another French queen of Poland. Her husband, John Sobieski, visited Hevelius’ place many times and took part in observations, first while a Marshal and later as the King of Poland, Jan III (John III). All in all, we can name ten persons as conclusively identified French visitors to Hevelius. Among them there were one queen, two warrior-aristocrats, two diplomats, one courtier, one poet and three scholars

Sola Pulcherrima Super Solem - “More Beautiful than the Sun and Month” (Marian Prayer from Gertrude’s and Nawojka’s Prayer-Books)

A new critical edition of a collection of nearly one hundred Latin prayers connected with Gertrude of Poland (ca 1025-1108), Polish princess, wife of Izaslav of Kiev, has revived an interest in this exceptional example of literature and religiousness o f the eleventh century. The multiplicity of issues connected with the prayer book requires further consideration. An example might be the iconographic concord of prayers both with the accompanying miniatures and the works of art, which Gertrude encountered in the west as well as in the east -from Rhineland, where she was educated to Ruthenia, where she stayed longest. The paper examines the issue in relation to the Marian subject matter. A problem that has not as yet been touched upon is the history o f the prayers in the centuries that followed, as a singular example from the 15th century regarding one such prayer reveals. The prayers are mostly theocentric and Christocentric in character, but in many of them the intercessive role of St. Mary is evoked. In Ruthenia Gertrude was exposed to representations of the Deesis type, characteristic of eastern Christianity. From the prince’s box in St. Sophia’s Cathedral in Kiev she saw them in a form of three tondi, situated on the arch encasing the central apse, while in the apse itself was a monumental depiction of St. Mary-Oranta, eternal and omnipotent advocate in heaven, referred to in prayers as “oratrix celorum”. Of the four prayers directed exclusively to Mary two are laudatory and supplicatory and the other two just laudatory. The latter are characterized by a sophisticated literary form, division into phrases, employment of internal and external rhymes and a number of rhetorical figures (alliteration, oxymorons). A solar epithet appears here among others (“sola pulcherrima super solem”). A lot of Marian epithets, such as the Mother of God, Our Lady and the Queen of the whole world (“Dei genitrix”, “domina et regina totius orbis”) find their equivalent in one of the five miniatures. In prayer no. 86 the praise refers not only to the significance of St. Mary as the Mother of God, but to her purely feminine and maternal functions and her role of a participant and witness to the life and passion of Christ. They find their equivalents in Marian and Christological artistic series of the time. One of them is a series of scenes on the wooden door of the church Sankta Maria im Kapitol in Cologne, made ca 1050. The church was rebuilt by abbotess Ida, one of Gertrude’s aunts, who also funded the door. In this church Gertrude’s mother, Richeza, was buried. Gertrude could see the door during her stay in Rhineland in the years 1075-1076. A number o f depictions are included in miniatures in the manuscripts from the Ottonian epoch, e.g. a Scripture-Book of abbotess Hitda of Meschede from ca 1020, with an Annunciation scene. Gertrude knew a different presentation o f this scene from monumental mosaics in Kiev. The maternity o f St. Mary was presented in many different types of the Nativity. An exceptionally extended depiction in the eastern spirit, including a reference to apocryphal texts, is shown in one o f the Codex’ miniatures. Prayer no. 86 in its Polish, slightly transformed version appeared after several centuries in the so-called Nawojka’s Prayer Book, which most probably belonged to Natalia Bninska, nee Koniecpolska (ca 1463-1531) in a manuscript from the end of the 15th century. The manuscript was lost and today is known from a copy made in the first half of the 19th century, including a copy of the old silver cover - a box from the 17th century. According to the inscription on the box it was supposed to be St. Jadwiga, Duchess of Silesia’s (ca 1178-1243) collection of prayers; a tradition which was immediately questioned. It seems, however, to possess a grain of truth. Gertrude’s Codex, having changed hands many a time, was presented to the chapter o f the Cividale del Friuli Cathedral in 1229, where it has been kept since. It was presented by St. Elizabeth, Princess o f Thuringia at the instigation of her uncle Berthold, patriarch o f Aquilea. Elizabeth was Jadwiga of Silesia’s niece and Berthold was her brother. If the prayer had not been copied at the time when Gertrude’s Codex was in Cracow (and it was there as many as three times), then it could have been Jadwiga’s relatives who had it copied. At an unspecified time it was translated from Latin into Polish for Jadwiga or for the next generations of women in Poland and the translation was transformed until the 15th century version was reached

Johann Hevelius et ses démarches pour trouver des mécènes en France

SUMMARY. — The still unpublished correspondence of Hevelius, astronomer of Gdansk, shows how he sought patrons and found them in the Courts of Poland and France. More specifically, the relations of Hevelius with French scientists, with Gaston d'Orléans and later with Colbert and Louis XIV are discussed. Hevelius dedicated his Cometographia to Colbert and his Machinae coelestis Pars prior to Louis XIV who awarded him a pension from 1663 to 1671 and later a grant in 1679.RÉSUMÉ. — La correspondance — toujours inédite — de l'astronome de Gdaňsk, Hevelius, montre comment celui-ci chercha des mécènes et en trouva à la Cour de Pologne et à la Cour de France. On étudie ici plus particulièrement les relations d'Hevelius avec les savants français, avec Gaston d'Orléans, puis avec Colbert et Louis XIV. Hevelius dédia à Colbert son Prodromus cometicus et à Louis XIV sa Cometographia et sa Machinae coelestis Pars prior. Louis XIV lui attribua une pension de 1663 à 1671, puis un subside en 1679.Targosz Karolina. Johann Hevelius et ses démarches pour trouver des mécènes en France. In: Revue d'histoire des sciences, tome 30, n°1, 1977. pp. 25-41