Ukazał się 1 zeszyt rocznika 2018, zapraszamy do zapoznania się ze spisem treści i abstraktami artykułów

ROZPRAWY

KRZYSZTOF NAWOTKA – Odziani w szarawary młodziankowie w piecu ognistym (Da. 3.21 i 3.27)

ANNA SKOLIMOWSKA – Przyczynek do biografii Jana Dantyszka: kilka uzupełnień i sprostowań dotyczących jego pochodzenia i edukacji

PAWEŁ SZADKOWSKI – Weterani wojny Hiszpanii z Francją i Katalonią (1635–1659) w starciu z administracją hiszpańską

DOROTA DUKWICZ – „l’humanité [...] m’oblige à contribuer aux progrès de l’instruction en Pologne", czyli o kulisach ustanowienia Komisji Edukacji Narodowej

JERZY GRZYBOWSKI – Białorutenizacja w czasie segregacji ras. Zrzeszenie Białoruskie w Okręgu Generalnym Łotwa (1941–1945)

MATERIAŁY

KATARZYNA GOŁĄBEK – Spadek po Janie Zygmuncie Zápolyi w skarbcu tykocińskim Zygmunta Augusta. Przyczynek do genezy i losów tzw. korony węgierskiej ze skarbca koronnego

RECENZJE

ANDRZEJ KARPIŃSKI – Twarzą w twarz z morem (Epidemie w dziejach Europy. Konsekwencje społeczne, gospodarcze i kulturowe, red. Krzysztof Polek, Łukasz Tomasz Sroka, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Uniwersytetu Pedagogicznego im. Komisji Edukacji Narodowej, Kraków 2016 (Prace Monograficzne, 756)

RYSZARD STEMPLOWSKI – O intelektualistach walecznych (Michael Zantke, Bewaffnete Intelektuelle. Die Bedeutung für den Nationalsozialismus und die konservative Revolution, przedmowa Heinz Kleger, WeltTrends, Potsdam 2017)

Testamenty w księgach miejskich wileńskich z XVI i XVII wieku. Katalog, oprac. Kamil Frejlich, Wydawnictwo Semper, Warszawa 2017 (Katalogi Testamentów Mieszkańców Miast z Terenów Korony i Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego do 1795 roku, I) (Bernadetta Manyś)

Cristina González Caizán, Por Napoleón en España. Los soldados polacos en los Sitios de Zaragoza (1808–1809), Foro para el Estudio de la Historia Militar de España, Madrid 2017 (Jan Kieniewicz)

Jeremy Black, The British Empire. A History and a Debate, Asghate Publishing, Farnham 2015 (Krzysztof Marchlewicz)

Jiří Friedl, Tomasz Jurek, Miloš Řezník, Martin Wihoda, Dějiny Polska, Nakladatelství Lidové Noviny, Praha 2017 (Dějiny Států) (Maciej Górny)

KRZYSZTOF NAWOTKA

Sirwal-wearing young men in the fiery furnace (Da 3:21 and 3:27)

The story of young men in the fiery furnace is part of the oldest layer of the Book of Daniel. It must have originated in the Achaemenid period, in either Babylon or Palestine. Two or three elements of the garments worn by the Jewish nobles at Nebuchadnezzar’s court, traditionally referred to as young men, have obvious Persian connotations. This applies in particular to their headgear (karbalah) and trousers (sarbal in Arameic and σαράβαρα in Greek). The meaning of this last word, very often translated as “cloak”, has been subject of much scholarly controversy. An analysis of its use in other ancient texts as well as evidence of ancient and medieval lexicons unequivocally show that the correct translation of sarbal is “trousers”. It is an Old Persian word, a reconstructed original pronunciation of which is *šara-vara, which in Middle and New Persian evolved into šalvar. The word refers to baggy trousers, often tucked into shoes, and is both a lexical and semantic equivalent of the Old Polish word szarawary. It should, therefore, be said in Polish that the Jewish men from the Book of Daniel wore szarawary – typical trousers of Polish noblemen in the 17th and 18th centuries. The introduction into the story of Persian garments, including trousers, garments alien to Jewish culture, suggests that the story originated in the Achaemenid era, as is in any case also suggested by features of the (imperial) Aramaic language, in which this part of the Book of Daniel was written. We know that Persian garments were regarded as highly prestigious among the Greeks and non-Iranian elites of Asia Minor, and the Book of Daniel demonstrates that a similar attitude to Persian dress and Persian culture can be observed also among the Jewish elites of the Achaemenid period.

ANNA SKOLIMOWSKA

A supplement to the biography of Jan Dantyszek: some additions and corrections

concerning his origins and education

The author of the article corrects and specifies some information about the family background and education of Jan Dantyszek (1485–1548), an outstanding diplomat and humanist in the service of the Jagiellons. Drawing on the results of wide-ranging research into and editorial work on Dantyszek’s correspondence and writings, conducted at the University of Warsaw, she discusses the following issues: the name of Dantyszek’s father (Jan and not Szymon as some scholars incorrectly assumed); the place of Dantyszek’s pre-university education (parish school in Grudziądz; other suggestions are not substantiated by sources); the period of his university education (an analysis of documents from the universities in Greifswald and Kraków in comparison with other documents makes it possible to extend the period of Dantyszek’s formal studies at least by one semester in Kraków in 1507; he may have received a master’s degree at the end); date of his official hiring by the king’s chancellery (according to a reference in one of the letters, Dantyszek worked already for Krzesław of Kurozwęki); Dantyszek’s journey to the Holy Land (a comparison between the autobiographical Carmen paraeneticum with a birthday poem for Dantyszek by K. Ursyn); Dantyszek’s stay at the imperial court in 1515–1517 (references to Dantyszek in J. Vadian’s commentary on the works of Pomponius Mela, circumstances in which Dantyszek obtained a doctorate of both laws, direct opinion of Emperor Maximilian about the Polish diplomat); Dantyszek’s scholarly interests (in the light of research into his book collection).

PAWEŁ SZADKOWSKI

Veterans of Spain’s war with France and Catalonia (1635–1659) facing the Spanish administration

The aim of the article is to analyse the system of care for veterans in 17th-century Spain and thus to outline the subject, barely present in historiography, of veterans in the modern period. Although the Castilian monarchy had taken notice of maimed and impoverished soldiers already since the times of Charles V, it was not until the reign of King Philip V that reforms became possible to create an organised and centralised system of aid for veterans. The turn of the Spanish monarchy towards forced levy and the inflow of veterans of wars in the Netherlands, France and the Empire brought about a change in the perception of the responsibility of the state for its soldiers. The Renaissance theory of a just war, developed in Spain by e.g. Juan Luis Vives and Francisco Vitoria, required the monarch to care for the welfare of the state and its interests, but it did not stress the responsibility a ruler should take for his subjects fighting in a war (as e.g. Erasmus of Rotterdam advocated). However, the first half of the 17th century was marked by a dynamic development of support the state began to provide to veterans. Within less than 40 years (from the publication of Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera’s groundbreaking Amparo de Pobres in 1598 to the royal ordinance of 1632 which marked an explicit takeover of responsibility for the veterans by the monarch) Spain would create the first elements of a centralised, administration-controlled system of support for former soldiers. To present its functioning and effectiveness the author uses examples of veterans of the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659) as well as participants in the fight against insurgents in Catalonia (1640–1652), specifically, members of one of the royal guards (the so-called Archeros), who accompanied King Philip IV during his expeditions to the Crown of Aragon. The article does not focus exclusively on the veterans’ requests for financial support for themselves or their families; the author also presents the attitude of the administration to widows and daughters, often living on the brink of poverty after the death of a guardsman.

DOROTA DUKWICZ

“l’humanité [...] m’oblige à contribuer aux progrès de l’instruction en Pologne”

 – on the inside story of the founding of the Commission of National Education

The establishment of the Commission of National Education in October 1773 during a partition session of the parliament sitting in Warsaw under the auspices of the partitioning powers, especially Russia, was closely linked to the negotiations over the partitioner-imposed government reform and to the ratification of the partition treaties. So far only Władysław Konopczyński has pointed to these links and, in his study of the Permanent Council, mentioned the involvement of the Russian ambassador, Otto Magnus von Stackelberg, in the establishment of the CEN. In order to shed more light on this thread, I refer to the Russian diplomatic correspondence. On its basis I describe the involvement of the Russian diplomat in the support for King Stanisław August’s ideas for reforming the education system. Stackelberg’s support for the king was a kind of reward for the monarch’s consent to the ratification of the partition treaties. In exchange the ambassador expected the king’s consent to the introduction of the Permanent Council. Indeed, the matters of education reform and the takeover – closely linked to the reform – by the state of the property of the dissolved Jesuit Order became one of the areas of rapprochement between the king and the ambassador. Thanks to the collaboration between the king’s and the ambassador’s supporters it became possible to submit to a duly authorised parliamentary delegation the CEN bill, which was subsequently quickly passed. In the last stage of the negotiations the king’s and the ambassador’s supporters worked on the text of a resolution establishing the commission at the Russian embassy. Stackelberg and with him his Saint Petersburg principals regarded education as an issue of no importance from the point of view of the Russian interests in Poland and thus did not seek to impose any specific solutions. This enabled King Stanisław August to introduce most of his own ideas.

JERZY GRZYBOWSKI

The Belarusian Union in the General District of Latvia (1941–1945)

In the summer of 1941 Latvia was seized by Wehrmacht and, consequently, the country found itself under the German occupation regime. Latvia’s ethnic structure was varied, with Belarusians being one of the most numerous minority groups. Applying the principle of “divide and rule”, the German occupation authorities were willing to grant some degree of cultural and educational autonomy to them. The local Belarusian intelligentsia saw this as an opportunity to consolidate their influence in Latgale, which was treated as part of the so-called Belarusian ethnographic area. Thus, guided by cold political calculation, they began to collaborate with the invader. In 1941 a Belarusian National Committee (Belarusian Union from the spring of 1942) was formed in Riga and Daugavpils. In its activities the organisation focused mainly on social as well as cultural and educational work among people living in Latgale. It ran choirs and artistic ensembles and was involved in publishing as well as other cultural and educational activities. In addition, attempts were made to introduce the Belarusian language into Catholic and Orthodox churches. There were efforts to put Belarusian nationals in various offices at lower and middle level of civilian administration and local government in some municipalities in Latgale. However, what should be regarded as a priority for Belarusians was the organisation of a school system in their mother tongue. Towards the end of the German occupation of Latvia the activists of the Belarusian Union had to take care of war refugees from Belarus. The Belarusians’ activity worried many Latvians, because the leaders of the Belarusians in Latvia took considered a possibility of Latgale being incorporated into Belarus in the future. For a variety of reasons the “Belarusian campaign” in Latvia under German occupation was not very successful.

KATARZYNA GOŁĄBEK

The John Sigismund Zápolya inheritance in Sigismund Augustus’ treasury.

On the history of the so-called Hungarian crown from the Crown Treasury

The article is devoted to the part of the inheritance from the last national king of Hungary, John Sigismund Zápolya, that fell to the Jagiellons. The author discusses in detail the circumstances in which the Polish envoys received the inheritance in the capital of Transylvania (Alba Iulia) from the executors of the king’s will; the division of the inheritance between members of the Jagiellon family: King of Poland Sigismund Augustus and his sisters – Princess Anna, Queen Catherine of Sweden and Sophia, Duchess of Brunswick; as well as the controversies surrounding the matter. Inheritance inventories kept in the Landesarchiv Hannover as well as documents from the Archivio Segreto Vaticano provide the basis for a reconstruction of a complete or nearly complete list of the valuables that eventually found their way, as the property of Sigismund Augustus, into his private treasury at the Tykocin Castle. Particular attention is paid to the gold royal insignia (crown, orb and sceptre) that were part of the inheritance. In this part of the article the author focuses on correcting erroneous ideas and theses, well-established in historiography, concerning primarily the role the so-called Hungarian crown apparently played in the coronation of Stefan Batory in 1576, and the look of the insignia.