Testament patriarchy jerozolimskiego Jerzego Marii Laskarysa ze zbiorów Archiwum Zamku Królewskiego w Warszawie
The last will and testament of Georgius Maria Lascaris,latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, in the archives of the Royal Castle in Warsaw

Summary/Abstract: Publications of last wills and testaments are currently one of the most popular types of source documents. However, Polish scholars tend to focus on wills written in Polish and ignore documents in foreign languages that have been preserved in Polish collections. The aim of this article is to fill this void. The first part of the article is an introduction to a document of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Georgius Maria Lascaris (1706–1795). It contains information about his lineage—he was a descendant of the Byzantine emperors who ruled in the empire of Nicaea in the thirteenth century. It also discusses the connections between the Lascaris family and European royal and aristocratic families after the fall of Constantinople, as well as the influence his family members had on the intellectual and cultural life in early modern Europe. Further on in the document, there is mention of Georgius Maria’s ecclesiastical career and his rise through the ranks of the church, which was possible mainly due to the patronage of powerful aristocratic families: the Sobieskis, the Radziwiłłs and the Zamoyskis, as well as the benevolence of successive popes. At the end, the Patriarch’s family ties with his nephew, Theodore, and other members of the Lascaris family are mentioned. The second part of the article is devoted to a specific edition of the Patriarch’s last will and testament housed in the archives of the Royal Castle in Warsaw – Museum. Its exceptional value lies mainly in the large number of bequests made to representatives of the Roman Curia, religious organizations, and relatives. The will illustrates the connections between Georgius Maria and Tomasz Antici (1731–1812), the Minister Plenipotentiary of the Polish king, as well as his ties with King Stanisław August himself. These connections were due to Lascaris’ strong position in the Roman Curia and his intransigent anti-Russian stand, which had a huge impact on on-going political and religious disputes in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

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