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The article analyzes two accounts of the holy orders received by Stanisław of Kowal, a priest from the Włocławek diocese, at the end of the 15th century. The original documents including the content of the accounts have not been preserved – we are familiar only with their copies, which were recorded in the files of the General Consistory of Włocławek. The first account was prepared in Cracow on 29 September 1493. It includes the information about Stanisław being ordained to acolyte by the suffragan bishop of Cracow Paweł. The other account was written in the chancery of the bishop of Chełm Maciej. It reads that in 1494 the bishop Maciej granted Stanisław of Kowal all higher holy orders. The “source annex” enclosed to the main part of the work constitutes the edition of both sources discussed in the article.
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Until the beginning of the 18th century in Royal Prussia and the Duchy of Prussia there existed a shared consciousness of belonging to one country. This feeling is also present in the regional historical works. The common country “Preußenland” was founded on the territory of the former Teutonic state. Political changes taking place after the Thirteen Years’ War were not taken into account in this narration. Functioning as part of the Kingdom of Poland guaranteed certain regional freedoms. The characteristic feature of the Prussian historiography was the description of pagan times in a negative way comparing them with the Christian times. The rebellion of the Prussian towns was depicted as the result of the arrogance of the Teutonic Order starting from the times of the rule of Konrad von Wallenrode. The outbreak and development of the Reformation hindered the process of the creation of the rival regional identities. Historiographers did not use the sources to create one general narration, but they entwined various, sometimes contradictory, narratives in their works.
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The loss of the significant part of the territory by the Monastic State of the Teutonic Order after 1466 entailed structural changes in the state. Inspections constituted an important scrutinizing factor in various fields of life. They were a permanent element of the reforms undertaken in the Teutonic Order. The expertise of the inspectors originally was not precisely defined. However, with time they became more and precise. In the times of the rule of Grand Master Heinrich Reuß von Plauen we know only about one inspection from the Austrian bailiff in 1469. During the rule of the subsequent Grand Master Heinrich Reffle von Richtenberg (1470-1477) no inspection was recorded. During the times of Martin Truchsess von Wetzhausen (1477-1489) problems connected with the reform of the monastic life in Prussia were addressed. The discussion concerned the problem of poverty among Teutonic brothers. The great inspection was planned to take place in 1481 prior to the General Chapter. However, the General Chapter did not take place. The inspection of Livonia was postponed for 1488. In the times of Johann von Tiefen (1489-1497) the forms of inspection applied so far were discussed. One of the evidences of this discussion was a letter written by the secretary of the Grand Master’s chancery Dr Michale Sculteti, which included forms intended for the inspection. Friedrich von Sachsen-Meißen (1498-1510) at the turn of 1498/1499 issued a regulation concerning inspections and appointed inspectors. In 1502 a detailed catalogue of questions was compiled in the Teutonic chancellery as it had been earlier done by Sculteti. In the times when the Grand Commander was Simon von Drahe (1507-1510) inspections became an important tool of the internal policy of the Grand Master Friedrich von Sachsen. The decision of the General Chapter saying that an inspection should take place every year in the Teutonic Order was enforced. However, in the times of the Grand Master Albrecht von Brandenburg0Ansbach (1511-1525) inspections ceased to play an essential role in the internal policy. Only one inspection from this period is recorded – in 1519.
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Titles, seals and coats of arms of Lithuanian dukes have not been hitherto the subject of interest of historians as this issue was mainly addressed marginally in the studies on the symbols of power of Grand Dukes of Lithuania, particularly Jagiellons. Owing to the considerable number and diversification of dukes living in the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania prior to the Union of Lublin, the article focuses on the analysis of titles, seals and coats of arms used by the Gediminas family and their descendants. In the period under discussion the dukes played a major social and political role, particularly at the end of the 14th century and at the beginning of the 15th century since they ruled their own feudal duchies and cooperated (or competed) closely with the Grand Duke. Although in the 15th century they lost their political sovereignty and became part of the class of landowners, they continued to keep many privileges and still played a major role in political and social life, particularly in their provinces. Enjoying the authority and extensive influence, the dukes generated the set of symbols of power and importance, which is worth examining. The analysis of the most representative monuments shows that titles, seals and coats of arms constituted a kind of indicator reflecting the social status and the position of the Gediminas family in the country: different symbols defined the rank of the Gediminas family as feudal dukes, and different symbols referred to their position as wealthy landowners. Both in the first and second situation, the dukes were capable of using the symbols in such a way so as to create their propaganda image and express far-reaching political aspirations. The symbolism of grand dukes, in particular one of the Jagiellons, was available to the dukes and they willingly used it. The fact of being inspired by the monarch’s symbols seems to differentiate Lithuanian dukes from other branches of the ruling European dynasties. It may mean that dukes considered the fact of being related to grand dukes rather than their wealth to be the source of their power and importance.
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The article presents Nicolaus Copernicus as a clergyman against the background of the momentous epoch in the history of Europe – the transition period from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. It depicts the great astronomer, lawyer and economist against the background of the substantial cultural and religious event which took place in connection with the Reformation. In the text the author justifies why Copernicus, as a canon of Ermland, had a lower ordination, even when he took over the canonry of Ermland. The author also presents the context of Copernicus’ origin in Toruń and Royal Prussia.
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The article is devoted to the conflict between Peter Steynort, a miller from the Dzierzgoń [Christburg] commandry and the inhabitants of the Old City of Elbląg in the years 1411-1412. The details of the conflict are known from the claim put forward by Steynort to the Grand Master. In the first part of the article the conflict is described against the legal and political conditions in Elbląg at the beginning of the 15th century, while the second part includes the edition of the source. In June 1410 Peter Steynort purchased on credit an inn in the village of Myszewo [Mausdorf] situated in the patrimony of the Old City of Elblag. A month later the inn was burnt down by the Lithuanian-Ruthenian troops taking part in the siege of Marlbork [Marienburg]. In March 1411 Peter Steynort returned to Myszewo, but refused to pay off 140 marks for the inn and two hides of land saying that the commander had not agreed to the transaction. The essence of the conflict was the discrepancy between the rule of territorial jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction along with the right to exemption. The authorities of Elbląg had full rights to execute the judicial power on the territory of the city and the patrimony. On the contrary, Peter Steynort believed that he could not carry out legal actions without the permission of the commander. The source material published here shows the daily activities of the city’s courts and the belief shared by the Elbląg elites about the right to the legal-political autonomy of the city.
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The article constitutes a collection of remarks concerning military aspects of the construction and functioning of the Teutonic castle in Bezławki (Bayselauken, Bäslack) in the last decades of the 14th century. Speculations included in the article refer to opinions expressed by the authors of the collective monograph about the late medieval settlement complex in Bäslack published in 2013. It presents the findings of archeological research in the castle and the village in the years 2008-2012. Remarks presented in the article concern three out of six problems which are considered the most essential. While it goes beyond doubt that the castle played an important defensive role, the hypothesis of it being a “fortified camp” for the army during military actions of the Teutonic Order against the Lithuanians and Ruthenians has been undermined. It is not possible to consider it to play a military role on a significant strategic level, as do the authors of the monograph of 2013. In the second part of the article the author undermines the hypothesis about the “systematic” character of the complex of fortifications situated on the eastern Prussian border. If the castle in Bäslack was indeed part of some defensive system, it could operate on the local level and consist of an insignificant number of elements including longitudinal fortifications constituting the so called “Landwehr”. The next issue addressed by the author was a problem of the typology of the term “wildhaus”. As in the 14th century the term connoted the location of the fortification on the border of the forest, the author shows a far-reaching morphological diversity of fortifications on the eastern outskirts of the Prussian state, which were or could be classified as “wildhauses”. Thus, a “wildhaus” cannot be classified as a morphological type of a fortification. The typology of fortifications based on the morphological criteria cannot be connected with the typology based on the administrative and terminological criteria. Archeological examination of the Bäslack fortification evinces its major cognitive potential and makes us aware of how little is known about the functioning of minor fortifications in late medieval Prussia. Further research in this field belongs to one of the most important elements of historical science in the Prussian regional dimension and related branches of science.
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The edition presents the sources concerning the borders between the Duchy of Słupsk and the Monastic State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia of the 14th and 15th century. The basis for the edition are records included in the boundary book – the so called Grenzbuch B with the entry number OF 270a preserved in XX. Hauptabteilung in the Secret State Archive in Berlin-Dahlem. Among the published sources, texts no. 3, 6, 7 were edited by Reinhold Cramer, but they fail to include the dates (no. 6, 7) and the explanations of topographic names appearing in them. The remaining texts were not published (no. 1–2, 4–5, 8–12). The first group of sources (no. 1–4) was written in the period from the second half of the 14th century to the beginning of the 15th century. The second group of descriptions (no. 507) resulted from the circuit [Polish: ujazd] around the boundary by the Gdańsk commander Albrecht, earl von Schwarzburg of the end of 1405. They were included in the introductory Pomeranian-Teutonic border agreement of 14 October 1407, next in the sealed agreement of 23 September 1408. The creation of the third group of descriptions (8–9) should be associated with Teutonic preparations to the arbitration agreement in front of the Roman and Hungarian king Sigismund of Luxembourg, and with the activity of the sub-arbiter Benedict Makrai in the years 1412–1413. The last group of descriptions (no. 10–12) was created in the situation of the conflict concerning the establishment of the border between the Człuchów commandry and the Szczecinek land in the vicinity of Dołgie Lake in 1417. None of the published sources presents the whole Pomeranian-Teutonic border from the estuary of the river Łeba to the Baltic Sea in the north to Lędyczek in the south, but its individual fragments. Description no. 1 includes the description of the border between the Człuchów commandry / the Tuchola commandry and the Kingdom of Poland. In source no. 2 there is a list of arbitrators from the Pomeranian party and the Teutonic party negotiating the border between the villages of Oskowo and Siemirowice / Unieszyno. The information about informer and arbitrators may be found in source no. 3 (both the Pomeranian and Teutonic parties) and no. 4 (the Teutonic party). Each of the published descriptions is characterized by precision and plethora of topographic names. They should be used for the analysis of the problem of shaping and functioning of the border between the Duchy of Słupsk and the Monastic State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia in the context of the political and economic situation on the Pomeranian-Teutonic borderland in the Late Middle Ages.
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To-date the architecture of the Bochnia Parish Church has not inspired much investigative curiosity. Most generally the scholars have limited themselves to dating and pointing to brick Gothic from the North as the building’s inspiration. An attempt has been made in the paper to reconstruct the genuine appearance of the Church before its Gothic Revival remodelling (which led to alterations in the western façade gable), as well as to analyse it in the perspective of the architecture of Lesser Poland and Central Europe. The plan of the building finds a number of analogies with the structures in the region, but also in Bohemia and Silesia. However, what proves utterly untypical of Lesser Poland is the western gable modelled possibly on Gdansk gables or, which is more likely, those in Saxony. It is highly probable that the current shape of the church was created in several stages: from the early 15th century until around its second quarter the chancel was raised, with the nave body built in the subsequent years, however the current form of the Church’s western façade resulted from the rebuilding after the fire in cca 1485, conducted at the turn of the 16th century or in the first quarter of the latter.
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One of the political letters, deemed worthy to be cited and copied by Pope Pius II (olim Enea Silvio Piccolomini) in his Commentaries, was the message allegedly sent by Vlad III the Impaller(Dracula), voivode of Wallachia, to Sultan Mehmed II on November 7, 1462. The missive was the textual embryo of Book XI, chapter 12 (Iohannis Dragule immanis atque nefanda crudelitas, eiusque in regem Hungarie deprehensa perfidia, et tandem captivitas), covering over a fifth of the chapter. The Dragula chapter was placed between the depiction (in chapter 11) of the Viennese conspiracy against Albert VI of Habsburg, the rival brother of Emperor Frederick III of Habsburg (April 1462), and the emphatic presentation (in chapter 13) of the royal anti-Ottoman request sent by Stephen Tomašević, the new king of Bosnia, to Pius II (roughly a year earlier, in the late summer of 1461, a date the pope failed nevertheless to mention, though he extensively quoted both the oration of Tomašević's envoys and the subsequent papal response). The case of John Dragula explicitly linked chapters 11 and 13. Frequently overlooked, the chapters bordering the infamous deeds of the voivode of Wallachia formed its logical political context, founded on Matthias Corvinus. The son of John Hunyadi, who had executed John Dragula's father, Vlad II Dracul (just Dragula according to the pope), was (as recorded also by Pius II): (1) the overlord (i.e. suzerain) of John Dragula, (2) the archrival of Frederick III, and (3) the challenged suzerain of Stephen Tomašević. Prior to the Dragula issue of 1462, Pius II had loyally served Frederick as his secretary and envoy (from late 1442 until he was elected pope in August 1458) and had sent a crown for Stephen Tomašević's royal coronation on Christmas Day 1461 (against the opposition of Matthias, whose Bosnian rights Pius II claimed however, in his Commentaries, to have defended). Starting with the case of John Dragula, the most famous Wallachian in Enea's/ Pius' writings, the study focuses on the actual case at hand: that of humanist/ pope and his designs for an continent and a faith in turmoil.
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Some hypotheses assert that the reign of King Matthias is also highlighted by the establishment of a social category that brought together nobles of humble origins who served the crown as soldiers, officials or direct servants of the court and king. As a result, they had a direct relationship with the king and they could gain significant benefits. In this regard the example of Severin's ban, Francisc Haraszti is significant. His political career was linked from the beginning to his work at the royal court. The accompaniment of the king on the war theaters brought them the function of ban, which once represented a dignity of the barons. Significant is that, like the other nobles of humble origins, after the death of Matthias, Haraszti also remained a faithful of the Hunyadi clan. Without betraying his benefactor and former sovereign, the ban of Severin continued to serve his son. However, some financial misunderstandings determined him to leave Ioan Corvin's service. The initiative was not to the liking of his senior who tried to hold him accountable. He later remained loyal to the Jagiellonian kings who offered him the fortress of Lewa and the leadership of the county of Arad, where he owned numerous properties. Due to his longevity, Haraszti was in the direct service of three kings and managed to accumulate a significant fortune as well as obtaining the rank of baron.
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A Romanian nobiliary elite grew up in the medieval mountainous and piedmontainous Banat, integrated with its specific shapes in the country nobility due to the interest the central power had in enabling those local nobles to take part in the military frequent campaigns that that border territory of the Magyar kingdom was involved in the 14th – 17th centuries. A series of noble families took shape there, well individualized both by their members’ identity and the ensemble of their possessions; given an uninterrupted line of generations, they were familial nuclei that impress in many of the cases by their longevity, from the first documentary records in the second half of the 14th century up to the end of the 17th century. Certainly, we might to stand out the great Romanian noble families in the Banat, with tens of villages or parts of them, with members frequently named egresius, but also some more modest families, rarely possessing more than their native village (by donation and acquisitions) that set as autonomous units given the public services they developed. The members of the first category appointed for counts, vice-counts, or bans and vice-bans of Severin County or Jaica, as well as knights, courtiers or clerks around the Royal Court, so to say functions of a great responsibility, representing the central authority first of all, the other local public men, appointed as nobiliary judges, prime-judges, town criers, or jury men, arbitrators or men of the king, were rather exponents of the noble community in the area. The case of the family of Marga is different somehow, a sample of a contradictory state of things: on the one hand, two of the family’s members came near the most important local dignities – Jacob of Marga, a vice-ban and castellan of Severin between 1459 and 1478, the other one, George Marga (Jacob’s son), a deputy ban of Severin, in 1515. Their power and influence or their welfare, on the other hand, seem fragile and random if seen through what the papers let us know for 150 years about, from the first attestations around 1470 up to the middle of the 17th century. I have thought that this is a case to be brought to the researchers’ attention as “another” way to turn to what a statute of noble meant at that time. Consequently, I have focused on the structure and genealogical lines of the Mărgans in spite of questions and inconsistency resulting from lacunar documentary data.
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The paper presents preliminary data on leather and textile artifacts from the Timisoara site, Sfântu Gheorghe Square 2014, data that will be taken into account when initiating the conservation operations of the artifacts.
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Conversion into Islam in general is anyway an important historical question, sufficiently illuminated so far. From the studies that had been published by now, and which dealt only with Bosnia and Hercegovina, one could notice several view points. These have to do with the begining, intensity, motives and circumstances under which this process developed, as well as ethnical and confesional structure of the population, that was converted to Islam. To illuminate the question in its entirety it was necessary in our oppinion to do some research into the individual narrow areas, which are also limited terms of time. Therefore, this study deals only with this problem in the region of the North - East Bosnia and a part of the Bosnian Posavina, including the period till the end of 16ct. Examining turkish inventory defters which are the most important source and have not been utilized so far in the papers at all, one can say that from our view point the Moslems of Bosnia and Hercegovina accepted Islam from the Bogumils, as well as some stand points after which mainly Catholics accepted Islam, should be corrected.
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Gleichzeitig mit dem Prozess der Islamlsierung der Albaner, welcher im XV Jahrhundert begann, begint auch fein starker Durchbruch der Albaner in die türkische militärische und administrative Hierarchie. Beginnend von Gedik Ahmed-Pascha, einem der berüm-testen Eroberer aus der Periöde des Mehmeds II Fatih. bis Avlonali Ferid Pascha, welcher der Gross-Wesier im Jahre 1905 war, begegnen wir einer grossen Zahl von Gross-Wesieren, Ihrer Stellvertreter, von Beglerbegs, Sandschakbegs, verschiedenen Kommandanten und anderen Würdenträgern albanischer Abstammung. Auch ein Durchbruch der Albaner in die türkische Literatur ist zu erwähnen. Anfangend von Süzi aus Prizren und Mesihi aus Prischtina, dann über dem 'Masischen Dichter Dukaginzade Yahya-bey, »den türirischen Montesqueiu« Kocibey, den ersten Rektor der Istanbul Universität Hodscha Tahsin, den grössten türkischen Lexikographen und Enzyklopädisten Semseddin Sämi Frasery, den grössten türkischen Dieter und Autor der türkischen nationalen Hymne Mehmed Akif, und den grössten türkischen Philosophen Riza Teufik, war eine grosse Zahl von Albanern welche ihren originellen Beitrag der türkischen Literatur gegeben hat.
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The article discusses the reasons and circumstances of the trip made by the famous icon painters Andrei Rublev and Daniil Cherny in 1408 to Vladimir-on-Klyazma in 1408, commissioned by the Grand Prince Vasily Dmitrievich in order to «renew» frescos of the Assumption Cathedral. The trip resulted in one of the most famous fresco ensembles of the Russian Middle Ages. In historiography, it is customary to explain the arrival of the icon painters to Vladimir by the constant concern of the Grand Prince authorities about the cultural and political «Vladimir heritage». The article suggests that a possible reason for the beginning of the works was the preparation of Vladimir and other cities on the former lands of the Grand Principality of Vladimir for their transfer to the governance of the Lithuanian Prince Svidrigailo Olgerdovich. In the summer of 1408 Svidrigailo left for Russia accompanied by the Bryansk bishop, Lithuanian Orthodox princes, boyars and a military squad. Awarding the ancient capital of the Great Principality to the new «servant» of the Grand Prince Vasily Dmitrievich Vladimir was unprecedented. Vladimir-on-Klyazma was never mentioned among the Russian territories granted to other Lithuanian princes who passed into the service of Moscow in the 14th–15th centuries. Svidrigailo Olgerdovich’s «departure» and the simultaneous commanding of the icon painters to the city to work on the paintings of the cathedral was hardly an accident. At the end of the same year, Svidrigailo Olgerdovich left his new «service», and due to that the works on frescos were suspended and never not resumed in the future.
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Wyraz naród należy do słownictwa rodzimego, mającego genezę prasłowiańską. Jego podstawę etymologiczną stanowił czasownik* na-roditi ‘urodzić’, stąd pierwotne znaczenie rzeczownika * narodъ – ‘narodzenie’ > ‘to, co się narodziło, urodziło’. To ogólne znaczenie stało się podstawą znaczeń bardziej wyspecjalizowanych, których występowanie w polszczyźnie rejestrują teksty od XIV–XV w.: ‘potomstwo, ród, rodzina, krewni’, ‘ludzie, lud, plemię’. Poczynając od XV w., rzeczownik naród zyskuje znaczenie ‘narodowość, nacja’ pod wpływem łac. natio, ~onis [por. BSEJP, BESJP]. [...]
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