Personalitatea lui Iustin Handrea, reliefată în pagini de carte
Nota de lectură
Gheorghe Dărăban, Iustin Handrea - istorie şi destin, Tîrgu Mureş, Editura Vatra Veche, 2018, 201 p.
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Nota de lectură
Gheorghe Dărăban, Iustin Handrea - istorie şi destin, Tîrgu Mureş, Editura Vatra Veche, 2018, 201 p.
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The Roman Catholic parish in Nawarzyce (the Świętokrzyskie Province, the Kielce Diocese) has a medieval origins (first mentioned in 1345). There is situated a brick church of St. Andrew the Apostle and St. Anna, built in the mid-seventeenth century as the foundation of the abbot of Jędrzejów, Bernard Łaszewski. The decoration of the temple is mostly from around 1780 and is in the Baroque and Rococo style. The interior hides several unique monuments, such as a stone bowl-shaped baptismal font, supported on the backs of lions, and a wooden boatshaped pulpit supported by four naked mermaids. The document being the basis for below edition is stored in the Diocesan Archives in Kielce. This manuscript has not yet been published and exploited to a greater extent by historians. It is valuable because it contains many interesting, hitherto unknown facts about the church in Lubcza, destroyed by Calvinists during the Reformation, as well as the parish itself – incorporated into the Nawarzyce parish in 1690.
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This article is an attempt to interpret the iconographic and semantic content encoded in disc pendants with equestrian images attributed to St George fighting the snakedragon. They are known mainly from the northern and north-eastern Rus’ lands (end of the 11th – mid 13th century), as well as Poland (mid-12th – first half of the 13th century) and Latvia (end of the 12th–14th centuries). They were created in accordance with the canons of Christian iconography, to show both God’s power and the power of the saint. At the same time, their content reaches deeper layers of meaning, related to the representation of the cosmic duel between the primal forces identified with chaos and destruction and striving to introduce a social and civilization order. The iconographic program shown on these subjects can be read as a Christianized visualization and update of the motif which is a mythical representation of God’s confrontation with evil. The archetypal meaning of the struggle of opposing forces is contained in the painting of St George triumphing over evil and darkness. In the drakomachia scene depicted on the pendants, the weapon directed at the reptilian figure under the horse’s hooves is a spear. Therefore, it is a spearhead directed at the negatively valorized zone. In line with the spatial valorization of the world, the “bottom” opposed to the “top” was associated with the presence of chthonic forces.The religious-symbolic and mythological meaning of the content presented on the pendants in question indicates their syncretic character. These objects, as devotional items, could be a testimony to the ongoing processes of Christianization and the acceptance of the new faith, but also – despite their general compliance with the canons of Christian iconography – serve as a traditionally understood protective measure against the forces of evil, i.e. an amulet. One, moreover, did not have to contradict the other, and the willingness to manifest one’s status must also be taken into account. The funerary context indicates that the pendants were used by women in this dual role. Due to the military-religious significance, their addressees and recipients could also be warriors, although in this case we can only guess that.
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The sword was discovered accidentally in the Panna River in the village of Zyndranowa (community Dukla, Podkarpackie voivodeship, south-eastern Poland). Currently, it is stored in the Castle Museum “Kamieniec” in Odrzykoń near Krosno (inv. no. M27/01/K).The sword from Zyndranowa is not fully preserved, probably about 20–25 cm of the blade in point part has been broken off and has not survived. Current dimensions of the sword: total length – 99.0 cm; blade length – 76.0 cm; width of the blade at the cross-guard – 5.6 cm; length of the fuller – 49.5 cm; length of the cross-guard – 22.5 cm; height of the octagonal pommel – 4.3 cm, pommel width of the pommel – 5.2 cm, pommel thickness – 3.5 cm, diameter of the oval recesses in the pommel – 1.3 cm. The weight of the preserved part of the sword achieves 1328 g.The blade represents a type XVIa, the cross-guard type 1a and the pommel type I1 according to R.E. Oakeshott typology.There are three marks on the sword from Zyndranowa. On the one side of the grip shank there is an oval recess (1.0 × 1.2 cm) with raised letter “S” in the centre. It is most likely a sign of the blacksmith’s workshop where the blade was made. On both sides of the blade, about 8.5 cm below the cross-guard, there are two different marks made by incrusting with non-ferrous metal. The first is the sign of the cross with split ends (cross fourchée), enclosed in a double circle. The second sign is much more difficult to determine. It resembles the Gothic letter A also enclosed in a double circle. However, it has an additional vertical bar in the middle, so it may be a combination of two letters AA or AR.Swords such as the specimen from Zyndranowa (XVIa, I1 (I1b), 1 (1a)) are popular forms among finds from Poland (about a dozen pieces in this type). There are also specimens with an S-shaped blacksmith’s mark on the grip. The available analogies and typology of the sword discussed here allow us to establish the dating of it to the period between the mid-14th and mid-15th centuries (probably the narrowing down to the beginning of the 15th century will be more adequate). Particularly noteworthy is the similarity to the sword from Ciechanów and the specimen from the collection of the National Museum in Wrocław (a similar typology and a sign with the letter “S”), perhaps they would have been made at the same workshop.The place where the sword of Zyndranowa was found can be associated with the use of the communication and trade route running through the Dukielska Pass in the Middle Ages. It is another find of a medieval sword from the aquatic environment, which is very common in Poland – over 50% of swords from the 10th–15th centuries were discovered in rivers and lakes.
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Neumark and Sternberg Land- the provinces which were established as a result of the expansion of margraves in the 13th and 14th centuries into Greater Poland and Western Pomerania – are far from proper recognition. Similar remarks should be made to the medieval armament of these regions. The information about the existence of an accidentally found, late-medieval sword from this region, that had never been published and found its way into private collections, should be welcomed with interest.The sword remained in fairly good condition to our times; however, corrosion pits are visible, indicating its deposition in the ground. It has not very common type of blade with a ridge, characterized by a rhomboidal cross-section, considerable length, slenderness and a clearly marked point that allows it to be classified as type XVIIIb, which is dated in the literature from the second half of the 15th to the beginning of the 16th century. Swords with blades of the type XVIIIb were much stiffer and therefore more suitable for thrusts and piercing of armour. For this reason, they were considered a weapon to fight the enemy protected by plate armor. The form of a S-shaped crossguard with horizontally bent arms indicates its connection with the Style 12 or its variant 12a. The pear-shaped pommel allow to classify it as a T3 Type according to Oakeshott. The presence of diagonal grooves only at the top of the pommel makes it similar to the specimen from the Museum in Karlovy Vary, from the first half of the Sixteenth century.Blade of type XVIIIb are known mainly from Western and Central Europe and they were produced in Passau in Bavaria and in Hall in Tyrol. The mark in the form of the St. Andrew, visible on the blade of the analyzed sword, appears quite often on the tangs of swords from Central Europe. However, it is difficult to say unequivocally whether the second sign: a cross with forked top, which marked its blade, should be associated with blacksmith or sword maker workshops. They appear both on the tangs and blades. Both typological and iconographic arguments indicate that the sword should be dated to the end of the 15th – beginning of the 16th century, with a slight indication of the time around 1500, when it could be produced and used.The form of the sword, which enables both one-handed and two-handed combat, allows to consider analyzed sword as a bastard’s sword (Bastardschwert). The clear enhancement of the tip of sword, as well as the pear-shaped pommel, which allows for a better grip when giving powerful thrusts, indicate that the tested sword can be considered a weapon used mainly in armored foot combat (the so-called Harnischfechten).His appearance on the borderland of Neumark and Sternberg Land should be associated with the renaissance of the idea of organizing knightly tournaments that prevailed among the rulers of the Reich, including Brandenburg margraves from the Hohenzollern dynasty.
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The collections of Buchlov State Castle include, among other things, a richly decorated late medieval long-sword that can be, based on its overall character, including maker’s marks on its blade, reliably interpreted as a so-called magistrate’s sword made around the turn of the 16th century in Passau, Bavaria. This article discusses the nature of its decoration in comparison with other similar preserved Central European magistrates’ swords of Passau provenance, as well as both the practical and symbolic function of these weapons.
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The article discusses the sword stored in the Mazuria Museum in Szczytno (inv. no. MMA-30/920/72). It comes from the pre-war collection of the Prussia Museum and has not been published before. The item is preserved in fairly good condition – only the stock part of the head is missing. The sword head is quite narrow and preserved at a length of 615 mm, with a total length of the weapon 855 mm. The cross-guard is very distinctive, with an S-shaped top projection, and it was made of an iron bar with a variable polygonal cross-section. The pommel has the form of an inverted pear and is slightly damaged at the base.On the basis of its constructional features, the sword from Szczytno should be classified as a late medieval specimen with a type XVIIIa blade according to R.E. Oakeshott, 12a cross-guard and T5 pommel. Analogous surviving specimens from contemporary Poland and Central Europe, as well as iconographic representations prove that this type of sword, with slender, rhomboidal blade, S-shaped cross-guard and pear-shaped pommel, was most popular in the second half of the 15th century and the first quarter of the 16th century. As the information about the circumstances of obtaining this piece is too laconic – it was supposed to have been found at the castle – we can only generally date it as the above quoted examples.
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Vehicles were used to transport people, animals, goods and many other things, and therefore they have been accompanying man for a long time in his daily work, travel and war. According to the title of this article, its subject are very expensive vehicles for ladies and gentlemen, the great of this world, and less expensive, but with a solid structure for the little ones in medieval and early modern Poland. They were litters, cradles and carriages, but the roads were dominated by ordinary carts of merchants and peasants, used for traveling and transporting their belongings, goods and crops. The price of the car depended on its size, equipment and purpose. The cheapest cost 32 grossi (1 mark = 48 grossi), but most often 2–3 marks. The royal asseda dicta colebca in 1394 cost as much as 8 marks and it is the most expensive vehicle recorded in sources until the 16th century. The price list of Piotr Kmita, the voivode of Kraków from 1538, lists 4 types of the most popular cars. The first is a chariot with a two-horse (currus alias Ridwan) for 2 florins (1 florin = 32 grossi), the second is a medium chariot for 3.5 florins and the third great chariot for 5 florins. Similar prices are listed in the price lists from 1561 and 1565. The bodies of uniaxial vehicles were made of boards or wicker in the shape of a short rectangle. In two-axle wagons they usually had the form of a more or less elongated rectangle and wooden, wicker or ladder sides. One of the most important and probably the most susceptible to deterioration and destruction in every car were its wheels. Depending on the purpose and weight of the transported items, they cost from 6 to 24 grossi. Vehicles or their parts were often covered with canvas or cloth tarpaulins, such as poklat, tectura, pałuba, popona, coopertio, hung on wooden or iron arches. Such covered wagons cost up to 10 marks, but were at their disposal by rulers and wealthy people.
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In the Middle Ages, the area of the present-day Lublin region, neighbouring with the Ukraine and Belarus, constituted borderlands between the historical Lesser Poland and Red Ruthenia, for which the then rulers of Poland, Hungary and Lithuania competed. Complicated family and dynastic relations were the cause of disputes and wars. The rulers, referring to blood ties and inheritance rights, made claims to the territory of Red Ruthenia. Military expeditions were organized, more important castles were besieged, and alliances were made. The political plotting and conflicts concerned the heirs of the Ruthenian rulers of the Romanowicz family: the Hungarian Arpads and Anjou, the Polish Piasts and the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. After the final annexation of Ruthenia to the Polish Crown by Queen Jadwiga in 1387, intensive colonization and romanization of these lands began. All these events contributed to the fact that a significant number of military finds are nowadays obtained in this area, including pickaxes and battle axes. They are found along former communication and trade routes, river crossings, and in areas affected by armed conflicts. These artefacts represent many types distinguished by the experts in arms. Numerous copies have blacksmith’s marks and decorations stamped. The pickaxes and battle axes described above are kept in the collections of museums in Lublin, Zamość, Hrubieszów, Krasnystaw, Kraśnik and Tomaszów Lubelski.
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Due to a development plan concerning the plot at 40 Wałowa Street, archaeological works were carried out in its area in the years 2016–2017. The history of the research area was strongly influenced by its location in the contact point of three zones: Osiek, the Old Town and the Young Town. In the Middle Ages, a moat being part of fortifications was located in this place, while modern period fortifications of the northern front were built there in the 17th century. An extension of the zone within the ring of fortifications was related to filling up of the medieval moat. Garbage from the area of Gdańsk was in all probably used for this purpose. The fortifications ceased to fulfil their role and were dismantled in the 1890s. In the case of the examined area plots were then used for barracks buildings. These were destroyed in 1945 and no development activity took place there until the time of research.The paper offers a discussion of 31 finds acquired from the site at 40 Wałowa Street in Gdańsk. These artefacts were used for preparation and consumption of meals. In this work it was also attempted at completing the bibliography of modern period kitchen artefacts and those related to table culture. The artefacts discussed in the paper include 15 spoons, 13 knives, including one which forms a set with a fork, another two-pronged fork, as well as a tin tankard. Knives are a category of finds which is dealt with as a separate group in scholarly literature. Attempts at a functional classification have been undertaken within this group. As regards the finds from 40 Wałowa Street, the first criterion of classification was the original application of the artefacts. On the basis of this criterion the discussed assemblage was limited to 12 table knives and one kitchen knife. What was analysed was the form and ornament of the artefacts as well as the issue of manufacturer’s marks. A special attention was paid to the set of cutlery composed of the knife and the two-pronged fork, as well as to another fork of this type. These artefacts may have been used for serving meals from platters. The second group of artefacts were spoons. These included 12 pieces of cutlery and one kitchen spoon. Also in this case the morphology, ornamentation, as well as marks on the artefacts were dealt with. Some of the finds can be related to local workshops or even to a Gdańsk manufacturer who is known by name, that is, a non-guild craftsman Peter Draland. The tin tankard is an exceptional find which increases the exhibition value of the assemblage. The author of this paper knows merely three tin pieces of tableware, such as Hanseatic jugs and a salt-cellar which were discovered in the course of excavations in Gdańsk. Artefacts made from this metal, due to related financial and social aspects such as a considerable interest from purchasers, quality issues and problems of guild fights against non-guild craftsmen, were also a point of departure for a broader reflection on Gdańsk bronze and tin crafts.The discussed artefacts were acquired from a context dated to the period from the second half of the 16th to the 18th century. The lion’s share of finds (23) were revealed within an 18th c. well. However, most of these artefacts (19) were dated to the 17th century (19). Concerning the remaining ones (10), their chronology encompassed the 16th and 17th centuries. Sporadically, the finds were dated to the 15th–16th (1) or to the 18th century (1).Research on metal kitchen and table utensils in Gdańsk in the Modern Period calls for further analyses which should be based on a more numerous assemblage of finds. What is recommended is to process a higher number of artefacts which were acquired in the course of excavations and which are now solely known from museum inventories. It must be stressed that a high significance of the issues of kitchen and table culture consists both in their strong research potential and in considerable opportunities of using these problems for archaeological education and popularisation activities.
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Archaeological excavations of the Institute of Archaeology UKSW lasted from July to August 2017. Principals have reviewed the area. In the first season, four excavations were opened – three (A–C) ones in the high castle and one (D) in the middle castle area. Trench A was founded on the outside of the south-eastern corner of the castle. The work was to verify the presence of the external wall – it was built from the side of the lake, present on the plans of the castle. During the excavation tests, the remains of the toilet tank were unveiled. Fragments of usable ceramics were extracted from these places. Samples were taken from vessels and transferred to the laboratory. During the chemical analysis, fatty acids were isolated. Based on the proportion of acids obtained, an attempt was made to interpret food prepared in dishes. The following tests were chosen for the tests: lid (P1), six den (P2, P3, P4, P5, P6, P7), two bellies (P9, P10) and two outlets (P8 and P11). After an overall analysis, it was found that FAME of plant and animal origin was detected in all samples.
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This article discusses the structure and armament of the mounted mercenary unit commanded by Mikołaj Sieniawski, the coat of arms of Leliwa. This work was created on the basis of the register of this branch written on August 3, 1557 under Terebovlia (now Теребовля in Ukraine). The unit was one of the many that were then recruited to defend the south-eastern lands of the Kingdom of Poland against the Tatar invasion. Mikołaj Sieniawski (1489–1569) was an experienced soldier who served in the army from 1512. He held important offices, including military ones. From 1539 he was a field crown hetman, and from 1561 he was a crown hetman, i.e. the highest military official in the Kingdom of Poland. His squad consisted of 200 horsemen, most of them were experienced soldiers. In terms of weapons, four categories of soldiers can be distinguished: lancers, hussars, Cossacks and henchmen. The main part of the unit consisted of 175 hussars. Their armament most often consisted of a helmet, a shield, a chain mail (or a breastplate) and a light lance. Only 8 horsemen were armed in Cossack style, i.e. with a helmet, chain mail, spear (rohatyna) and a bow with arrows (sahajdak). Only four of the soldiers had full plate armor. Moreover, there were 9 squires (pachołek) and 1 drummer in the register. There is no information in the register about edged weapon, which was usually not recorded in such lists, although the soldiers certainly did have one. M. Sieniawski’s unit did not take part in the fighting because in 1557 because the Tatars did not attack Poland.
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This article descibes Nieśwież armoury (owned by Radzivills) in the half of 16th century. Main source is inventory listed in 1569. In this inventory over 500 elements of arms and armour are mentioned. Among other them 220 defensive weapon, 126 offensive weapon (47 times polearm) and 115 elements of rider’s equipment. In 1569 Radzivill’s armoury contains plate armours, helmets, shields, spears, halberds, battle-axes, black-powder handguns and italian, german and oriental saddles with velvet, leather or cordovan overlay.
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In 1970, two Silesian archaeologists, Zbigniew Bagniewski and Eugeniusz Tomczak, carried out the first survey verifications of objects in the Gliwice district, considered in older, pre-war literature as relics of late medieval motte and bailey castles. These researchers covered a total of seventeen alleged settlements with small surveys, confirming the existence of only nine such structures located in the following towns: Chechło, Ciochowice, Gliwice-Łabędy, Kozłów, Pniów, Rudno, Widów and Żernica. In recent years, these strongholds have been largely subjected to archaeological research, both excavation and non-invasive methods. Excavation works, supplemented with often non-invasive ones, were carried out, among others at the positions in Kozłów, Pniów, Łabędy or Ciochowice. These studies also led to more detailed findings regarding the chronology of the functioning of residential and defence facilities, as well as their layout. In some cases, the multi-phase nature of the seats and the construction of newer manor buildings on the relics of older ones have been proven, which was certainly due to the specific tradition of the place. In the last 50 years since the verification work in 1970, further sites have also been discovered that are likely remnants of motte objects. Summing up, it can be concluded that some cone-shaped settlements require verification, some further field research, and some are still waiting to be discovered. The availability of laser scans of the area and the increasing number of precise aerial photos taken allowing for more in-depth landscape studies will certainly allow the discovery of new positions of this type in the future.
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Großer Plöner See is located between Kiel and Lübeck, in the central part of the socalled Holstein Switzerland. The island hillfort of Plune (Olsborg) appears for the first time in the source information of the chronicler Adam Bremen in 1070. At the Olsborg hillfort island 15 spearheads and javelins were discovered excavated from a small area of investigated bridge debris. This assemblage falls, in the light of dendrochronological research, between the late 10th and late 11th centuries. However, taking into account the information from written sources about the German conquest of Vagria and the destruction of the hillfort in 1138–1142, it can be presumed that also in those years some of the pole arm discovered there may have been lost in the area of the bridge.
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Source records concerning the history of Kutno in the period prior to the end of the eighteenth century are scarce. Moreover, only a few of them mention information about the manor located there, and if they do so, they usually only confirm its existence. Exceptions include three records from 1503 (or 1502) and 1695, but in their case too the amount of information provided differs.The first of the three records tells us that the Voivode of Rawa, Andrzej of Kutno, upon deciding about the future division of his goods and possessions between his sons, appointed the central seat of one of the holdings to be half of the town of Kutno with the entire manor house or fortalice (curia seu fortalicio), that is, a residential-defensive building.The second source (1695) gives us a lengthy description of the manor and grange complex located on the banks of the river Ochnia, made a few years after it was taken over by the Zamoyskis from the Kucienskis family. The third record (also 1695) complements this with information related to the renovation and building works conducted here at the end of the seventeenth century.The Kutno manor and grange complex at the time consisted of a number of old buildings, most of them in need of renovation or under reconstruction, only rarely new ones, almost all of them wooden; they were partly surrounded by a fence and a palisade made of poles and beams. Within this area stood the old, partly rebuilt, one-storey manor with corner extensions. Its rectangular corpus housed five or six chambers laid out in three (at least partly) two-bay lanes. At its corners were four extensions, one of which had a second storey. The porch located at the main entrance was also raised. As a result, the entirety of the structure recalled forms known from, among others, the projects of Battista Gisleni and Tylman van Gameren. The other residential building possibly served the needs of the leaseholders of the goods. It housed five chambers laid out in three, partly two-bay lanes. Next to them, within the grange yard were two residential-farm buildings (budowanie kuchenne and budowanie folwarczne), one industrial farm building (a brewery with ozdownia, where malt was dried) and a few others serving as strictly farming-related buildings. The latter included a granary; a vaguely described building housing a stable; a cowshed that could have a single large building housing an oxshed and seven pigpens or a complex of separate buildings grouped around a small, internal yard; and such a complex of a threshing floor with a shed and two barns.The only brick building within the grange perimeter, described as zamek stary na kopcu murowany pusty, w oknach niektórych kraty są żelazne (an old castle on a mound, made of bricks and empty, with iron bars in some windows), differed markedly from all these buildings. This building, unused then, was arguably a brick defensive manor raised in the sixteenth century, situated on a mound that may have been a relic of the old fortalicium.A few other buildings that belonged to the manor were located beyond the main yard of the complex. Four of them were industrial farm buildings (second brewery, horse mill, brickworks, watermill), the fifth one was a service building (inn). The first three were adjacent to the grange, whereas the fourth one was situated west of the city, at some distance from the grange, near a pond on the river Ochnia, and the last one was in the centre (?) of the town.We do not know what happened to this complex later, but there are no grounds to establish an exact date for its dismantling. It is possible that the latter was related to the construction of a new manor house, surviving to this day (though extensively rebuilt), in the nearby Gierałty in the second half of the 18th or early 19th century, and to the construction of new grange buildings north of town.
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The article presents the history of creation and development of hand grenades as infantry weapons. The most interesting designs of Polish grenades from the interwar period and the German occupation are described. Both prototype designs from the time of occupation, which were the basis for mass production and on a nearly industrial scale, as well as self-made designs that did not meet the conditions for mass production and whose features, due to a very small number of surviving copies, are poorly known, are described.
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