This article is an attempt to present the issue of mutual witnessing between the clergy and the burghers of Cracow on documents issued by them. The analysis covers the documents from the 13th–14th centuries (up to the year 1412). Mutual witnessing is revealed by six burgher documents (with clergymen appearing on them as witnesses) and 34 documents of ecclesiastical and clerical institutions (with Cracow burghers appearing on them as witnesses). It has been found that in the testation of documents issued by the city council of Cracow and by the college of jurors there is a lack of citation of any witnesses, including clergymen. The burghers of Cracow appeared as witnesses on a total of 34 documents issued by the clergy and church institutions. This was 73 citizens of the city, giving an average of just over two per document. We can
observe the repetition of burghers’ witnesses in nine cases, most of them twice. Most burghers witnessed on monastic documents. Very numerous was the participation in the witness lists of representatives of the town elite – aldermen, councillors and jurors. In a few cases it is possible to point to family connections of burghers-witnesses with the clergy and neighbourhood in the sense of place of residence.

The Cistercian monasteries in Esrum, Kołbacz and Oliwa originated from the Clarevaline line. The issue analysed in this article is whether the transmission of memorial sources, especially obituaries, occurred between these convents, and thus whether daughter monasteries assumed the prayer obligations incumbent on the mother monastery. Such a phenomenon can be observed in the case of the convent in Kołbacz, which received, among other things, an obituary with records from the monastery in Esrum. In the case of the Oliwa monastery, reconstructed in the early seventeenth century on religious-historiographical grounds were elements of the memory of prominent members of the Cistercian order and several persons associated
with the Cistercians, including among others Archbishop Eskil, one of the founders of the Esrum monastery.

The Dominican monastery of the Holy Cross was founded in the 1330s by Duke Boleslaw III. The monks stayed in Brzeg for two centuries and then had to leave the city after the Protestant conversion of Frederick II. In the 1540s the buildings belonging to them (church and monastery) were demolished. The records and documentary sources preserved to this day (including in particular the convent’s obituary and its account book) show that during the two centuries of their activity the friars managed to attract a circle of supporters that included: the ducal court, wealthy burghers and noblemen, the poorer inhabitants of Brzeg, who performed servile services for the friars and paid work in the monastery, and numerous supporters living
in the vast areas of the monastic district that belonged to them. The Dominicans directed an attractive pastoral offer to them and obtained from them by means of fundraising or trade the resources necessary for the functioning of their community.

The article discusses a set of records from the oldest surviving Lvov consistory book from the end of the 15th century, which – in different roles – feature Ruthenians, Armenians and Jews. Only Jews, although not in all entries, appear with an unambiguously identifying predicate – perfidus. Recognition of the confessions of Ruthenians and Armenians is not always so obvious. The small number of mentions involving non-Catholic Ruthenians and Armenians, as well as non-Christians (they represent only a fraction of a percentage of the total 4920 entries) can hardly come as a surprise: it is partly due to the jurisdiction of the official’s court itself, and partly to the social and legal realities of the era. Nevertheless, the micro-histories analysed here allow us to supplement the picture of the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society of the Lviv metropolis known from other accounts. They contain both an echo of the disputes over tithes from newly-founded land, which the Orthodox were forced to pay, and a confirmation of the practice of rebaptism during not always voluntary conversions, as well as an exemplification of the distrust of Catholics towards Orthodox Ruthenians, whose testimony was questioned due to their ‘schismatic nature’ and the resulting alleged dislike of the Latin clergy. The content of some records confirms that the Armenian religion was considered heretical and pagan: a ‘pagan wife’ fights with an Armenian neophyte over her child; in another case, an Armenian sues a Latin clergyman for calling him a thief, scoundrel, swindler and ‘heretic’. Disputes between Jews and Christians over unpaid debts or stolen property also found their final outcome in the court of the official. One exception was a lawsuit filed by a cleric against an Orthodox Jew for assault and battery. The plaintiff sought not only monetary compensation, but also declaring the Jew ‘excommunicated’. Occasionally, only financial obligations were concluded before the official. The dissenters appeared before the consistory not only as plaintiffs, demanding justice and at the same time believing in the efficacy of the sentence issued by the archbishop’s court, but also as defendants. The consistory records show that the Lviv officials tried to proceed in such cases according to canon law. In doing so, they did not hesitate to summon ex officio to their court Ruthenians and Jews in cases of violations of law and moral order.

The article analyzes the functioning of a document as an object (artefact) in medieval Europe, against the broad background of changes in the paradigm of research on medieval writing culture, which assumes a multitude of forms of contact with writing, including its perception as a system of signs that could be viewed rather than “read” in the modern sense. The physical aspects of the document, including its writing material, text layout on the page, graphic symbols and objects attached to the document, constitute an issue that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional diplomatics. It encourages researchers to engage in a more intensive dialogue with experts in other auxiliary sciences, primarily with experts in epigraphy, because a large number of documents were produced on hard material, and also in sphragistics, due to the close interaction between the document and the seal in the process of communicating by sight and touch. The article discusses the occasional presence of a document in public space – as an element of the rituals of power, shown at the request of its issuer or recipient, or as an object of viewing in the practice of examining its authenticity – as well as its permanent presence in the form of a text “exposed” in a stone or as a fresco (charta lapidaria). In all situations in question, the specialized or very general knowledge of viewers determined whether and to what an extent they were able to “read” the information encoded in the format and material of the document, in graphic signs, illuminations, and seals.

The author of the present study traces the way the signs used by city dwellers have been defined in Polish historiography so far. Taking the capital city of Krakow as an example, he showed that, like in Prussian centres, they used both gmerk house marks (i.e. bar identification signs) and bourgeois coats of arms (made up of a coat of arms and a shield, where heraldic figures in the strict sense of the word, but also bar signs, were used in parallel). The division outlined in this way allows us to assign the status of a coat of arms to a composition consisting of a coat of arms and a shield. The author also confirmed that the adoption of this graphic pattern (emblem + shield) by the townspeople was the result of their influence and observation
of certain products of knightly culture. Moreover, both (knights’ coats of arms) and the other (burghers’ coats of arms) were intended to identify in the first place. In the case of noble coats of arms, at least in Poland, they have become a visual symbol of belonging to a particularly privileged class. So they spoke, as if for the owners, about their legal status. And although they were undoubtedly also used among the townspeople (as the result of some imitation), they did not duplicate all the functions of the nobility coat of arms, and, above all, they did not build the bourgeois (estate) identity.

This article deals with the Piast helmet crests used by rulers in the second half of the 13th century (up to and including 1301). The subject of attention and consideration is the question of the significance of this element placed on the helmets of rulers. On the basis of an analysis of the surviving source material (seal images), certain regularities in their use can be discerned; helmet crests had not yet undergone heraldry at that time (so they were not an element of the ‘full coat of arms’), but they were not simple decorations of duke and royal helmets either. They should be considered as chieftain marks belonging to the set of insignia used by the rulers of the time.

The monastery complex of the Norbertine Sisters in Imbramowice remains a poorly explored structure, both architecturally and archaeologically. An opportunity to expand knowledge about the architectural changes of the church and monastery was the work related to the expansion of the nuns’ burial crypt. As a result, previously unknown remains of a 13th-century room were recorded, which was originally the ground floor of the tower (or towers) housing the gallery. Within the room, the remains of a 15th/16th century heating furnace were also uncovered, and the remains of early medieval and prehistoric settlements were recorded.

De institutione regii pueri is a pedagogical treatise from 1502/1503, which contains a wealth of ideas. Since medieval accents are not observed therein for the most part, the topic of the article is to indicate them. This goal is even more justified because some of them, such as recommendations for ruler’s Christian upbringing – in accordance with specific virtues, Augustine’s thinking about time, the topos of youth and old age and a cheerful face, the category of one’s own and foreign or the emphasis of some of the values cultivated in the Middle Ages, cardinal virtues, are very noticeable in the work. The turn of the eras, in turn, is indicated by a certainly unidentified author’s free combination of old and new beliefs, e.g. the influence of the Christian God and pagan deities as the causative forces in human actions on the fate of rulers. The analysis of the work requires emphasizing an obvious, although sometimes neglected, belief that some views, probably in a changed form, continued from antiquity to the Renaissance, although sometimes they were denied the right to function in the medieval reality.

The subject of the article is a group of about 30 supplications from the Przemyśl diocese from the 15th century, which have been preserved in the archives of the Apostolic Penitentiary. The Przemyśl diocese is a particularly interesting research area due to the diverse religious population living in its area, the coexistence of the Orthodox church organization, as well as close ties (geographical, personal) with Małopolska. It was also a missionary area of the Catholic Church. The number of supplications from the Przemyśl diocese, the smallest among the dioceses of the Lviv archbishopric – less than 30 – is very small compared to the dioceses
of the Gniezno archbishopric, but significant (the largest) on the scale of the local metropolis. This should be seen as the result of close ties with the Gniezno metropolis, but the influence (cultural transfer, preaching, care for the cathedral school) of the cathedral chapter environment, which included many outstanding people, such as Mikołaj Wigand, was also significant. The supplications from the Przemyśl diocese illustrate almost the full scale of the authority of the office serving papal reserves. Both broader phenomena (e.g. elite papal privileges) and local specifics (e.g. irregularities in the performance of worship, a specific understanding of marital impediments) are visible. At the same time, they allow us to observe the functioning of canon law in an area that is not only on the periphery of the Western Church.

The subject of this article is selected aspects of a dispute between Hans David of Miłakowo and the Teutonic Order in Prussia. He made financial claims based on the Order’s alleged debts to his parents, David and Cecylia of Miłakowo. The conflict escalated into a long-running legal battle before various instances. It also had its Polish threads, as Hans David was in contact with the authorities and inhabitants of Poznań, was a citizen of Nowa Nieszawa (near Toruń), and also frequented the Polish royal court. The Prussian burgher did not shy away from falsifying sources in his activities. The material analysed here provides a range of information in this regard. Text was removed from parchments and a new one written in, seals were overstamped, and there is even information that Hans David made the seal typescript himself. The forged
acts did not only relate to the substance of the Prussian burgher’s dispute with the Teutonic Knights, for after affixing Queen Sophia’s seal obtained from a document issued by her, Hans David allegedly forged a ‘certificate’ that he was a courtier to the Polish monarch. This and other aspects of the Hans David case deserve a comprehensive study, which requires the collection and, above all, the systematisation of the extensive and very scattered material relating to this issue.

The article presents the records of 43 lost documents of Bernard, Duke of Opole, Lord of Strzelce and Niemodlin. Half of them were entered into a copybook currently kept in Vienna. Some were kept in private archives, in Szydłowiec Śląski and Niemodlin, and in the municipal archive in Strzelce Opolskie. Before the Second World War, inventories were made, and municipal documents were entered into a chronicle, now lost, known from the work of Johann Joseph Reichel and the extracts of Baron Friedrich von Schirnding. The remaining documents are known from a copyist kept in Wrocław, the Saalbuchs and the Carolingian cadastre. The edition of the sources was prepared according to the principles adopted by the publishers of the
Registries of documents kept in Upper Silesia, trying to discuss in more detail where a given diploma is known from, and where it was kept. This article shows how much information about the lost medieval documents can be found in old inventories and in modern sources.

The article deals with the problem of the sphragistic systems of two 15th-century Bishops of Wrocław: Piotr II Nowak (1447–1456) and Jodok of Rożemberk (1456–1467). The analysis covers the seals with which they authenticated the documents they issued, both before their election to the episcopal see and after they had ruled the diocese. The aim of the enquiry, which included almost 350 archival units, was to make a complete inventory of all the diplomas sealed by the aforementioned hierarchs. It showed that Piotr Nowak used five types of seals (a personal seal, an official seal, an administrative episcopal seal and a minor and major episcopal seal) during his activity, while Jodok of Rożemberk used seven (a monastic seal, a personal seal, two
types of a minor episcopal seal, a major episcopal seal, an ad causas seal and a vicariate seal in spiritualibus). The research presented here focused both on the material aspects of the imprints made with the aforementioned stamps, such as the colour of the seal material or the method of connection to the document, which made it possible to establish the sigillation customs prevalent in the chancelleries of the two bishops, and on the ‘lifespan’ of these stampings, that is, their functioning, including their use by successive owners.

Bolko II of Świdnica (d. 1368) was one of the most prominent Piasts living in the 14th century, who went down in history as the last independent representative of his family in Silesia. This article is devoted to a biography of this duke, published in 2023, written by Marcin A. Klemenski. It takes a critical look at a number of themes raised in the book, including Bolko II’s date of birth, his external policy, his contacts with the knights, and the title he used. Numerous errors and inaccuracies concerning the court and the duke’s entourage have also
been corrected. The article also refers primarily to the sources for the study of Bolko II’s life, which were used in the biography with many errors, e.g. concerning the dating of documents, incorrect interpretation of places and people.

This article discusses the source edition of the oldest surviving town book of the Wielkopolska town of Koło prepared by Marcin Starzyński. It was addressed not only to researchers, but also to a wider circle of history enthusiasts, for whom the publisher prepared a full translation of the Latin source text into Polish. Unfortunately, the publication of M. Starzyński is, in the reviewer’s opinion, unsuccessful, as it contains a number of faults and errors. The most important are the lack of a broader discussion in the introduction about the position of Koło against the background of the urban network of Wielkopolska in the 15th–16th centuries, the omission of a presentation of the court bench, the incorrect identification of some of the pages attached secondarily to the manuscript, and the incorrect attribution of the whole manuscript as a land
and court book from the years 1480–1544, while it documents the activities of the court bench in the years 1502–1544 and of the town council (on an added bifolium) from 1480 to 1493. It also lacks a glossary explaining to a wider audience the more difficult terms occurring later in the translation of the source. In the edition, misreadings of the manuscript are surprisingly numerous, which results in an often incorrect translation. In the indexes, incorrect identification of localities is repeatedly glaring. Based on the errors noted here, more general recommendations have been formulated for publishers of other late medieval court and office books. It is necessary to carefully select the subject matter of the edition (the Koło book contains almost exclusively repetitive entries concerning real estate transactions), to prepare an extensive introduction containing the most important information about the town in which the book was written, and a minimonography of the published source. Finally, it is also necessary to carefully edit the text from its manuscript basis and provide it with extensive Polish-language regests. In the index of persons and places, it is important to use an extensive system of cross-references, to classify persons also according to their place of origin, and finally to prepare the main entry for the place where the book was written in a cross-sectional manner, taking into account not only persons, but also topography and institutions active in the town. It is also advisable to compile factual indexes.

The review discusses a monumental monograph of one of the most important magnate families of the Bohemian Kingdom in the late Middle Ages. At the same time, it condemns its conceptual and structural defects. It also shows the author’s persistence in Bohemocentric, nationalist positions, which did not respect the complex political structure of the Crown of the Kingdom of Bohemia in every respect. This is also important because the members of the family discussed in the monograph also expanded their fortunes to Silesia.

An extensive and polemical review concerns two books devoted to the main parish church of the Old Town in Prague. One of their features is Bohemocentrism. It is expressed in the perception of this church and its furnishings almost exclusively in the context of political and artistic phenomena taking place in the Bohemian Kingdom, and not in the context of the entire Crown of the Kingdom of Bohemia. This is all the more striking because this building actively participated in the political life of the capital of the state and as such came into coincidence with phenomena taking place in the second largest city of the Bohemian Crown – in Wrocław.
The scholarly nature of both studies is also undermined by the peculiar patriotic tone stigmatized in the review, taken from the nineteenth- and twentieth-century publications, now anachronistic and certainly completely unnecessary.