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The article constitutes the attempt to formulate remarks and hypotheses referring to the mentality of the elite of Toruń’s burghers in the 17th and the first half of the 18th century, mainly on the basis of the research concerning the history of the culture of Toruń in this period. Toruń’s elite consisted of the few rich members of the proud patriciate and the group of the so called “Scholars” (Gelehrte) – people of various backgrounds, who, having acquired the university education, made a political career in the town and representatives of professions requiring a much better education” priests, teachers, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers and officials of the city authorities. The factors which united all those people in one group was the Protestant religious community (Lutherans), family, social and economic connections. The mentality of Toruń’s inhabitants was affected greatly by the life in a big city where goods were exchanged and people travelled from the north to the south and the east, and from the west to the north and east. Toruń was traditionally connected with Gdańsk and the Baltic Sea, Germany, the Netherlands, England and the Scandinavian countries. The mentality of the patriciate and burghers was imbued with religiousness in the Lutheran or Calvinist sense. The Protestant model of personal life filled with science and work prevailed. At the same time the mentality of Toruń’s burghers, in the first place those who spoke Polish and had direct contacts with noblemen and Catholics, was affected by the Baroque-Sarmatian models promoting the joy of life, the pursuit of luxury and presenting oneself from the best side. A case in point is Jakub Kazimierz Rubinkowski (1668-1749) – a nobleman and burgher of Toruń. This postmaster and burgrave of Toruń combined the features typical of the mentality of the noblemen and burghers. Toruń’s patriciate adopted many customs from noblemen and magnates, which was reflected in fashion, ceremonies, funerals, weddings, etc. Like noblemen, patricians purchased land, set up small “folwarks” and erected summer mansions in the countryside. Inhabitants of Toruń were mentally connected with inhabitants of Gdańsk. Yet, the mentality of Gdańsk’s inhabitants was mainly affected by the fact of living in a harbor open to the sea. Toruń was more closely connected with the Polish-Sarmatian background. What should be underlined is the ability to adapt and co-exist of various groups along with the ability to create a coherent whole. Toruń’s burghers were capable of reconciliating the material (the sphere of business and economy) with the spiritual (the sphere of belief and existential fear).
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Viewed from outside, a human life – our lives – resemble a horizontal line stretching from the moment of birth to the grave. The actual reality of our lives, however, unfolds in a vertical plan of height and depth, or more precisely, on both plans simultaneously. That is, to say:“in the reality of the cross”
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The social movement that developed in Slovakia after the end of the Great War succeeded in capturing the left-wing parties - Social Democracy and the Communist Party. In particular, communists in the ideological struggle did not hesitate to use the alleged parallels of communist ideas with Christianity. Thanks to this tactic, they were also successful among religious populations. Therefore, efforts to establish Christian-oriented trade unions in Slovakia were not too successful. Thus, in November 1924, through the Pastoral Letter, the Slovak bishops entered the conflict and watched with concern the rising anticlerical movement in Czechoslovakia.
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The study analyses the structural elements of the story of the visit of Štúr and two of his followers to the poet Ján Hollý. The meeting of representatives of the Protestant and Catholic intelligentsia in 1843 was a key moment in the Slovak national historical narrative. It symbolizes national unity overcoming confessional limitations. The author studies this story as part of the nationalist repertoire, pointing to its use for the needs of national ideology.
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The Czechoslovak Republic was constructed as the nation state of the “Czechoslovak nation”. This was expressed on the ideological level by promotion of the theory of so-called Czechoslovakism. In spite of its vague formulation, it contributed to the Slovaks not being recognized as a nation in the Czechoslovak Republic. This was opposed by the autonomist camp, which had the political aims of gaining recognition of the Slovaks as a nation and obtaining political autonomy for Slovakia. The failure of the autonomists to achieve their aims led to the radicalization of their movement in the 1930s. Activation of the younger generation significantly contributed to this. The statements of its representatives on the idea of Czechoslovak unity were substantially sharper. In contrast to the older generation, the autonomist youth already unambiguously declared that they did not regard Slovak autonomy as the final aim of their movement. They did not hesitate to cast doubt on the shared Czechoslovak statehood. Their absolute rejection of Czechoslovak unity, also on the level of Czechoslovak statehood can be considered the most significant difference in the generation gap among the autonomists in relation to the ideological conception of Czechoslovakism.
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The aim of the article is to present the material scope and methodological assumptions of the research on the image of cities undertaken since the late 1970s. The author points out that the image of the city is a very broad term in which various research directions are included. The subject matter had been addressed in the works of sociologists, geographers and art historians since the 1920s. The so-called cultural breakthrough in historical sciences in the 1970s has contributed to the increasing interest in the problem of the representation of cities. The essence of the new approach has become the interest in the principles of creating an image, the ways of its construction and its functions. The priority in undertaking new methodological challenges in the research on the perception of cities and its representations should be attributed to researchers of literature and art historians. Historians started to be more seriously interested in the area in the 1980s. According to the author, the studies developing until the beginning of the 21st century were characterized by a large methodological diversity. Over the last ten years, the focus of researchers has been the issue of creating an image of their own city in various research contexts: city representation, city branding, symbolic communication and communal staging.
More...Między szczerą ciekawością Anglika a wczesnonowożytną teorią ekfrazy
Peter Mundy (1596 – ca. 1667), one of the most representative English travellers of his period, visited Gdańsk (Danzig) and Toruń (Thorn) in 1640 and 1642 and described these cities in his Relations. The article includes deliberations concerning Mundy’s descriptions of the two most important cities in Royal Prussia in the context of early modern theory of ekphrasis and the eulogy of the city, represented especially by manuals of preliminary exercises in rhetoric (progymnasmata) and chapters from De inventione et amplificatione oratoria by Gerard Bucoldianus included in Reinhard Lorich’s Scholia attached to his edition of Aphthonius’ Progymnasmata, one of the most popular rhetoric books in the second half of 16th and in 17th centuries. The analysis of the structure and contents of Mundy’s “relations” leads to the conclusion that the English traveller was aware of the early modern theory of description and eulogy of cities but, at the same time, his curiosity made him free to leave the theoretical rules aside and focus himself on interesting technical constructions (“The great Organs in the Pfarrekerke” in Gdańsk or the Toruń bridge) or customs of burghers (“execution of Justice” and “Recreations” in Gdańsk and “A greatt faire” in Toruń).
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The article presents the biography and scientific achievements of the outstanding researcher of ancient culture, Margarete Bieber (1879–1978). At the same time, it is an example of women’s emancipatory aspirations in this region at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The article describes the less-known Pomeranian roots of Margarete Bieber. She came from Przechów (Schönau, Świecie district) in former Western Prussia. Bieber was the first woman from Western Prussia to pass high school final examinations in Toruń in 1901. Then, despite all kinds of difficulties arising from her gender and ethnicity, she made an excellent academic career in Germany and the United States. The article also describes in detail the Pomeranian Bieber family living in Przechów and their property status (until the sale of the mills in 1921). Jacob Bieber, Margarete’s father, the owner of “the most important mills in Pomerania – Przechowo”, who perhaps was interested in ancient art himself, supported the scholar’s research for a long time. The high financial and social status of the family was important for her educational opportunities, but it was not recognized in the article as the most important reason for her success. First of all, her personality features, talent and great diligence were emphasized.
More...Zakorzenione w niemieckim volkizmie rozważania Houstona Stewarta Chamberlaina i Theodora Fritscha
Racist ideology permeated every element of the Third Reich’s society. Art historians have focused on the problem of Nazi urban projects since the 1960s. Issues related to older concepts from the 19th century were on the margins of the research. Thus, sources of inspiration for Nazi urban solutions remained unexplored. The article aims to complement the current considerations with an analysis of the oldest accounts that constitute a synthesis of racist and urban thought. The problem of rebuilding cities in a “a proper way that corresponded the German spirit” was raised in the mid-19th century. The ‘heralds’ of national socialism at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries – Theodor Fritsch and Houston Stewart Chamberlain synthesized the traditional German thought with scientifically founded racist anti-Semitism. With the help of textual analysis of their works, several assumptions common to both authors can be observed. They both called for the simultaneous reconstruction of cities and the reorganization of social life by introducing racial and class segregation. The urban buildings were to reflect the hierarchical social structure. Factories of heavy industry were to disappear from the cities (they were to be hidden underground or on the outskirts); they also wanted to eliminate environmental pollution and allow residents to contact with nature thanks to extensive garden complexes. At the same time, people with less desirable racial attributes were to work on the outskirts of the city, carrying out subordinate professions and maintaining racist utopias. The popularity of both authors among the Nazi circles (even before 1933) contributed to the incorporation of their propositions into the ideology of the Nazi Party. The strong influence of slogans proclaimed by anti-Semitic radicals is visible, e.g. in in the case of Alfred Rosenberg or Richard W. Darré. They wanted to return to the so-called old Aryan values, which were to include living in harmony with wild nature. The implementation of these postulates would have involved the reconstruction and limitation of the size of most of the then urban complexes, which was to take place according to the assumptions formulated before the First World War.
More...Wizja świata – propaganda – pobożność i wartości
The subject of the article is an analysis of a nineteenth-century folk song originating from Lesser Poland and the region of Kielce, which describes the events of the Tumult of Toruń (1724). The author used the historical method (factual analysis), anthropological method (theories of memory and orality) and discourse analysis (a written text as a reflection of mentality) to focus on three main issues. The first one is a polemic with the previous opinions of researchers, who argued that the folk song faithfully represents the events of the riots in Toruń (Thorn). In fact, it seems to be more of a propaganda text. It is impossible to determine precisely the place and time it was created, however, it seems that its author was a clergyman who wanted to convey his vision of the Tumult to the lower social strata. The song presents the community of Toruń as divided into two hostile camps, namely aggressive Protestants and pious Catholics. The article embedded the images of both sides in broader contexts of the German-Protestant stereotype and religious polemics in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The last part of the text is an attempt to answer the question why this particular song was internalized by the common people. The interest in the Tumult of Toruń could result from its sensational character, the fact that it was very well fitted to folk culture, and the possibility to derive satisfaction from the course of this event. The article ends with the presentation of folk songs as an interesting research material for historians, cultural anthropologists and scholars conducting interdisciplinary memory studies.
More...Current State of Research and New Perspectives
What is commonly referred to in Poland as ‘December 1970’ was one of the most important and most tragic moments in the history of this country after the Second World War. Then, a violent suppression of workers’ revolts in several Polish cities on the Baltic coast, by the Citizens’ Militia and the army, and the subsequent changes in the leadership of the Polish United Workers’ Party took place. After fourteen years in power, the First Secretary of the Central Committee, Władysław Gomułka, was replaced by the former member of the Politburo and also the First Secretary of the Voivodship Committee in Katowice, Edward Gierek. The military operations on the Polish coast, alongside the Citizens’ Militia, involved some 27,000 soldiers and 550 tanks, 750 armoured carriers and 2,100 cars. Also, 108 aircraft and helicopters, as well as 40 vessels of the Polish Navy were deployed. Apart from the period of martial law (1981–1983), never during peacetime has the Polish Army been put on standby on such a scale and used to such an extent to pacify the society. According to official data, a total of 45 people were killed and 1,165 wounded on the Baltic coast. Although over 80 books and brochures have already been published on ‘December 1970’, we still do not know the answers to all the questions. The role played by the Soviet authorities at that time has been researched the least. However, without free access to the post-Soviet archives stored in Russia, which seems hardly possible in the near future, it will be difficult to make new findings on this issue.
More...Przedmowa Samuela Schelwiga do „Grundliches und wolgesetztes Bedencken, Von der Pietisterey” (1693)
The article presents an analysis of the foreword by Samuel Schelwig (1643–1715), pastor of the Holy Trinity Church and rector of the Academic Gymnasium in Gdańsk (Danzig), to the opinion issued by the theological faculty of the University of Leipzig on Pietism and its founder Philipp Jakob Spener (1635–1705). The opinion was published in 1693 under the title ‘Gründliches und wolgesetztes Bedencken, Von der Pietisterey’. The author of the foreword made an assessment of the religious condition of the new movement and also pointed out that its supporters misunderstood the essence of piety, comparing them to medieval and early modern heretics. In this way, he anticipated the subsequent harsh criticism of Pietism and initiated a religious dispute on this issue that continued in Gdańsk from 1692/1693 to 1703. At the same time, he contributed to the dissemination of a debate on religious fanaticism and attempts to modernise pastoral activities of Lutheran preachers. The analysis of the source text is part of broader research into the history of the Pietistic movement in Gdańsk, which has incorporated research methods in the fields of philology and history, as well as biblical hermeneutics. This approach has made it possible to determine the origin of the conflict on Pietism in Gdańsk, to identify the related phenomena, events and key doctrinal issues, and to interpret and evaluate the theological value of the investigated polemic.
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Europe is an idea. Matter-of-factly, the European civilisation, as we call it today, had come into being before states and nations, its capricious children, were born. Throughout the ages, it matured, was formed and clashed with other civilisations. It learnt from them and shared its achievements with them. Finally, as a result of these clashes, as well as the less noticeable internal transformations, this concept has undergone numerous metamorphoses. This process can be illustrated through different forms: from the palace in Knossos to the palace in Versailles, from the battle of Troy to the battle of Stalingrad, from the Roman Senate to the US Senate. Since the period of the Dactylic hexameter in Greek poetry, which is seen as the marker of the grand style of classical poetry, the European idea has been carried through literature. Thus, Homer and Hesiod have become known as the first poets of our civilisation. Their steps were followed by the Greek philosophers and tragedians. Those who lived in Alexandria and Pergamon.
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Review of: Wright, Zachary Valentine. On the Path of the Prophet: Shaykh Ahmad Tijani and the Tariqa Muhammadiyya, Atlanta: Fayda Books, 2015. 260 sayfa. ISBN: 9780991381388. Orientalist scholars claim the existence of a reform movement in the Islamic world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries based on the concepts and issues put forward by the ulamas and Sufis of that time. This article discusses, concerning that claim, the concepts of neo-Sufism and Tariqat al-Muhammadiyya through the Tijaniyya, Idrisiyya and Sanusiyya orders. Although it does not question and comprehensively analyzed the validity of the reform debates, the article stands as a starting point paving the way for the studies following a similar set of questions on the issue.
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The present article attempts to transcode the “animal” status of those buried in the first monumental burial ground of the Scythians in the Lower Dnieper region — the famous Solokha barrow. Solokha’s materials are seen as an optimal case for such kind of study. On the one hand, two burials from different periods and of different statuses were found underneath the mound. On the other hand, each of the burials contained artefacts with depictions of wild and mythological predators, which makes it possible to correlate the statuses of the buried with the depictions of beasts. Based on the analysis of the funeral contexts in Solokha, and taking into account the semantics of animal styles, it is possible to conclude that the lateral grave belonged to a legitimate king of the Scythians (conventionally, “Oktamasades”) whose status was clearly marked by feline-shaped predators, and the central one — to a “prince” (conventionally, “Orikos”) who died at a young age and forever remained on the primary, “wolf” stage of military initiation.
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This paper is a review of Mira Marcinów’s book on history of melancholy in Poland. It is written from a perspective of bioethicist and philosopher of medicine interested in psychiatry and endeavours both presentation of the project for an English speaking reader and critical evaluation of this exceptional book with focus on value for different potential readers.
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The written document Croatia rediviva by Pavao Ritter Vitezović results as an attempt of the author to establish the fact that the historically founded borders of Croatia were considerably wider than those drawn in his own time. It comprises of thirty two-pages and it is conceived as a preparation for future more comprehensive work. Vitezović authenticates his thesis with a number of quotations. He uses as many as fifty-six authors and sources, out of which thirty of them belong to the bibliography and twenty-six to sources. The most quoted sources are Constantinus Porphyrogenitus and Thomas Archdeacons while in the bibliography the most represented is loannes Lucius. It is good to mention that he uses the works of authors of various provenances and from various periods (antique, Byzantine, German, Bohemian and others), which he mainly correctly quotes, but he interprets the quotations in keeping with his ideological conception. In the supplement there is a facsimile and translation of the introductory part of the written document which includes an inscription to the emperors Leopold and Joseph and a poem titled "A Note for Preparation" where Vitezović briefly determines contours of his "revived" Croatia and represents himself not only as a competent historian but also as a poet, engraver and a printer. At the beginning of "The Preparation for Revived Croatia" Vitezović discusses the origin of the name Croatia. Then he goes on to the problem of her borders. By identifying Illyrians and Slavs with Croats he extends the borders of Croatia to all Slavic lands. He dedicates the other half of the document to the discussion with loannes Lucius dealing with Croatian kings, affiliation of Neretvans (people populating the banks of river Neretva) to Croats and the question of Dalmatia. By giving arguments for his theses as, according to his opinion contradictory quotations of Lucius as well as the claims of other writers, he concludes that Croats had their own kings in an uninterrupted continuity after Ostrivoius, that the people living by the Neretva are with no doubt Croatian people and that Dalmatia and especially its towns are a part of Croatia. He finishes this booklet with the conclusion that Croatia comprises Horn's "Triple Slavonia" and former Roman Illyric, except two Rhaetiae and a part of Noricum. With this work Vitezović in fact formed a political programme which will have an important influence on the members of Illyrican Movement.
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Based on the 1973 Alexandru Zub seminal bibliography, this article provides an analysis of all Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol (1847–1920) items published in the weekly newspaper “Le Courrier européen” founded in Paris by Charles Seignobos. The first aim of this essay is to complete and check the bibliographical references from the 1973 work, when it was very difficult to pursue researches in foreign libraries: because the author could not use the French journal, he extracted references from Romanian secondary sources. After these preliminary ascertainments, one can refine – this is the second aim of this essay – the place of the Romanian historian in the debate of ideas through French press at the beginning of the 20th century. Xenopol newspaper articles respond to his desire to better assert some disturbing realities of his country in French and European public opinion: the dilemmas between the commitment to the Triple Alliance and the traditional friendship for France, the negative consequences of the “Francomania” on Romanian high society, national oppression of Romanians in Transylvania under the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, and, above all, social crisis highlighted by the 1907 Romanian peasants’ revolt. The historian also turned to topics of wider interest: concerns provoked by Germany’s growing military and economic power, the Peace and War Debate raised by President Theodore Roosevelt's annual report to the US Congress on December 5, 1905. Xenopol’s articles in “Le Courrier européen” are thus new testimonies to his active presence in the French culture and confirm his reputation as “ambassador” of his country's intellectual life beyond historiography and academic world.
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Bishop Stefan Stefanowicz Roszka (Armenian: Step’anos Step’anean Ṛōšk’ay) (1670−1739), alumnus of the Seminary called Urbanian College (Collegium Urbanum) in Rome, was regarded as a good shepherd by the remembrance of the Armenian community in Transylvania. According to the old historical literature, Bishop Roszka, once and for all, has destroyed the root and branch of the Eastern (Monophysite) heresy and schismatism in the Armenian communities in Transylvania. In this manner, he had managed to re-convert the Armenians for the true Catholicism during his pastoral activity and canonical visitation amongst the Armenians in Transylvania done at the behest of the Apostolic Holy See’s authorities (e.g., Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide) in the late 1720’s and the early 1730’s. However, in recent times, the modern scholarship has radically tinged and undermined this theory or myth. As a consequence of his official correspondence with the Holy See’s authorities, throughout his complete ecclesiastical activity, Bishop Roszka had actually protected the Armenians and their Uniate Church in Transylvania from the increasingly fierce ‘Latinisation’ church-policy led by the Roman Catholic (Latin rite) Episcopacy in Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia). Therefore, this study aims primarily at summarizing and concentrating upon Bishop Roszka’s relations with the Armenians in Transylvania from church-historical point of view, resting upon the partly discovered and entirely undiscovered documents kept at archives in Budapest, Gyulafehérvár, Rome, Venice, Vienna, the Vatican City, and Yerewan. Finally, as a conclusion, through Bishop Roszka’s ecclesiastical activities and relations, we have received a wide picture of the church-history in the early-18th-century-Transylvania, which is still regarded, more or less, as an undiscovered area from a scholarly point of view.
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