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The article aims at a comprehensive presentation of the title topic, based on the vast literature on the subject, a significant part of which comprise the previous publications by the article’s author. The author points to our insufficient knowledge concerning the latest period of Polish language history, Modern Polish.
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The article is about the Prague Maharal and his participation in the Jewish-Christian polemics in the 16th and 17th centuries. The author examines the historical evidence of the Maharal's involvement in theological disputes with the Christian clergy, as well as the legends and stories that surround his figure. The author also analyzes the polemical intention of the Maharal's writings, especially his work Beer ha-Gola, which contains replies to Christian accusations against the Talmud. The author concludes that the Maharal was an active and influential defender of Judaism in a hostile environment.
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The oldest large banner of the Jewish Town, preserved in the Old-New Synagogue was probably procured under the rule of Wladislaus Jagellon (1471 - 1516) in connection with authorization for the Jews to take part in public ceremonies in honour of the ruler. Its existence has been documented for the first time in 1490. The banner was renewed under Ferdinand I (1526 - 1564), i. e. replaced by a larger banner which served until 1716 when its considerable deterioration made it necessary to substitute it by a replica, till this day exhibited in the Old-New Synagogue. In 1598 Mordechai Mayzl had another banner made for his private synagogue along the pattern of the older banner. This banner was destroyed in a fire and replaced by a replica in 1702. No other large banner was added to these two, neither in 1648 nor later. Last time the two banners were carried in public was probably in 1741. The Shield of David (hexagram) became the emblem of the town probably in 1530’s. At first it was possibly accompanied by Solomon’s seal (pentagram). The rise in popularity of the Shield of David can be attributed mainly to the newly stressed messianic significance of the symbol. The Jewish hat was later inserted in the hexagram; the oldest reliably documented image of the sign with the hat comes from 1620. Two legends emerged about the origin of the oldest banner and emblem-the first was the product of a renaissance fiction and forgery by Václav Hájek of Libočany, the second was probably the result of an error commited by an unknown amateur history enthusiast from the ghetto in the 1840’s.
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The paper first deals with the economic causes and motivation of the conflicts existing between Jewish and non-Jewish inhabitants of Bohemia prior to 1541. Then the ideological reasons and arguments used in the conflict are summarized. Finally the author also pays attention to Jewish taxes in that period.
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The paper deals with Torah mantles from the collections of the State Jewish Museum, above all the oldest ones dating from the years 1592-1750. The readers are informed about their provenance, makers, donors, ways of decoration, and dedicatory inscriptions.
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This is the first part of a catalogue of selected Hebrew prints of Prague provenance from the collections of the State Jewish Museum in Prague. The author deals with 16th and 17th cent. Hebrew books published in Prague by the Gersonides family and the history of their Hebrew printing house. Then there are lists of those who worked in the printing house in the 16th-17th centuries including proof-readers, editors and partners. The graphic decoration of the printed books is also discussed. At the end of the paper is a list of the 16th-17th cent. Gersonides’ prints of Prague provenance.
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The paper analyses some ideas to be found in the works of Rabbi Löw (Maharal), above all his ethical views and conception of Man. The way in which Rabbi Low’s ideas have been viewed since the Enlightenment period are studied first. Then his religious and philosophical works are characterized, the conception of Man is explained and finally some ethical principles, mainly those contained in the book “Netivot colam“, are discussed. Special attention is paid to Maharal’s conception of human society and its development.
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Saint Paul of Xeropotamou is regarded as one of the most important ascetic figures of Mount Athos in the 10th century. Until now, it was considered that the oldest version of his vita was the one included in the Neon Eklogion of Nikodemos the Hagiorite, which was published in 1803. It was, however, overlooked that in 1967 the Soviet scholar Sigurd Schmidt published an article on four texts concerning Mount Athos from a Russian Slavonic codex of 1557/8, which was copied at the monastery of the Archangel Michael Skovorodskiy in Novgorod, with the fourth text being a brief account of the life of Paul of Xeropotamou. This proves the existence of a vita considerably older than that of the 18th-century version. In this paper, I compare the two versions, suggesting that the original form of the vita, as it is found in the Novgorod manuscript, may have been formed during the early 15th century and written in the milieu of two Protoi of Mount Athos, Serapheim and Gabriel, after 1500 in Karyes.
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The article re-examines the memorial book of the Protaton of Karyes (Mount Athos) and minutely looks at its content (about 2000 names), articulation and structure. The original part of the book was written at the Athonite Protaton around 1366 and is followed by a series 14th–15th and 16th-century additions. The book, compiled in the third quarter of the 14th century, remained in use for nearly two centuries, with liturgical additions and constant updating of the records of the deceased. The book, a simple (albeit long) list of names, can be fruitfully compared with shorter lists transmitted by the donation deeds preserved in monastic archives and cited in typika.
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Review of: Barzilay, Isaac: Joseph Shlomo Delmedigo (Yashar of Candia), his Life, Works and Times. Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1974, p. 379
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Review of: Vitaliy Nagirnyy, Urzędnicy ziemi kijowskiej od drugiej połowy XI do pierwszejpołowy XIII wieku. Studium prozopograficzne, Kraków: Historia Iagellonica, 2021,p. 390. ISBN: 978-83-66304-91-9.
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The article focuses on the analysis of classic utopian texts (Thomas More, Tommaso Campanella, Johann V. Andreae, Francis Bacon) in terms of women’s image presented in them. The author discusses the issues of the women’s place in the organization of utopian societies, the role of women in the family, the work of women and women’s access to science, in context of the equality of men and women declared by the authors of the literary utopias. The text compares utopian visions of ideal societies and the results of historical research on women’s place in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.
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The text summarizes some of the research results from my doctoral dissertation. In the broadest sense, the following text discusses the influence of rhetorical concepts and practices on the composition practice of the Renaissance. The methodological approach is interdisciplinary and multilayered, and it leads to the interpretation of Marian motifs dating from the late fifteenth to the end of the sixteenth century, in the context of rhetorical ideas and principles, and the Marian topic / topos. The most significant result of this text is the formation of a special analytical method by which the interpretive-contextual reading of musical marking is achieved.
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Zabawy mędrców – a novel by Antoni Godziemba Wysocki, a forgotten writer, an eccentric and intellectual from Lviv, was published in the interwar period and became a literary event. Re viewers unanimously emphasized his innovative approach to history. It was not the historical novel that readers were used to, both in terms of idea and form. Placing the action inside the Krakow Academy in the 16th century, at the turn of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, was supposed to demonstrate the pathology of education that was dominated by dogma and scholasticism against the background of the daily life of those days. In order to achieve that, the author allegedly worked on his book for over twenty years, thoroughly studying the sources: rare papers, manuscripts and numerous dissertations about the history of the Jagiellonian University. Consequently, a vivid (but strongly biased and clearly depreciating the Middle Ages) study of a few teachers came into life. The professors and bachelors, who had authentic prototypes, were shown through psychoanalytical examination in search of their complexes and personality disorders that limited their mental and didactic work. Wysocki’s work: cool, intellectual, and allusive, it was a unique but one sided presentation of Polish culture during the times of the last Jagiellon, but above all, it was a type of warning that concerned the condition and future of Polish education after gaining independence.
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Review of: Réka Tímea Újlaki-Nagy: Christians or Jews? Early Transylvanian Sabbatarianism (1580–1621). (Refo500 Academic Studies, Bd. 87.) Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. Göttingen 2022. 292 S. ISBN 978-3-525-57331-0. (€ 130,–.)
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In this article we present the results of the historical-pedagogical research, which objective was to establish the premises for the development of the novohispanic Schools of Arts and Crafts as predecessors of current Mexican technical professional education, through a documentary-bibliographic study. The authors found, that the prerequisites of the appearance of the Mexican technical professional education system were created since the 16th century, and the novohispanic Schools of Arts and Crafts were the grounds for its development. In addition, the premises for the development of the novohispanic Schools of Arts and Crafts were the introduction of new agricultural, textiles, construction, and mining extraction technologies to the new continent by the Spanish, and the request for Amerindian peoples’ instruction for its use. This teaching was provided by the conquistadors along with the evangelization and Castilianization of the natives in the Schools of Arts and Crafts. Later, in the 18th – early 19th centu- ries, there were opened the new Schools of Arts and Crafts (the schools for workers) of engraving, painting, mining, spinning, weaving, etc. – the direct predecessors of the current technical professional schools.
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This paper discusses the melodic formulas of psalmodic cycles of the Vigil in Russian manuscripts of the 16th to 18th centuries. It shows that some special formulas are used in the melos of the psalmody, along with the formulas of znamenny and putevoy chant. They are found in the eight-mode cycles, such as “Lord, I have cried” and “God is the Lord”, and in the cycles with one melodic model (according to the Jerusalem Typicon tradition; sometimes without indication of modes), such as the Polyeleos, the ainoi, or the first antiphon of the first kathisma and the seventeenth kathisma. Similarities between special formulas in various psalmodic cycles, including eight-mode and non-octomodal Psalms, suggest the presence of remnants of the archaic eight-mode psalmodic system in the cycles of the Vigil
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In “Achiziții Noi [New Achievements]” collection at the National Archives of Romania, two genealogical threads of Hâra and Buhuș families are preserved. They are dated in the 16th -18th centuries and make a synthesis of the history of these Moldavian families, related among them and with other main families, such as Movilă, Stroici, Ureche. These threads provide new information of some members of these families, since a part of the documents in use, when they were issued in 1814, is lost
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Żywiec is a town that was founded at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. It was a private town operating according to the rules set by its owners, which also applied to its self government. Żywiec did not have a wealthy merchant class, but it boasted a numerous and strong common citizenry. Its members formed craft guilds, numbering a few, at most ten. During the period under study (until 1778), representatives of these guilds, due to their urban affiliation and high status among the townspeople, often served on the town council and in municipal positions. The strongest and most prosperous guilds, such as cobblers, tailors, and weavers, had the largest share in self government at that time. Many mayors and commune heads of guild provenance served their function multiple times or held various positions during their municipal careers. Sometimes, among the members of the town’s self government, one could also find individuals who were related to each other.
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The article presents the image of an attorney as characterized in Old Polish literature from the 16th and 17th centuries. It reflected, to some extent, the attitude of the people of the time (primarily the nobility) towards the legal profession. There is no doubt that the perception of attorneys by Old Polish society was unequivocally negative. They were portrayed as greedy, dishonest men, liars with no respect for the law and even instigators of non-compliance with the law. Literary works and political writings broadly condemned such behaviors. However, this stereotype applied only to professional attorneys- at-law. By no means were non-professional agents (attorneys in fact) attacked, nor was the institution of the power of attorney itself criticized. It seems that this sort of critical attitude was not estate-based (many attorneys were noblemen), although it is possible that the low descent of lawyers influenced the virulence of the criticism. The paper attempts to answer the question as to what extent the literary image of an attorney corresponded to reality. It seems that the works comprised objective reflections on the legal profession and the emotional attitudes of individuals (including the authors themselves) or social groups. It is noteworthy that these pieces of literature often regarded the entire Polish legal system of the time as dysfunctional. Nevertheless, the recurrence of motifs such as greediness or dishonesty gives reason to believe that at least some of these allegations were not unfounded. At the same time, it should be noted that this image of a lawyer corresponded with the stereotype present in European and non- European culture from antiquity to contemporary times.
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