Could the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth have been rescued in the eighteenth century? If certain social strata had not been so excluded, might the partitions of Poland never have come to pass?

Who discussed Polish politics centuries ago, and how? What was the language of that discourse? What values did it invoke? What kind of state did it describe?

The present text is the first attempt in historiography to evaluate the scientific output of Józef Andrzej Gierowski from the perspective of research into the parliamentarism of the Polish-‑Lithuanian Commonwealth. Out of the 482 publications written by him between 1946 and 2006, 20 were selected which were directly or significantly devoted to parliamentarism. The influence of Gierowski's on the study of parliamentarism was not limited to publications, but included the shaping of successive generations of historians of political history and political systems (including parliamentarism), through the promotion of master's and doctoral theses and numerous reviews in promotion proceedings and publishing procedures. A key role in promoting the results of his own research, as well as his profound reflections on the function-ing of parliamentarism, its role in the former Republic, and its significance on against the backdropground of the processes of change of the political systems of Europe at that time, is occupied by the extremely widely read syntheses of Polish history by Gierowski. He should therefore be regarded as one of the key figures in the field of research into Polish‑Lithuanian parliamentarism.

The Enlightenment occupied an important place in the oeuvre of Professor Józef Andrzej Gierowski. This piece presents his evolving views on the Enlightenment in three syntheses of the history of early modern Poland and the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth: two university textbooks first published in 1967 and 1978 respectively, and a book addressed to a wider, non‑academic readership first published in 2001, much of which was presented to Anglophone readers in 1996. J. A. Gierowski’s views are presented against the background of the sardonic references to “the enlightened age” and “enlightened Europe” in the synthesis published by his supervisor, Władysław Konopczyński in 1936, as well as the Marxist‑Leninist scheme of the Enlightenment forced on historiography and the humanities in postwar Poland, especially by Celina Bobińska. J. A. Gierowski’s view of “the ideology of the Enlightenment” gradually shifted from the primacy of rationalist and materialist thinking to the aim of the pursuit of happi-ness within human society. While still emphasising economic and social factors, including the role of the bourgeoisie in the Dutch Republic, England and France, he increasingly distanced himself from the model of the Enlightenment as the ideology of the rising bourgeoisie, forced on him in the early stages of his academic career. After long reflection on the question of the reception and originality of the Enlightenment in the Commonwealth, he came to appreciate the contributions of Royal Prussian burghers, the Catholic clergy and the Polish‑Lithuanian nobility. He also jettisoned the postwar dogma that the beginning of the capitalist order in Poland should be dated to 1764.

The crisis of the Catholic Church due to the Reformation marked a profound shift in European religious dynamics during the 16th century. This transformation led to confessional conflicts previous-ly unseen in Europe’s history. Within this context, the Warsaw Confederation 1573 stands out as an extraordinary event. Unlike traditional peace settlements following religious wars or edicts is-sued by rulers, it was a political and pragmatic measure introduced by the Sejm and aimed at maintaining peace during the Interre-gnum period, and preventing bloody conflicts. The path to this uni-que solution lay in the multiculturalism of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth on which territories Roman Catholics already in the late Middle Ages coexisted with Orthodox Christians. Besides, through Poland’s diplomatic efforts, the protestant Duchy of Prussia was established in 1525 following the secularization of the Teu-tonic Order. The Warsaw Confederation remains an exceptional example of resolving internal religious conflicts in the early modern period, as the Western countries, with their conflict-oriented mind-set, were less inclined to pursue such a path.

Jerzy Topolski was one of the most outstanding Polish historians of the late 20th century. He wrote numerous works, including a synthesis of the history of the Polish-Lithuanian Com-monwealth in the 16-18th centuries, which is the object of the analyses presented in this article.

Th e article describes two Cyrillic Gospels from the Kórnik Library: BK 11985 and BK 896. It presents the cultural context of their creation, as well as their history, content, illuminations and a short lexical description. Both codices were the result of a cultural and spiritual revival in the Orthodox Church in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Both of them were luxury, professionally made goods; their copyists were experienced specialists. BK 896 represents a higher level of artistry. In view of their lexical characteristics, the manuscripts can be classifi ed as the third so-called Mount Athos-Tyrnovo linguistic redaction of the Gospel.

Western Ukraine arouses a high emotional charge of historical origin. There are a number of buildings and complexes in this area created since the 14th century, that are the witnesses of the Polish presence and our contribution to the culture of these lands. The monuments of sacred architecture and numerous military ones occupy a special place. In the short interwar period a number of structures and complexes that demonstrate a high level of design technique were created. Their current technical state is usually very bad. Our participation in restoring splendour to the witnesses of our, historical centuries-old presence, would be beneficial.

Among the several crises that occurred in the 16th century, the famine crisis and high prices in the years 1569–1574 had exceptional significance, as its intensity, scope and duration far out-weighed other economic collapses of the century. Despite this, the course of events and the consequences have been of virtually no interest to historians over the years, which begs the question: why? As it seems, the events connected with the crises in question were overshadowed in Western historiography by other numerous and significant political events at the time, such as the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and the Night of St. Bartholomew in France (1572). In the Polish-‑Lithuanian state, in contrast, between 1569 and 1574, the famine and high prices coincided with a crisis of royal power and the state. This, indeed, drew the attention of historians, but only to political issues, among them the Polish‑Lithuanian union of 1569, the succession to the throne after the heirless Sigismund Augustus died, the first free election, religious disputes, the flight of King Henryk Walezy (Henry III), and the neighbouring wars, rather than to the social problems connected with the mass death of the poorest in the state, and the resulting economic problems. Therefore, in this article, the author synthesises the course of the famine crisis of 1569–1574 in the Polish‑Lithuanian state and hypothesises that the events and implications of this crisis largely preserved the mentality of the nobility in the following centuries and their dominance in the economic and political life of the Commonwealth. This crisis also influenced a choice of different path for development of the Commonwealth compared to other European countries. To clarify, the author does not claim to have exhausted the subject, and the article is intended to spur a discussion and further detailed research.

During the Russian-Polish negotiations at the end of 1671 – the beginning of 1672, several Russian memorandums were handed over to Polish-Lithuanian diplomats. All these original documents are preserved in the Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kórnik, Poland, and are studied as some of the most important forms of diplomatic communications between the Muscovite State and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The memorandums clearly reveal the Muscovite diplomatic tactic against the Polish-Lithuanian side. They focus on the main problems of Russian- Polish relationships such as the transfer of Kiev from Russia to Poland (which had to be fulfilled in 1669 but which has never been executed), the policy towards the right-bank Ukraine hetman Piotr Doroshenko, who pledged his allegiance to the Ottoman sultan, the attack of the left-bank Ukrainian Cossacks (who were under the Thar’s rule) on the Lithuanian borderlands, and the implementing of the previous Russian-Polish anti-Ottoman treaty of 1667. It can be supposed also that the diplomatic form of the memorandum itself was borrowed by the Russian Foreign Office from the Polish-Lithuanian diplomatic tradition.