Umbria and Umbrians’ attitude towards the Roman expansion in 4th–2nd century BCE
This article is an attempt to present the role of the Roman Republic’s policies towards Umbrian tribes (in 4th–2nd century BCE) and show the effects of those policies. Umbria was initially an area inhabited by a mosaic of Umbrian’s tribes representing various levels of development.
The policy of first conquering and then subordinating this area, as well as the powerful influence of Roman law, ideas, and cultural models, indicates not only the great military might of republican Rome but also the attractiveness of its civilization. Rome’s effectiveness resulted mainly from the fact that its actions complemented each other. After victorious military operations, or sometimes simultaneously with those operations, came settlement campaigns (colonies: Narnia, Interamna Nahars, Spoletium etc.)
Rome was also a master of diplomacy. It mollified its recent enemies by concluding alliances (foederae with Camerinum, Ocriculum etc.) that created a system of friendly state and tribal organisms and enabled its citizens to live peaceably on the conquered territories. All these actions made it possible to subordinate the region, make the Roman presence permanent, and effectively repulse the invaders (Hannibal and his brother – Hasdrubal during the Second Punic War).
The intensified settlement policy in Umbria and the expansion of its infrastructure (roads), facilitated economic contacts between Roman settlements and the centers of the subjugated, allied native tribes.

Culinary literature of the Crown of Aragon toward the end of the Middle Ages – analysis of the sources as well as of the scope and main topics of existing research
The article contains an analysis of the fundamental directions of research devoted to four medieval manuscripts which had been created towards the end of the Middle Ages: Llibre de Sent Sovi, Llibre de totes maneres de potages de menjar, Llibre d’aparellar de menjar and Llibre de totes maneres de confits.
The starting point of the analysis was a critical edition of the individual collections which made it possible to carry out more in-depth studies devoted to the origin of the recipes, their mutual relations as well as their transfer between the manuscripts. A derivative of this research was a linguistic analysis concerning the culinary terminology, which was often conducted within a wider context of studies devoted to the Catalan language.
Another issue which was raised in the study concerned the gastronomical customs operating on the territory of medieval Catalonia. On the basis of these scientific analyses, there appeared some popular publications which popularized our knowledge about the above problem as well as the Catalan culinary literature. Another valuable aftermath of the research consisted in attempts to adapt the medieval recipes to the requirements of the contemporary cuisine.
In the final part of the dissertation the author characterizes concisely the research methods which he had used in the studies on the Catalan culinary literature; he ends the dissertation with a presentation of his subsequent research postulates.

The political activity of Adam Kazanowski (1599–1649)
Adam Kazanowski and his entire political career was closely associated with king Władysław IV (Ladislaus IV Vasa). As the monarch’s favorite, and since 1637 also one of the senators, Kazanowski became involved in issues relating to the state’s policy. Due to his close relations with the king and consequently his royalist views, he often identified with the opinions represented by the monarch and sided with his will. Yet on some occasions, Kazanowski’s attitude was far removed from the views represented by the monarch. Being close to the monarch’s inner circle, he participated in the majority of Parliament sessions (Diet sessions) during the reign of Władysław IV. Shortly after the monarch’s death, he was also involved in political issues associated with Chmielnicki’s Uprising. Yet due to the unfavorable attitude of king Jan Kazimierz (John II Casimir Vasa) and the continually worsening state of his health, his political activity became considerably less intense. The one-time king’s favorite ended his life not long afterwards, on 25 December 1649.

Introduction to research on the anti-communist underground in the Pszczyna District in the years 1945–1947
In the years 1945–1947, a few armed groups operated in the Pszczyna district which no doubt made it much more difficult for the communists to create their own state apparatus. The provincial Military Court in Katowice meted out very severe sentences to the arrested members of the armed organization; the goal of this policy was to deter both those who took active part in the struggle with People’s Power, as well as their helpers. Out of the 84 inhabitants of the Pszczyna district presented in the article who took part in activities targeted against the communists as well as their 21 helpers, 17 had been sentenced to capital punishment. 49 others had been sentenced to imprisonment. The remaining ones owned up to conspiring against the communist authorities on the basis of amnesty, or else escaped abroad, in this way avoiding penal proceedings. The not-guilty verdicts were proclaimed in isolated cases. The decreed verdicts were later verified after the introduction of the act of amnesty. The members of the Pszczyna freedom organizations who have been presented in the article by no means make up all the fighters who took part in the struggle with the communists on this territory. According to the data gathered by the communist Citizens’ Militia (MO) and Security Service (SB) for the Katowice province in the years 1944–1975, in the year 1945 there operated as many as 4 underground resistance organizations in the Pszczyna area; their total membership amounted to 195 resistance fighters. In the year 1946, the number of resistance groups remained unchanged, yet the number of members increased to 275. In the year 1947, there were no longer any anti-communist organizations in the Pszczyna district. Thus the issue of anti-communist organizations on the territory of the Pszczyna district is anything but exhausted and requires further studies whose goal is, among others, to establish the total number of their members, the organization of clandestine activity, and the catalog of conducted operations targeted against the contemporary authorities.

On 3rd November 2009 the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg ruled that Italy had to remove crucifi xes from school classrooms, thereby supporting the application submitted by Soile Lautsi Albertin, an Italian citizen of Finnish origin, “in the name of the principle of state secularism.” The above decision sparked an uproar and criticism which reverberated throughout entire Europe.
On 30th June 2010, an appeal against this ruling, inspired by an ideological vision of religious freedom, had been discussed by Italian government lawyers before the Grand Chambre of the Court of Justice in Strasbourg.
The Appeal judgment cancelled the first verdict and recognized the Italian Government’s reasons and rights to display crucifixes in public schools. It was concluded that the first judgment didn’t take into consideration the social and public role of religion, especially the Christian one, in the process of building a civil society and a public law system and promoted religious indifferentism which stands in contradiction with the entire history, culture and rights of the Italian people and the peoples of Europe.

Sprawozdanie z ogólnopolskiej konferencji naukowej pt. Wokół postaci
Edwarda Śmigłego-Rydza. W siedemdziesiątą rocznicę śmierci trzeciego marszałka Polski Niepodległej (Kraków, 29 marca 2012 roku)

Jacques Le Goff, Niezwykli bohaterowie i cudowne budowle średniowiecza, przekł. K. Marczewska, Oficyna Naukowa, Warszawa 2011