The historical issues discussed in the present publication concern the discovery of and an attempt to interpret the sources relating to the earliest history of the parish and church at Beszowa (situated between Nowe Miasto Korczyn and Połaniec) and their medieval and later relations with the estate of the Gryfita family of Mielec on the right bank of the Vistula and subsequently with the family’s town, Mielec.
The problems pertain to 14th- and 15th-century source documents, published but for the most part never referred to for information, as well as to the hitherto unknown book of privileges – covering the period from the 15th to the 17th century – which were granted to the Beszowa parish and to the later Mielec parish. The latter document provides a great deal of information about settlement (especially in the part of the Wiślica region situated on the right bank of the Vistula), the foundation of the Pauline monastery at Beszowa, and the short-lived parish at Orzelec, but mainly about the development of the Mielec estate and its division in the late 16th century. The final part of the book presents the issues of the Vistula river trade in the 16th and 17th centuries, hitherto unknown from other sources (or equally for other Polish territories), which was plied by two-thirds of the Mielec middle class. This observation may apply to the majority of the towns situated along the Vistula as a testimony to their wealth and development until the Swedish ‘Deluge’ and the accompanying invasion by György Rákóczy, Duke of Transylvania, which was to bring about economic and demographic disaster for the Polish Kingdom.