Janusz Smołucha

This article analyzes texts that show attempts to resist the plague epidemic in Europe in the second half of the XIVth century. Much information on this subject has survived in writings by Italian authors, including Giovanni Boccaccio, Matteo Villani, and Francesco Petrarch. In Italian cities, the sickness led to demographic disaster, permanently changing the social order and the daily life of their inhabitants. Using the above mentioned texts, the author reflects on the triumphal march of the plague, searching for answers to the question as to the extent to which contemporary doctors were responsible for the state of affairs. When they encountered the first attack of the plague, they were helpless, not possessing either appropriate knowledge of medicines. Authors of chronicles noted that when examining the sick, doctors only took simple steps such as measuring temperature and analyzing body fluids, and the drew on philosophy and astrology when doing so. Sharper and sharper criticism fell on their heads as a result, and accusations not just of ignorance but also of cowardice. This was because many medical persons fled from territories affected by plague. Francesco Petrarch was one of the fiercest critics of doctors at this time. In the course of the epidemic, he lost Laura, the love of his life, and his beloved son. Petrarch wrote of the plague and the death that accompanied it in several tracts and poetic pieces. In those, he showed the fear and terror that haunted people when the world they had hitherto known lay in ruins.

The article deals with the circumstances behind the negotiations in Krakow in the summer of 1596, the aim of which was to form the Holy League against Turkey under the auspices of Pope Clement VIII. Both the representatives of the Polish Sejm and Senate as well as the delegates of Emperor Rudolf II Habsburg gathered there together to discuss the matter. The Pope, on his part, sent Cardinal Enrico Caetani, elevated to the rank of legatus de latere, with the mission to preside over and facilitate the negotiations. One of the many challenges faced by the congress, which brought together a number of significant political and religious leaders, was to ease  he tensions between Poland and Austria and focus their efforts on the idea of war against Turkey. In order to present the background and the course of these consultations, the authors draws extensively from both Polish and foreign primary sources, including the ones housed in the collections of the Vatican Archive and the Vatican Library. The most valuable of them is The Diary written by Paolo Mucante, who accompanied Cardinal Caetani Giovanni throughout his journey. As a keen observer, with a sharp eye for cultural, religious and political differences, Mucante left a captivating description of peoples, customs and events to posterity.