Jerzy Łojko

The objective of the paper is to familiarize the readers with the subject of fires in the historic Greater Poland in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. It is a form of a debate with the arguments on this subject presented in the 2020 publication by Andrzej Karpiński (and his collaborators) titled “Fires in towns of the Republic of Poland from the 16th until the 18th century, and their economic, social, and cultural consequences. Catalogue”. (It must be noted here that we do not discuss the information contained in the second, monograph part of the paper). In the first part of the article, the authors reflect upon the validity of the literature Karpiński used and the problem of source selection. The usefulness of iuramenta (a type of urban books), often containing information on fires, is investigated (Karpiński did not research those). The second part of the paper discusses the sources that the author did not use, which also include other types of urban books, enlistment registers from the second half of the 16th century, and the reports of foreign travelers to Greater Poland. Despite the comments made in the article — focusing mostly on facts rather than methodology — the work by Karpiński is definitely worth recommending. As Tomasz Jurek writes, in the future, this publication will become a […] guide for researchers exploring this interesting subject for generations to come.

Monastic obituaries are a valuable historical source. They almost synthesize the histories of many abbeys, by presenting their clientelism and prayer relations. The revival of the studies on this particular source, inspired by the achievements of the school of professor Tellebach, the editorial work of Monumenra Poloniae Historica (Z. Kozłowska Budkowa, K. Jasiński, K. Maleczyński) and the most recent publications (K. Oliński, K. Witkowski) are an inspiration to finally take interest in numerous obituaries, which, in majority, were written in the 18th century. The author of this article profoundly analyzed the obituaries from the Cistercian monastery in Bledzew (near Gorzów Wielkopolski) and the hand-written books on the profession, published monastic and diocesan schemes, and other resources comprising information which makes it possible to create a critical commentary and to explain the process of creating an obituary and its accumulation. The Bledzew obituary demonstrates e. g. relations between Cistercians in the descendancy line and relations between the order, the province and the state. Entries written by Cistercians from the German abbey, Zinna, whose bodies partially moved to Poland are particularly valuable. Relationship between them and the Order of St. Bernard from Poznań, Sieraków, Wschowa, Poznań Caramelites and other orders are also interesting. This text presents various research aspects related to this particular type of historical resource.