Maciej Ziemierski

The article is dedicated to the Królik family from Krakow, who lived in the town from the late 16th century until the first years of the 18th century. The family members initially worked as tailors, later reinforcing the group of Krakow merchants in the third generation (Maciej Królik). Wojciech Królik – from the fourth generation – was a miner in Olkusz. The text omits the most distinguished member of the family, Wojciech’s oldest brother, the Krakow councillor Mikołaj Królik, whose figure has been covered in a separate work. The work shows the complicated religious relations in the family of non-Catholics, initially highly engaged in the life of the Krakow Congregation, but whose members gradually converted from Evangelism to Catholicism. As a result, Wojciech Królik and his siblings became Catholics. This work is complemented by four testaments of family members, with the first, Jakub Królik’s, being written in 1626 and the last one, Wojciech Królik’s, written in 1691.

This article presents the person of the Lublin burgher Józef Siestrzeński (d. 1652). In all likelihood descended from the impoverished Mazovian gentry, Siestrzeński resolved to seek his livelihood in the town, hence his decision to settle in Lublin. Here he achieved success; admittedly, he never became a member of the local municipal élite, but he attained a strong position both in his trade (in the swordsmiths’ guild) and financially, in the latter aspect by acquiring a house in a prestigious quarter of the city. Additionally, his testament sheds some light on everyday life during the great plague in 1652.

This article presents the figure of Józef Bartłomiej Gherardyni (1681–1743), Cracow merchant and member of the Cracow patriciate. It also describes an interesting history of a Polish branch of the family whose roots went way back to Florence in Tuscany. Basing on his last will and an inventory, completed with the information from other sources, it was possible to retrace the alliances of the Polish branch of the Gherardyni family whose representatives, although not in any Cracow municipal offices themselves, allied with the families belonging to Cracow’s power elite and with the representatives of the nobility. In addition, the article discusses a very fast process of the polonisation of the Polish branch of the Gherardyni family whose third generation – the children of Józef Bartłomiej Gherardyni – could not speak the language of Petrarch and Boccaccio.

This article attempts to familiarise readers with the little-known figure of Adam Toryani, a representative of the Krakow judicial family of Italian-Swiss origin. Adam Toryani was undoubtedly in the shadow of his father, Franciszek I Toryani, an architect and Krakow councillor, as well as his brothers: Karol, a Krakow councillor and Franciszek II, a Krakow judge, and even his nephew Józef, a Krakow councillor and pharmacist as well as a doctor of canon and civil law. Through the marriage of Adam Toryani with a representative of the noble Skorupka-Padlewski family, settled in the area of the former Duchies of Oświęcim and Zator, there is also an attempt to show the fluidity of the inter-state borders in the former Republic. It is worth mentioning that the Toryani (Torriani) family coat of arms, the Della Torre, belonged to the old nobility of Lombardy-Switzerland, however, it did not obtain a Polish indygenat, or at least no information has been found on the subject. The article is accompanied by the edition of two related texts – the testament of Adam Toryani, written on 23 April 1756, and his posthumous inventory, prepared on 10 June 1757 by his wife, Marianna, née Skorupka-Padlewski.

The objective of the present article is to depict the fortunes of the Smołukowski family situated directly at the backstage of Cracow’s establishment from the turn of the 17th and 18th century. It shows the figures of Franciszek Smołukowski (1647–1729), Cracow’s municipal secretary and iron merchant, his wife, Annnée Gloss (around 1670–1735) and their son, Father Jan Smołukowski (around 1702–1739), canon of St. Ann’s Collegiate Church in Cracow. On the basis of their last wills and other materials the family connections have been established, especially those of Ann Smołukowska née Gloss. The Gloss family was related to the representatives of Cracow’s top establishment (the Hallers, the Bartschs) as well as to the families of different religious beliefs which settled in Cracow (inter alia the Gessing family which came from Gdańsk).