The Mediterranean sun confronted with a heavily armed warrior is a commonly known paradox in the ancient Greece. The opposition of these two elements forms the main framework of numerous studies and most recently the term ‘the Hoplite hell’ was coined in order to refer to the phenomenon. Contemporary scholars agree that the sun was one of the main obstacles which the ancient Greek warriors had to fight, as it heated the ground up to 32°C in the morning. It might seem surprising however that the ancient Greek literary sources very rarely depict Grecian warriors tormented by the sun rays and the picture is far from being a battlefield topos. In the military context, the distant object on the blue horizon appears to be physically separated from the earth surface and from the fighters; and its role seems to be different from what one could expect. The author of the article tries to present the functions attributed to the sun in the battlefield by the ancient Greeks according to the preserved testimonies.

In 400 BC, Dionysius the Elder founded a city called Adranos, after an important Sicel sanctuary. This deed marked an important phase in relations between the indigenous people and the Greek population. It can be argued that the tyrant’s decision was dictated by practical reasons, yet his policy of subjecting a Sicel divinity under the Greek city-state structure resulted from previous Greek experiences and practices. On the other hand, after the era of Dionysius, the cult of Adranos not only did not disappear, but also gained a wider recognition and never lost political importance to the Greeks, who by the end of fourth century exerted significant influence over former Sicel lands. In the effect native people did not vanish from the island but were practically absorbed into the Greek world.

This article focuses on the presentation of the role of Pope Vigilius in the Christological dispute about the ‘Three Chapters’, from the point of view of the representatives of the African Church. The sources used in the study: Breviarium by Liberatus of Carthage and the Chronicon by Victor of Tonnunna, were written by the authors who were directly involved in the ongoing conflict, which put an end to the church schism at the Second Council of Constantinople. The article presents the findings of the secondary literature on the participation of the Pope in condemning the ‘Three Chapters’, analyzes the above sources and confronts them with other relations of western and eastern historians. Finally, the author advances a thesis about the creation and presence of the negative image of Vigilius, especially in the Western Church.

Godric of Finchale (ca. 1065/1069–1170) was born in a peasant family in Walpole. He was a merchant who achieved great economic success and became a rich man. As a grown-up man he decided to become an independent recluse at Finchale, but after a few years he was assimilated into the community of monks of Durham. Godric spent around 50 years at Finchale and stayed there until his death. His ascetic life gained him the fame of ‘a saint man’. Before the end of the 12th century monks of Durham prepared three hagiographic texts about Godric. The authors concentrated not only on his life as a hermit but also put emphasis on the period when he was  hard working very successfull and rich merchant who used to pray and visit holy places. Medieval hagiographers usually omitted in their texts the episodes which did not prove sanctity of their heroes, so it can be presumed that in the opinion of monks of Durham, Godric’s hard work and economic success were the first steps on his way to sanctity. Such statements in hagiographic texts written before the end of the 12th century allows us to treat the monks of Durham as the pioneers of new churchmen’s attitude to the growing merchant class.

The article raises the issue of craft guilds judiciary in the medieval Cracow. Earlier historians studying the articles of guild law, claimed that guilds judged mainly the cases of infringements of guild law, as well as minor civil and criminal cases of corporation members. This study is based on judicial notes from two late medieval guild books – the book of Kleparz clothiers and the book of Cracow goldsmiths. The analysis of source material, however, has revised previous statements. The presence of major criminal causes in guild records revealed that the scope of craft corporations’ jurisdiction was more extensive than it had been thought. The comparison between preserved guild statutes and guild law related causes showed coincidence of judicial practice with the wording of articles. Furthermore, the content of those records showed similarities between judicial proceedings of guilds and municipal court. Those statements prove that craft corporations were in fact the courts of first instance for their members and important part of municipal judiciary in Cracow.

It can be assumed that the first guild organizations in the medieval Cracow were established by settlers from southern Germany and from Silesian towns who started to settle in the city in the second half of the 13th century. The oldest known and preserved law of craft guild dates back to 1377 and it belongs to the guild of furriers of Cracow. There is no doubt that the statutes of the guild are the primary source of knowledge about the functioning of the craft guild as they depict the most important aspects of life of the craft guild community. Their informative value is limited however due to their normative nature. On the other hand, it may be presumed that the modern versions of the guild laws contain provisions equivalent to those that were in force in the Middle Ages. The statute of the guild of painters from 1490 and its modern version of 1581 are a perfect example. Nevertheless, confronting the provisions provided in the statutes with the official reports of court sessions, we can easily come to the conclusion that the life of the community does not always correspond to the model expressed in the guild law.

When Michał Wiszniewski, the professor not only of history, but also of history of Polish and world literature, left Cracow on 16th April 1848, the authorities of the Jagiellonian University had to solve the problem of finding a worthy successor for the history of literature department, who would also be able to give lectures in the field of Polish history and literature studies. In the academic circles of Cracow one of the most adequate candidates was considered to be Adam Mickiewicz, who on 4th January 1849 sent his firm declaration to the rector Józef Majer, stating that he would eagerly serve the Jagiellonian School and educate Polish students. The declaration however appeared to be insufficient for securing him the position of Polish literature professor at the University, as it was to be decided by the Austrian Ministerium des Cultus und des Unterrichtes, and the nomination was to be given by Franz Joseph I himself. Among those who did not support Mickiewicz for the position at the University was governor Wacław Zaleski.

The article treats about the life of the Polish nation under the Russian, Prussian and Austrian rule in the years 1857–1861 presented by “Wiadomości Polskie” – a weekly magazine, which unofficially belonged to Hotel Lambert (Polish emigrant conservative organisation). The publicists of the periodical – prominent Polish political and cultural activists and scholars – Julian Klaczko and Walerian Kalinka – drafted the image of the Polish people of that time, who led a demoralised and meaningless life and who were not willing to struggle for the sake of their enslaved motherland. According to “Wiadomości”, especially outrageous was the fact that some Poles could not resist the temptation of national betrayal, which they did by abandoning the dreams of restituted Poland. Nevertheless, stating that ‘Today the spirit of the nation is not yet poisoned’, the editors of “Wiadomości” believed that there were Poles who would do their best in order to gradually eliminate all national vices. Indeed, in the last editions of “Wiadomości” the publicists of the periodical firmly stressed that the Polish people finally understood what their national responsibilities were. Thus, they hoped the Polish nation would continue to grow and would not prematurely begin a national uprising, which would inevitably lead to another national disaster.

Czechoslovakia played an essential role in the repatriation of Polish people from the west after WWII. It was through the Czechoslovak territory that the trains with repatriates were passing from the American occupation zone in Germany, which made it necessary to expand the activity of repatriation institutions that took care of repatriates passing through Czechoslovakia. On 21st September 1945 Poland and Czechoslovakia signed a repatriation agreement on the cooperation between the two countries during the repatriation of their citizens. In the early September 1945 Polish Repatriation Mission was founded in Prague and presided by capt. Edward Wojtkowski. It had its delegations mainly in north-west and west Czech territory. An essential role was played by the delegation in Pilsen, as the town was located near the border separating the Soviet and the American troops (the US army liberated part of west Czech lands together with Pilsen). It was revealed, however, that members of the repatriation delegation in Pilsen, apart from being involved in the repatriation activities, participated in illegal transfer of Polish people to the American zone. The article presents an analysis – on the basis of Czech and Polish sources – of illegal escapes of Polish people, organized with the help of repatriation office workers from Pilsen. In November 1945, when the American army was withdrawing from the Czechoslovakia territory, Polish repatriation workers who participated in the illegal procedure left Pilsen with the American troops.

The article portrays events from the most recent history of the Jagiellonian University. In the 1950s the communist politicians tried to weaken the position of the University by separating its numerous faculties and transforming them into independent institutions of higher education. The most painful was the loss of the faculties of medicine, agriculture and theology. The role of the University was marginalized and the number of students decreased. The transformations in October 1956 brought the hope that the University might one day regain its previous glory. The new authorities of the University with the rector Zygmunt Grodziński struggled to restore with the Academy of Medicine, College of Agriculture and the Faculty of Theology to the Jagiellonian University. The authorities of the Academy of Medicine were unanimous in the question of merging with the University, and so were the officials at the Faculty of Theology. Nevertheless, at the College of Agriculture the opinions were divided. Talks held between government authorities and party representatives in Warsaw and Cracow did not bring any results. Almost two years of efforts were unsuccessful as the authorities did not agree to admit that the school reform of the Stalinist times was a mistake.

Book review:

Jesus Palacios, Stanley G. Payne, Franco. A Personal and Political Biography, The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 2014, ss. 617+XII

Book review:

Denys Pringle, Pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the Holy Land, 1187–1291, Crusade Texts in Translation, vol. 23, Farnham, Ashgate 2012, ss. 463