The Titles of Roman Emperors and the Idea of Victories over the Parthians and Persians
in the Years 235–284. A Few Remarks About the Testimony of Numismatic, Epigraphic
and Papyrological Sources

Special attention was drawn in the article to the motives which made the Roman emperors in the years 235–284 assume the cognomina ex virtute associated with their real or imaginary successes in the battles with the Sassanid Empire in the East. The author drew attention to the splendor of these victories as well as to the fact that the desire of these victories was so great that no effort was spared to adopt the titles associated with them, even after the slightest political, rather than military successes; sometimes the titles were adopted quite mechanically and, as it were in anticipation, which had a definite significance from the point of view of prestige and propaganda. By adopting suitable titles, the emperors often revealed above all their own aspirations, rather than the successes which were really achieved by them. All emperors who ruled for a longer period of time and who had formed a definite program as regards their external policy, had assumed suitable titles or nicknames.

A Child on the Throne. The Reign of the Emperor Leo II, AD 473–474

Leo II was the son of Zeno and Ariadna, daughter of the emperor Leo I, who reigned in the years AD 457–474. In accordance with historical tradition, it is assumed that he was born around the year 467, and took over the imperial power in 474. During the same year he elevated his father Zeno to Augustus, and subsequently, after a period of joint rule which lasted several months, Leo II died. This article is an attempt to sort out the scarce and frequently mutually contradictory historical accounts, and to modify the chronology on Leo II recently proposed by Brian Croke. It is primarily focused on the date of Leo’s birth, recognizing that it had taken place in the autumn  of 469. Subsequently, in the autumn of 473, Leo I elevated his grandson, within a brief time span, first to the rank of Caesar in October, and then, on 17 November, to be Augustus. After his grandfather’s death shortly thereafter, on 18 January 474, Leo II, in accordance with the Senate’s decision, had appointed his father Zeno as co-ruling emperor – on 29 January. After a little less than a year of joint rule the young emperor died in November 474.

Research on Late-Mediaeval and Modern History of Spiš (Review of Sources and Literature)

In the article the author presents the sources and literature relating to Spiš, the Spiš komitat and starosty (1412–1769) during the period of the Middle Ages as well as in the modern era. He discusses publications concerning the archival materials, and collections as well as sources concerning the history of Spis which are available on the territory of Hungary, Slovakia and Poland; in the article he presents the source editions up until the end of the 18th century (C. Wagner) and the systematically growing foreign language literature on this subject (Hungarian, Slovak, German and Polish publications as well as publications by researchers of other nationalities published in their respective languages) concerning the political and social history as well as the history of settlement, administration, urban and economic development and church history (beginnings, organization, religious convents, Catholicism, Protestantism, reformation, counter-reformation, inter-denominational relations, education) on this territory.

Could Cracow Have Become the Capital of Galicia at the Beginning of the 19th Century?

In the years 1796–1809 Cracow belonged to Austria. Up until the year 1803, it was the capital of the so called Western Galicia which in this very year became incorporated into the crown land of Galicia which up until then had included the Polish territories incorporated into Austria in 1772, with the capital in Lvov. The latter city which was bigger and better developed than Cracow, was however rather badly positioned lying on the north-easterly borderlands of the state. In this situation, in the year 1807 the military circles came forward with the conception of extending the institutions associated with the provincial administration in Cracow. This idea was subsequently taken up by a large section of Austrian officials who suggested that for political and propaganda reasons the capital of Galicia should be transferred from Lvov to Cracow, the old capital of Poland. The above conception was associated with a wider program of reforms of the Polish territories under Austrian domination; the main goal of these reforms was the winning over of the Polish public opinion and drawing away of the Polish nobility from cooperation with Napoleon and with the Duchy of Warsaw. Establishing the capital of Galicia in Cracow and the coronation of Austria’s emperor as the king of Galicia in the Cracow cathedral was to have been a gesture addressed to the conservative Polish nobility. Yet, the above plans had fallen flat due to the outbreak of the war with France in the year 1809, in the consequence of which Austria had lost Western Galicia to the Duchy of Warsaw.

The Position and Role of Polish Women in Their Families in the 19th Century

This essay is only the attempt of synthetic depiction a vexed issue about both the position and role of women in the 19th century. Taking new sources into consideration I tried to show that within the 19th century the situation of Polish women almost did not change. On the one hand, there was a consequence of their passive attitude, on the other one, of standing convictions and manners which glorified men by emphasizing at the same time a minor role of women towards the other members of family. Therefore, an apt encapsulation of the matter was propounded by Bolesław Prus in his Annales which is as follows: “Woman – as a daughter considers herself as an inferior creature towards her brothers and as a trouble for her parents, who require more work, gratitude and dedication from her than their sons. As a wife – she is a slave of her husband who has a duty, if he wants and can, to feed and clothe her, even to take care of her amusements, but simultaneously he has the right not to allow her to leave home.” However, continuous research and new revelations do not mean that everything was said on this subject, because it still remains an open question needed to be analysed and reinterpreted by scholars. Namely, it would be valuable to the present state of research, if the reasons for the modification in favour of Polish women during the first world war could be found. Especially, from my point of view, if we are able to give an answer to the following questions.
Firstly, as far as it was a repercussion of their personal efforts made as a result of the awakening  of their consciousness of the necessity of changing both in their social and private sphere of life. Secondly, as far as it was a result of alterations in men’s mentality indicated by their approval for ‘women’s going to world’. Finally, did events in the United States and in Europe have impact on mentioned changes. Giving the answer will not be so simple owing to a pausity both of information about women in traditional sources and of materials written by them. Therefore, it seems to be really helpful to reach for complementary means used by scholars of mentality, historians of conception and that is also peculiar to sociology and psychology as well. Moreover, calling attention for press and passing prints which explained current problems and affairs happened in those days.

Sex Scandals, Sexual Violence, and the Word on the Street: The Kolasówna Lustmord in
Cracow’s Popular Press, 1905–1906

This article explores the conversation between the popular press and the public on issues for sexual deviance and degeneracy by analyzing one major scandal, the “sexual murder’ (Lustmord) of 9 year-old Marya Kolasówna in the suburbs of Cracow in 1905, while contextualizing it wit current medical-legal discourses and related news stories. It offers a careful reading of the way that the press reported the story, paying particular attention to the papers’ perceived relationship to the “word on the street.” Of particular importance was the tendency of the popular press – following the Austrian authorities, who classified the murder as a Lustmord – to emphasize sex and sexuality in its coverage of the story, despite the fact that no documented sex had taken place. As such, the Kolasówna Lustmord gave citizens a new way to think about violence against women and children, as arising from “sexual urges or temporary insanity.” Finally, because of the clear contribution from the public and the press’s constant reference to public input, the Kolasówna case offers evidence of the existence of a nascent public sphere among the otherwise atomized citizens of a burgeoning metropolis.

The Image of Czechs in Polish Society: The Example of Galicia

In the Czech historiographical works that have been published to date, due attention has not been paid to Czechs in Galicia. The partial attempts made, whose goal was to evaluate the part Czechs have played in the cultural and social life of Galicia during the period of the Austrian monarchy and from the second half of the eighteenth century until 1918, have been published, and continue to be produced mainly in the milieu of contemporary Ukrainian researchers and Czech compatriots living in Lvov. Both of these groups have also shared in the preparation of a biographical dictionary with the title Češi v Haliči (Czechs in Galicia), which was published in Ukrainian in 1998. In 2007, the association called Czech Gathering (Česká beseda) in Lvov published an exhaustive edition of its documents for the occasion of the 140th anniversary of their founding. In order to annex the territory of Galicia to the Austrian state in the second half of the eighteenth century, Vienna began to send its officials there, and among them, Czechs played a very significant role. As Slavs, they could more easily understand the Polish, Ukrainian or Ruthenian dialects of the local inhabitants. During the nineteenth century, besides the members of the diverse bureaucratic corps, there were also Czech tradesmen and craftsmen, merchants, intellectual and scientific workers, musicians, industrialists, brewers, physicians, foresters, railway workers and, fewest of all, also some peasant farmers. The influence of Czech-nationality officials was vital in forming a negative image of Czechs in Polish society. Poles, mainly from the ranks of the nobility and bourgeoisie, perceived them as an instrument of oppression from the side of the occupation; that is, the Austrian state. Their negative attitude and experiences are reflected in the numerous Polish memoirs describing that era. The so-called “Galician brawls” were extremely significant in this context. These were where farmers who were supported by Austrian bureaucrats squared off in bloody conflict with Polish insurgents, participants in the Krakow Uprising. The subject of the image and stereotypes of Czechs in Polish society in Galicia was treated in literature by the famous Polish writer and publicist of German origin, Jan Lam (1838–1886), who composed the novel Wielki świat Capowic (Great World of Capowice) in 1869. The topic presented here is scholarly from the very beginning and remains a worthy task for further research.

The Policy of the Communists towards the Socialists in Cracow on the Example of the Collection for the “Common Home”

An important element in the process of absorption of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) by the communists in 1948 was a money collection for the construction of the building which was to house the future joint authorities of the “united party.” The goal of the action was to break the resistance of the socialists against drawing them into the ranks of the communist party. The authorities of the Polish Workers’ Party divided the campaign into declaring future contributions and subsequently the actual collection. Special plenipotentiaries had been appointed at all the organizational levels who were to realize the orders of the communists. The latter forced the members of both parties to declare the highest possible contributions and then executed their payment. In spite of the gradual intensification of pressure, the Cracow communists had failed to force the Socialists to terminate the action within a top-down designated time and to pay the declared sums of money. The above campaign was terminated only in the middle of 1949.

Władysław Pobóg-Malinowski. „From My Window. Poland before the War”

“The Memoirs of Pobóg-Malinowski – one is able to read in the draft version of the publisher’s announcement – present not only a gallery of characters, the majority of whom have become a permanent part of history…[…] Many of Pobóg’s accounts have turned out to be a revelation and the immensity of factual data contained in the memoirs – have proved to be an invaluable source of information for future historians.”
The present publication constitutes a second part of the autobiographical notes of Wladyslaw Pobóg-Malinowski which were published in the Academic Papers of the Jagiellonian University (ZNUJ) last year. In the first part, the author describes the period of his childhood and youth, as well as the time of his service in the armed forces. It was Pobóg’s first literary attempts that had opened the road to his future post in the Army Historical Bureau and subsequently in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; they had also facilitated his work on the edition of the works of marshal Józef Piłsudski. It is precisely the period of his abandonment of the post of officer in the army regiment in Złoczów and his subsequent transfer to Warsaw that is described on the pages of the current fragment of the memoirs.
Władysław Pobóg-Malinowski (1899–1962) is remembered by us chiefly as the author of the “Recent Political History of Poland.” Both his rich and varied life as well as his vast knowledge are reflected in the memoirs. Yet, if it has not been for a few coincidences – e.g. the less than complimentary reviews after the publication of the fragments of his memoirs entitled “On the Rumanian Crossroads” in the Paris “Kultura,” his inborn inability to express his thoughts in a concise manner, his inability to present things in a brief manner, and to put it bluntly, his stubbornness and quarrelsomeness – then we can risk saying that it would not be the above-mentioned multi-volume work, but the equally voluminous memoirs of Pobog-Malinowski that would fulfill the same function as his flagship publication which has appeared in so many copies and editions.

• Międzynarodowa konferencja naukowa pt. Wspólnoty małe i duże w społeczeństwach Czech i Polski w średniowieczu i w czasach wczesnonowożytnych (Niepołomice, 6–8 października 2008 r.) – Janusz Smołucha
• Międzynarodowa konferencja naukowa pt. Mare Inclitum. Oddziaływanie cywilizacji śródziemnomorskiej (Kraków, 28–29 listopada 2008 r.) – Łukasz Burkiewicz
• Uroczystość wręczenia księgi poświęconej śp. prof. Janowi Pirożyńskiemu (Kraków, 28 stycznia 2009 r.) – Adam Perłakowski
• Odznaczenie Profesor Danuty Quirini-Popławskiej Krzyżem Kawalerskim Orderu Gwiazdy Solidarności Włoskiej – Łukasz Burkiewicz
• Działalność Towarzystwa Naukowego Australii, Nowej Zelandii i Oceanii – Dariusz Zdziech

• Inwentarz rękopisów Biblioteki Jagiellońskiej nr 11001–11434. Archiwum Domowe Pawlikowskich, część I. Oprac. Iwona Bator, Jadwiga Grzybowska, Monika Jaglarz, Urszula Klatka pod red. Ewy Malickiej, Kraków 2008, ss. X+342 – Ewa Malicka
• Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum medii aevi Latinorum, qui in Bibliotheca Jagellonica Cracoviae asservantur, Vol. 9 (cod. 1354–1430). Composuerunt M. Kowalczyk, A. Kozłowska, M. Markowski, L. Nowak, A. Sobańska, R. Tatarzyński, S. Włodek, W. Zega, M. Zwiercan. Voluminis redactor B. Chmielowska, Cracoviae 2008, pp. XV+704 – Anna Kozłowska