The Nihil novi Constitution was adopted by the General Sejm (parliament) convened in the city of Radom in 1505. Its passage entailed one of the stages in the conflict between the magnates of the royal council and the representation of the szlachta (gentry) gathered in the Chamber of Deputies – i.e., the lower house of…
The man who ‘stopped the sun, moved the earth’ was not only an astronomer, but also an economist, lawyer, translator, doctor, mathematician and cartographer. He is known primarily as a creator of the heliocentric system theory, a breakthrough in science and a radical shift of the world view of that time. by Piotr Bejrowski …
Historian, chronicler, heraldry expert, geographer, diplomat and educator of Polish kings, Jan Długosz was undoubtedly one of the greatest historiographers of the Middle Ages. This author of the monumental 12 volume Annals or Chronicles of the Famous Kingdom of Poland died on 19 May 1480 in Kraków. by Piotr Bejrowski Długosz was born in…
While writing rhetoric textbooks, he illustrated a critique of macaronic, heavily latinized language with excerpts from his own youthful works. Acting as if he was a political scientist avant la lettre, he created the first systematic critique of the liberum veto system, advocating the introduction of the principle of majority voting in parliament of the…
The Battle of Kircholm turned out to be one of the most impressive victories of the Polish-Lithuanian army from the Commonwealth. The hussars literally obliterated the three times more numerous enemy with very small losses on their side. by Piotr Abryszeński The 17th century turned out to be a century of wars for the…
In the early morning of 12 September 1683, in the ruins of the church of St Joseph on Kahlenberg Hill near Vienna burnt by the Turks, Mark of Aviano, an Italian Capuchin sometimes referred to as the ‘spiritual father of Europe’, celebrated Mass for the success of the battle against the Ottoman Empire. The King…
