O Szkotach w Krakowie – artykuł recenzyjny

Abstrakt

THE SCOTS IN KRAKOW – A REVIEW ARTICLE

Waldemar Kowalski: Wielka imigracja. Szkoci w Krakowie i Małopolsce w XVI – pierwszej połowie XVII wieku [A great immigration. The Scots in Krakow and in Lesser Poland in the 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries]. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Humanistyczno-Przyrodniczego im. Jana Kochanowskiego. Kielce 2010, 328 pp. Written by Professor Waldemar Kowalski of the Jan Kochanowski University of Humanities and Sciences in Kielce, this unique study is an exciting multi-layered journey through difficult issues in our history and the presence in it of the Scottish nation. The book comprises a foreword and eight chapters: an outline of the Scottish settlement in the Polish Crown; the Scots and the municipal law of Krakow; the Scots in domestic and foreign trade in Krakow; the Scots in shops and stalls; the degrees of affluence among the Scottish citizens of Krakow; the community bonds – families, corporations, languages; among fellow believers, friends and foes; and a conclusion. It contains over twenty tables with data compiled from source materials analyzed by the author. The tables offer an explicit and synthesized commentary on the issues touched upon in the study. Particularly valuable is the attached register of Scots connected with the Krakow conurbation in the 16th and the first half of the 17th centuries. The book includes an impressive bibliography, list of tables, index of persons and places, and a summary in English. The study has been based mostly on manuscript sources, namely Krakow books of enrolment, council and court records from ca 1550 to 1660, and the registers of Krakow’s two satellite towns of Kazimierz and Kleparz. Customs, tax and wójt (head of town) records have been looked through with reference to the time span in question. Abundant information has been derived from the local records of the Reformed Church. Polish and English language source texts have been referred to as well. Professor Kowalski’s book outlines the Scottish community living among the Polish society – and in particular in the Krakow conurbation – in the early modern era. It points out issues for further multifaceted research and queries not only in the archives in Poland, but also in the National Archives of Scotland and the city records in Edinburgh. It is an important position in the Polish historiography as the first-ever to offer such extensive and meaningful information about the life of the Scots in Krakow and Lesser Poland. The Scots in Krakow – A Review Article 470