The Polish Crown's Records of Jan Kazimierz summarization

Abstract

The aim of the article is to present the summarization of the Inscription Books of the Crown Metrica from the reign of John II Casimir Vasa and to discuss issues related to the publication of the Crown Metrica. The Crown Metrica, one of the most important collections of sources for the history of Poland, preserved in the Central Archives of Historical Records, consists of about 700 books from the years 1447-1795 (a total of 120,000 documents) grouped into several series. To date, summaries covering 40% of the Metrica’s contents (excluding protocols) have been published. The practice of creating summaries derives from the work of seventeenth- to nineteenth-century archivists, who for the purpose of registering valuable old records presented the content of each document in the form of an abstract or regest, known in Old Polish as a suma. So far, there has been no full consensus on the concept of the “summary” (Polish: sumariusz); some regard summaries as brief indications of the documents’ content, while others see them as concise abstracts. The former approach prevailed from 1905 to the present day. Since 1999, on the initiative of Wojciech Krawczuk, summarization of individual Inscription Books in Polish has been undertaken, with regests being more extensive and precise. Twenty books from the reigns of Sigismund III and Władysław IV (the entire period) have been published. Continuing this work, eleven books of the Crown Metrica from the time of John II Casimir Vasa (1649-1668) are being summarized and will be published (2023-2028) both in print and online by Dominik Kadzik (project leader), Janusz S. Dąbrowski, Wojciech Krawczuk, and Adam Szczepaniec. Other methods of publishing the Crown Metrica have not yielded significant quantitative results.

The oldest surviving summary book dates from 1664–1666, with a later version from 1768–1773; both were published in 2002. Summary books were produced by officials of the Crown Chancery and later by archivists. At the turn of the twentieth century, Teodor Wierzbowski published Latin, concise regesta of the oldest Inscription Books, arranged chronologically by reigns and chancery officials. His method was continued well into the late twentieth century. A new model of summarization was introduced in 1999 on the initiative of Wojciech Krawczuk. It employed more detailed Polish-language regests prepared for individual books, preserved the original order of entries, and added personal, geographical and subject indexes. Using this system, nine volumes of the Inscription Books of Sigismund III Vasa and twelve books from the reign of Ladislaus IV Vasa were published in print and online. Although subsequent work faced financial obstacles, a grant obtained at the Jagiellonian University enabled the summarization of eleven books from the reign of John II Casimir Vasa (2023–2028). To date, summarization has proven the most effective method of making the Crown Metrica accessible: it covers over 50% of the Inscription Books (excluding protocols) and about 40% of the entire Metrica when other series are included. At present, no serious alternative to summarization exists, although future technological advances may change this situation.

 A summary book (Polish sumariusz) can be considered a finding aid providing the content of a document, its summary, regest, or according to the old Polish terms “suma”. Summary books have been known in Poland since the 16th century. Since numerous archival aids, including the summary books in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, were burned by the Germans in 1944, it is difficult to say what the practical differences were between summary books, regests, indexes and inventories. In the 19th century, summary books in Polish (and perhaps Latin) were used to record valuable old materials that were unnecessary for current activities. So far, there has been no full agreement on the concept of a “summary book” in Polish scholarship. Some people consider summary books to be summaries of documents, while others traditionally believe that they serve only to indicate their content. The oldest preserved summary book was created around 1664–1666, its next iteration comes from the years 1768–1773. They were published in 2002 (see Bibliography). The employees of the Crown Chancery, and later the archivists in the Central Archives (Warsaw), knew and prepared the summary books, including the Crown Metrica. Teodor Wierzbowski, when publishing (1905–1919) the summaries of the oldest Crown Metrica – Inscription Books, followed the example of his predecessors, but arranged Latin, laconic regesta for entire reigns, in chronological order, according to chancellors and vice-chancellors. Wierzbowski's method was further used (1961, 1999) until the present day, most recently in the Inscription Books (Libri inscriptionum) of King Henry Valois and the Legation Books (Libri Legationum). Since 1999, at the initiative of Wojciech Krawczuk, summarization has been undertaken according to new principles: the registers in Polish concern individual books and are more extensive and precise than in Wierzbowski's system. The order of entries was preserved, and a personal, geographical and subject index was added. Krawczuk and several other researchers, led by Krzysztof Chłapowski, published 9 volumes of the Inscription Books of Sigismund III Vasa, and later (2013–2018) Krawczuk, together with Anna Wajs, Janusz S. Dąbrowski and Adam Korczyński, developed 12 Inscription Books of Ladislaus IV Vasa. These books were published in print (2019–2020, see Bibliography), and were also posted on the Internet. The continuation of the work encountered difficulties, as financing for the summarization of the Inscription Books of Stephen Báthory and later of John II Casimir Vasa was refused. Finally, at the Jagiellonian University, Dominik Kadzik received a grant to summarize 11 books of the Metrica from the times of John II Casimir Vasa, which are to be edited and published (2023–2028) in print and on the Internet by Dominik Kadzik, Janusz S. Dąbrowski, Wojciech Krawczuk and Adam Szczepaniec.  When it comes to sharing the Crown Metrica, summarization yielded better results than other methods. In terms of making the Metrica available, summarization yielded better results than other methods. It covered over 50% (excluding protocols) of the Crown Metrica – Inscription Books and taking into account other series of the Metrica (Legation Books and Inscription Books of the Ruthenian Metrica), it is about 40% of the Crown Metrica. At present, it seems that there is no serious alternative to any other method of making the Crown Metrica holdings available than summarization. This may change with technological progress.