Podróż wizytacyjna archidiakona Andrzeja Albinowskiego w archidiakonacie pomorskim w 1686 i 1687 r.

Abstract

In late autumn 1686 and early spring 1687 the archdeacon of Pomerania Andrzej Albinowski, who represented the bishop of Kujawy and Pomerania – Bonawentura Madaliński – conducted a canonical visitation of the parishes composing the archdeanery of Pomerania. The source basis of the article consists of the dates of visitation activities recorded in the fair copy rewritten in the second half of the 18th c. The present article reconstructs the route of the visitor and the stages of his journey. Th e sequence of the visited sacral places was set down and an attempt was made to establish the covered distances on the basis of a simplified method determining the distances covered by the visitor in a straight line based on the contemporary maps. The analysis of the source records characterized the journey of archdeacon Albinowski during the autumn and spring stages of his visitation with mean daily distances covered by the visitor as well as the average number of visited churches during one day and the average distances between the visited places in particular deaneries. While analyzing the journey made by Rev. Albinowski, even by means of a simplified method of establishing the distance in a straight line, a clear tendency to minimize the distances and to economize time can be noticed. What can be observed at the same time are the eff orts of the bishop’s delegate to visit the churches on the basis of deaneries. Where, however, for geographical reasons it was not rational to visit the churches belonging to one deanery, this rule was given up and the nearest places, though situated in another deanery, were traveled to. It should be added that further studies on visitation journeys should undertake an attempt to establish the actually covered distance on the grounds of a broader source basis.