The subject of this article is the chancellery and archival analysis of the alderman’s and the magistrate’s book for the town of Kórnik from 1580–1607. At present the manuscript is kept at the headquarters of the State Archives in Poznań. Based on appropriately selected literature and information contained in the book, it was possible to carry out an external and internal critique of the source. It needs to be highlighted that the manuscript has only...

The letter of the Muscovy ruler Boris Godunov which is held in the Library of Kórnik, is the earliest historical document that testifies about the relations between the government of Muscovy and Ukrainian Cossacks since the end of the sixteenth century. In the article is reviewed the historical context of such contacts and their long term consequences. At that time, led by Krzysztof Kosynskyi, Cossacks entered into conflict with the powers of the Commonwealth. Godunov...

Between about 1414 and 1592, the castle in Kórnik belonged to the family of Górka, bearing the Łodzia coat of arms – representatives of the ruling elite of the Crown at the beginning of the modern times. In the third quarter of the 16th century, on the initiative of its then-owner, Count Stanisław Górka, the castle and its surroundings were modernised and extended. This article seeks to reconstruct and interpret the resulting mansion complex, with...

During the Russian-Polish negotiations at the end of 1671 – the beginning of 1672, several Russian memorandums were handed over to Polish-Lithuanian diplomats. All these original documents are preserved in the Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kórnik, Poland, and are studied as some of the most important forms of diplomatic communications between the Muscovite State and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The memorandums clearly reveal the Muscovite diplomatic tactic against the Polish-Lithuanian side. They...

This article is devoted to a diplomatic (formal) analysis of 13 documents, including 12 originals issued by Russian tsars between 1576 and 1707, which are kept at the Kórnik Library. Among them, there are two original letters by Tsar Michael of Russia dating to 1634 and 1645 and four documents by Tsar Alexis of Russia from 1645 and 1668-1669. The collection also includes Peter the Great’s mandate of 1707 given to Russian negotiators for talks...