Jacek Calik,1 Bartosz Woźniak,1 Marek Murawski,2 Piotr Donizy,3 Natalia Sauer4 1Old Town Clinic, Wroclaw, Poland; 2Department and Clinic of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, 50-556, Poland; 3Department of Clinical and Experimental Pathology, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, Poland; 4Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Wroclaw Medical University, Wroclaw, PolandCorrespondence: Natalia Sauer, Email natalia.sauer@umw.edu.plAbstract: Vulvar lichen sclerosus (VLS) is a chronic, recurrent dermatosis predominantly affecting postmenopausal women. It is characterized by atrophic and sclerotic changes in the vulvar skin, often causing severe discomfort and functional impairment. Although potent topical corticosteroids remain the primary treatment, high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) emerges as a promising alternative in recurrence cases. This study reports the case of a 73-year-old woman with VLS treated using HIFU, aiming to assess the safety and efficacy of this novel therapeutic approach. The patient presented with significant discomfort due to VLS and had a history of limited response to previous treatments. HIFU therapy was applied using the System ONE-M device operating at 20 MHz, targeting specific lesions. The dermoscopic evaluation was performed pre- and post-treatment to assess the treatment response. Immediate post-procedural whitening of tissues was observed, followed by gradual healing over five months. The patient experienced significant symptom relief, including reduced pain and itching, with minimal adverse effects. The treated areas displayed nearly normal skin color, texture, and improved function within five months post-treatment. This case illustrates the potential of HIFU as an effective and precise non-invasive treatment for VLS, offering significant symptom relief while sparing healthy tissue. Further research is needed to refine treatment parameters and explore the broader clinical applicability of HIFU for VLS management.Keywords: high-frequency focused ultrasound, HIFU, vulvar lichen sclerosus
Artykuł prezentuje życie i karierę Jana Waldemara Guthke (1886–?). Urodził się on w Komadzynie, w rodzinie dawnych kolonistów niemieckich. Kiedy był dzieckiem, jego rodzina przeprowadziła się do Łodzi, gdzie po ukończeniu szkoły rozpoczął pracę jako nauczyciel, a następnie uzyskał tytuł inżyniera. Na początku XX w. Jan W. Guthke wielokrotnie podróżował za granicę, gdzie pracował jako specjalista od maszyn rolniczych. Najprawdopodobniej podczas jednej z tych podróży poznał swoją przyszłą żonę Anielę z d. Hryniewicz. Prawdopodobnie w 1911 r. Jan W. Guthke przeprowadził się wraz ze swoją rodziną do dalekowschodnich obwodów Imperium Rosyjskiego, a następnie około 1930 r. do Harbina w Mandżurii. Podczas pobytu tam podjął się przygotowania monografii polskich monet z lat 1922–1938. Swoją pracę ukończył w listopadzie 1938 r., jednak nigdy jej nie opublikował. Pewnym jest, że Jan W. Guthke w 1941 r. nadal mieszkał w Harbinie i pracował tam jako inżynier. Jego dalsze losy nie są znane.
In recent years, everyday life and interpersonal relationships in a broad sense have been shaped by the SarsCov-2 pandemic and its extensive consequences – both on a local and on a global level. Other phenomena have made their presence felt at a local and global level too – Brexit, for example. In this article, based on research carried out in Poland, England and Northern Ireland in August and September 2021, we present various dimensions of everyday life and the relationships of migrants with people who are important to them in Poland – in the context of these two main processes. The results of our research indicate that the new circumstances affect the everyday lives of migrants and their relatives in Poland on various levels, such as routine activities, work, interpersonal relations, and transnational contacts. We have also identified the stages of these processes and the accompanying emotions, and the pandemic emerged as the leading theme, overshadowing Brexit.
This article is an analysis of one area of Piotr Piotrowski’s (1952–2015) activity in the 1990s – his writings on the art of Zofia Kulik and, more specifically, on its feminist dimension. I argue that although Piotrowski was never interested in women’s art in particular, not only did he practise feminist criticism during this period, but he was also a catalyst for the development of a specific form of feminist reflection that was then new in Polish art history. It focused on power relations and did not accept distancing oneself from social and political problems. I analyse it from the perspective of contemporary revisions of the development of feminist discourse after 1989 in Eastern Europe, which critically examines its embeddedness in Western ideas.
Aconite (Aconitum napellus) was one of the most notorious, poisonous plants in the ancient world. Its dangerous, lethal power – present in leaves, roots, stem, and tuber – was well known to the Greeks and the Romans from the earliest times. Evidence of this phenomenon is not only present in archaeological findings, but also in many writings – biographies, poems, legal codes, etc.
However, the most precise and detailed accounts come from treatises written by botanists, physicians and encyclopaedists, like Theophrastus, Nicander, Pliny the Elder, Dioscorides, or Galen, and by early Byzantine authors, Oribasius, Aetius of Amida, and Paul of Aegina. In their testimonies, one can find descriptions of aconite, its influence on the human body (and animals), and remedies for affected people.
In contrast, there are few passages from these sources that inform the readers about the healing properties of aconite. According to these fragments, carefully administered, aconite could be helpful in some therapies, but its use was extremely hazardous, as even a small part of the plant could kill a man.
Slavic languages. Baltic languages. Albanian languages
The subject of the article are Polish debates on urban policy during the First World War. This four-year period of time was, on the one hand, a huge economic and humanitarian crisis in the cities of the Kingdom of Poland. On the other hand, society achieved the possibility of self-organization through the organization of civic committees, but later also by taking part in municipal elections to councils established in the areas occupied by Central Powers and political campaigns in Warsaw or Łódź – two biggest and the most important cities in the Kingdom of Poland. Author analyzes the most representative aspects of an urban discourse from that period (including press and specialist literature published in Warsaw and Łódź), with particular emphasis on the issue of the dispute about the optimal shape of urban policy, scope of the self-government and the proper direction of urban development on the eve of Poland’s regaining independence and other Central and Eastern European countries. although the issue of municipal self-government appeared in almost every newspaper at that time, the new framework for city politics in Poland emerged in discussions between specialists and authors with the biggest knowledge and longtime experience in writing about this subject.
A vast, two-volume list of all the towns and villages of the Kingdom of Poland was published in 1827, with the number of houses and residents, and the type of ownership specified in it. It was the only official publication issued by the then central statistical body of the state – The Statistical Office of the Government Commission for the Internal Affairs and Police. Due to the alphabetical order of the entries, with the absence of any territorial grouping or partial summaries, this potentially valuable source for historical and demographic studies has been of only marginal use to historians. An attempt was made at its digitisation and at entering the data into the database system in 2020. This paper presents the historical background of creating this list and uses selected examples to present new, previously unavailable data exploration and analysis opportunities that are offered by an electronic form.
History of Poland, Demography. Population. Vital events
Independent art spaces not only play an important role in exploring frontiers in the visual arts but are often also pioneers discovering new artistic territories within cities. Due to their subordinate position in the field of art, they often occupy marginal spaces in terms of their location within the urban structure and/or in terms of their physical visibility within the built environment. Their location outside the established artistic cores reflects, at the same time, their weaker economic standing and wish to distinguish themselves from previous generations of cultural producers. Post-socialist cities offer the opportunity to study the spatial history of independent art spaces under different political and economic systems. In this paper, I have used a detailed database of private art galleries in the period from the 1970s to 2019 and content analysis of press and internet texts about them to uncover the stages of development of independent art venues in Krakow, Poland, an example of a post-socialist city with a rich cultural heritage. They included periods of dispersion within the wider inner-city followed by cycles of concentration in rather neglected quarters that were emerging as epicentres of alternative artistic life only to dissipate due to unfavourable economic conditions and the appearance of the next generations of artists who wanted to mark their distinctive presence both in the art world and in the urban space. I also discuss how independent art spaces were using their usually marginal, temporary and fluid sites in their artistic practices and the accumulation of symbolic capital in the field of art.
The author’s aim is to reflect on the cartographic modelling of historical borders based on the example of the series “Historical Atlas of Poland. Detailed maps of the 16th century” (HAP). HAP presents secular (state, palatinate, district) and religious borders (dioceses, archdeaconry, deanery, parish). The belonging of historic settlements to administrative units is determined on the basis of written sources. During work on the current volumes of HAP, the borders were reconstructed through their manual interpolation (the so-called linear model). Digital tools enable the automatic generation of administrative units based on settlements in point geometry (Thiessen polygons) or the use of modern divisions (precincts [obręby ewidencyjne]) as a reference to them (semi-automatic method). The article compares and assesses the three mentioned methods of determining historical borders and the possibilities of harmonizing them in relation to contemporary administrative divisions. The source material consisted of 18,357 settlements from the volumes of HAP published so far and 235 parishes for detailed analyses. Precincts were adopted as reference areas due to the possibilities of data harmonization.
Krytyczna edycja źródłowa dotyczy odnalezionego w Archiwum Diecezjalnym w Kielcach opisu kościoła parafialnego pw. św. Andrzeja Apostoła w Węgleszynie (woj. świętokrzyskie). Dokument ten został sporządzony na polecenie konsystorza kieleckiego, najpewniej w latach dziewięćdziesiątych XIX w., przez miejscowego proboszcza, księdza Pawła Jędrychowskiego. Jest on o tyle cenny, że zawiera wiele istotnych informacji na temat świątyni parafialnej, pomijanych dotychczas w opracowaniach, jak również nieistniejących dziś zabytków, utraconych bezpowrotnie na początku ubiegłego stulecia (gotycki dzwon, ambona o rzadkiej formie jabłka, dekoracje ścienne). Edycja tekstu źródłowego poprzedzona została częścią wstępną, w której przedstawiono pokrótce dzieje parafii i wsi Węgleszyn, omówiono wygląd zewnętrzny i wewnętrzny świątyni, jej wystrój i wyposażenie.
The article discusses the current position of Hungarian historiography towards the role of recent history in the Hungarian identity and its relationship to domestic policy. The democratic transition after 1989 contributed to a substantial change in historical scholarship through the dismissal of censorship, the opening of archives and the lifting of the ideological pressure on research. However, the change of the historical self-portrayal of Hungary after the fall of the communist regime was an element of the democratic transition. The author describes the process of the use of historical arguments in forming national attitudes and self-identity by several political circles in Hungary over the last three decades, with special attention paid to the activities and ideas of József Antall and Victor Orbán. The experiences of the 1956 revolution were initially focused on as an anchoring point for national identity after the fall of communism. In the course of these years, the centre of political attention shifted to the proposed anti-communist and anti-left wing interpretation of Hungarian history from March 1944 to May 1990, and, as author points out, it is aligned with the attitude of the ruling circles. The author notes the substantial state’s initiatives in the field of the politics of memory in recent years, especially in the early formation of the 1956 Institute (est. 1991), then the Institute of the 20th Century (XX. Század Intézet, est. 1999), the House of Terror Museum (Terror Háza Múzeum, est. 2002), the Institute for the Research on Communism (Kommunizmuskutató Intézet, est. 2011), the Research Institute and Archives for the History of Regime Change (Rendszerváltás Történetét Kutató Intézet és Archívum, RETÖRKI, est. 2013), the VERITAS Research Institute for History (VERITAS Történetkutató Intézet, est. 2013), the Committee of National Remembrance (Nemzeti Emlékezet Bizottsága, NEB, est. 2013), and the Institute of National Heritage (Nemzeti Örökség Intézete, NÖRI, est. 2013).
May’s attack is one of the most controversial events in the history of independent Poland. It was absolutely incompatible with the ideology of the conservative group. It’s representatives opposed revolutionary changes because of their violence and illegality. Initially, the Krakow conservatives criticized the attack (see articles in “Czas”). The formation of a legal government, presidential elections and constitutions were the basis for a change of stance by the conservatives. The aim of the article is to present the process of changing opinions from criticism to cooperation between Krakow conservatives and Józef Piłduski.
History (General) and history of Europe, Fine Arts
Maciej Bura, Małgorzata Łagiedo-Żelazowska, Michał Michalak
et al.
The objective of the present study was to investigate the seroprevalence of HAV and HEV in Polish blood donors (BDs). One hundred and ten randomly selected healthy BDs, living in Wielkopolska Region were tested for anti-HAV IgG and anti-HEV IgG with commercial assays. The seroprevalence of anti-HAV was 11.8%; anti-HEV were detected in 60.9% of BDs (p < 0.0001). Consumption of risky food was more common in anti-HEV-positive BDs (59.1% vs. 33.3%; p = 0.01). Twelve out of 20 BDs (60%) with no history of travel abroad were exposed to HEV. Wielkopolska Region, Poland should be regarded as a new HEV infection-hyperendemic area in Europe.
Anklagen und Prozesse wegen Zauberei in Koschmin während des 17.-18. Jahrhunderts
Zusammenfassung
Der Beitrag widmet sich Zaubereiprozessen, die während des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts in Groß und Neu Koschmin (Koźmin Wielki und Koźmin Nowy) verhandelt wurden. Heute bilden beide Kleinstädte die Stadt Koźmin Wielkopolski. Ähnlich wie in vielen anderen Städten Großpolens und der Rzeczpospolita war auch in diesen beiden der Glaube an die Macht des Teufels und die bösen Taten, die Hexen und Zauberer mit seiner Hilfe vollbrachten, in der Frühen Neuzeit weit verbreitet. Die ersten Nachrichten über Gerichtsverfahren in Koschmin, die im Zusammenhang mit Zaubereivorwürfen standen, stammen aus der ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts. Noch im 18. Jahrhundert erfahren wir aus den Stadtbüchern von Anklagen wegen Zauberei, doch damals kam es nicht mehr zu Prozessen. Die angeklagten Personen beschuldigten wiederum ihre Ankläger der „Rufschädigung”, was einen Zaubereiprozeß verhindern sollte. Diese Taktik war in der Regel wirksam. Besonders interessant sind zwei Prozesse in Neu Koschmin in den Jahren 1690 und 1692. Beide richteten sich gegen Männer, und alles deutet darauf hin, daß die Angeklagten der Vater Gregor Klecha und sein Sohn Matthäus Kleszka waren. Beide endeten auch auf dem Scheiterhaufen. Es kann festgestellt werden, daß in beiden untersuchten Städtchen die Anklagen bei den Zaubereiprozessen „von unten” kamen, d. h. sie wurden von den Einwohnern und nicht vom Magistrat erhoben, der sich seit dem 18. Jahrhundert bemühte, es zu keinen Prozessen dieses Typs mehr kommen zu lassen. In beiden Städten Koschmin müssen die Zaubereiprozesse als Anklageprozesse angesehen werden, d. h. es meldete sich jeweils ein Ankläger vor Gericht, der einer bestimmten Person gewisse Taten vorwarf, die er mit Hilfe von Zauberei begangen haben soll. Die Anklagen wurden vor allem gegen ärmere Leute erhoben, wie z. B. gegen Gregor Klecha. Er gehörte nicht zur Bürgerschaft der Stadt, sondern war ein Bauer, der auf der Suche nach Verdienstmöglichkeiten in die Stadt gekommen war. Somit war auch ein „Fremder”.
Accusations of witchcraft and witch trials in Koźmin in the 17th-18th centuries
Abstract
The topic of witchcraft beliefs and witch trials related to them does not inspire much interest in Polish historiography. Polish historians do not appreciate the role played by the problem in everyday life of inhabitants of villages, towns and boroughs, and how it influenced interpersonal relations. Burning stakes do not fit the image of “the state without stakes”, as Poland is often called. This paper is a contribution to the history of witch trials in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth of the early modern period.
Szyłak outlines the history of the comic book in Poland since 1956 and tries to account for the shifts that marked the development of this form of cultural production. He also presents a critical perspective on the evaluation of comic books in the past.
THE 1789 STATUTE OF THE WARSAW BRASS-MAKERS GUILD
The history of brass-making in Warsaw in the Enlightenment period only recently became the topic of an academic study which analyses the rapid development of this craft in the city stimulated by immigrants from other parts of Poland as well as from Prussia and Austria, the assortment of products ranging from everyday utensils to unique artistic items and finally the establishment of brass-makers’ guild, which was supposed to fight ‘botchers’ and guarantee high quality as well as protect the guild-members’ monopoly to sell products of this craft. The rights of the guild were codified in a statute issued in 1789, which is the subject of the present article. The 1789 statute, which is now owned by the Warsaw Guild of Goldsmiths, Clockmakers, Opticians, Engravers and Bronze-makers, is stored in the Museum of Crafts in Warsaw. The book, which enjoyed high respect as the document that legitimized the guild of brass-makers and was stored in the guild treasure-box, hajs survived in a good condition. It is bound in dark-green leather with gilded decorations and a cartouche with the arms of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Each of the six rectangular sheets of parchment features a painted and gilded border around the text written in brown ink. Most impressive is the first page, bearing elaborate ornaments and heraldic symbols. One of the most beautiful details is the initial of the Latin formula confirming the privileges and duties recorded in the statute: the S of the word significamus is interwoven in the image of the White Eagle wearing a golden crown. The fully clas-sicist style of ornaments differentiates the statute of brass-makers from the statute of Warsaw goldsmiths, which, although written down only fours years earlier, was decorated in the out-moded rococo style. The heraldic symbols highlighted the importance of the document, placing it in the political and topographic context of the Commonwealth and its capital, Old Warsaw. The coats of arms included in the statute were those of King Stanislaus Augustus and of the Chancellor of the Crown Jacek Małachowski, who both corroborated the document with their signatures and stamps, in accordance with the rules of the royal privilege. As is indicated in the first sentence, the statute was first approved by the city chancery on the 3rd of January 1789 and then signed by the King on the 4th of April. Apart from the opening and ending formulas, which are in Latin, the statute has been written down in Polish. Its articles have been divided into two groups: thirty nine articles regard the masters of the brass-making craft while the further twenty four the journeymen. The statute was to regulate not only the vital issues of brass production, learning the craft and the way of professional advancement, but also various aspects of the everyday life of the masters, journey-men and apprentices. It attempted to provide ready solutions for all the possible problems but many things were not stated overtly, for instance the fact that the masters tried to make the journeymen completely dependent. One of the major aims of the statute was to give legal basis to monopoly. Therefore, one of the most important articles was the one that listed products, raw materials and methods reserved for the brass-making craft, thus specifying, at least theo-retically, the limits of legal trade that did not infringe the rights of other guilds. Hence, following the mediaeval tradition, the document was intended to protect the mas-ters from the competition of both outsiders, i.e. members of other corporations, and insiders, i.e. journeymen taking the formalized path of professional advancement and aspiring to result-ant independence and profits. In this respect the statute of Warsaw brass-makers did not differ from other guilds’ statutes, especially that it had been modelled after analogous privileges from Prague and Dresden. An analysis of its lexis suggests that in fact those models may have been privileges of girdle-makers (Gürtler) rather than brass-makers (Gelbgiesser) although those two crafts had always been quite close. Significantly, the models were taken neither from Cracow, although Warsaw craft guilds had long been dependent on Cracow corporations, nor from Toruń, with whose craftsmen Warsaw guilds had had very close contacts for two centuries. This can be explained by the foreign provenance of the founders of the brass-makers’ guild. The publication of the full text of the statute in accordance with contemporary standards of editing historical sources should facilitate research on the work of Warsaw brass-makers, who were an important professional group active on many fields
Archaeology, History (General) and history of Europe
After winning the battle against the Turks at Chocim in 1621, Stanisław Lubomirski, the owner of Wiśnicz, founded the monastery of the Discalced Carmelites as a votive offering to God. Religious authorities feared the location of the monastery and church in private estates due to the potential impact of the court on religious life. In 1622 the founder began the construction at full swing, employing great numbers of labourers and prisoners of war. The process of the construction was supervised by Lubomirski’s court architect, an Italian Maciej Trapola. The buildings were characterized by a modern style of architecture and they occupied a unique position in the history of Polish architecture. The property was fortified and also served as defence for the castle of Wiśnicz. On May 26, 1630 a ceremony was held to introduce the Carmelites to the monastery in Wiśnicz. The construction works were completed in 1635. The interior was very well equipped and, in the seventeenth century, was considered one of the best equipped Discalced Carmelite monasteries. On September 1, 1650 the Swedes captured the castle and monastery destroying, looting and pillaging the most precious things including the library and the works of art. The monastery in Wiśnicz after the partition of Poland was incorporated into Austria. Emperor Joseph II through his policies led to the suppression of monasteries, including the monastery in Wiśnicz. He robbed the monastery, took away the monastic treasury and allocated the church estates to religious funds. The most valuable works of art were taken to Vienna (two wagons of paintings). The buildings of the monastery were converted to perform the functions of a prison, criminal court and housing for judges. After regaining independence in 1918, despite the protests of the Carmelites, the prison in the monastery continued to function. In September 1939, the Germans used it as a camp for prisoners of war and later a concentration camp. They robbed the church and started to demolish the walls of the church. The material from the temple was used in the construction of the residences for Hans Frank in Przegorzały and Krzeszowice. There is still a prison in the monastery buildings and the ruins of the church serve as a playground for the prisoners.
History (General) and history of Europe, Fine Arts