The issues of the history of culture and science of the eighteenth‑century Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth are rare in the works of Józef Andrzej Gierowski. This article analyses his views on these issues. He devoted most attention to the subject of the beginnings of the Enlightenment in Poland, joining a long scholarly discussion about it. He agreed that the precursors of the Enlightenment in Poland were already active in the 1740s, during the era of the Wettins’ rule. He pointed to educational reform, writing activity (Benedykt Chmielowski’s, the political and journalistic work of a number of writers) and publishing (especially of the Załuski brothers), and the development of periodicals as the three pillars on which reforms were carried out in the future – during the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski. In addition, and just as importantly, he drew attention to methodological weaknesses concerning the study of intermediate periods, i.e. between the Baroque and the Enlightenment. He also pointed out the need for a comprehen-sive picture of the cultural history of the Polish‑Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 18 ^th century – proponents of both Sarmatian culture and Enlightenment thought.

Although he was only recognized as the patron saint of Poland by the Vatican in 2002, St. Andrzej Bobola was accorded a cult following much earlier than this, and venerated as the saint protector of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was seen as a special defender against the threat from first Tsarist Russia, then Orthodox Russia, then the Soviet Union – the Blessed’s intercession was associated with the victory of the Battle of Warsaw in 1920. For this reason, his beatification and canonization were part of political discourse.
Andrzej Bobola’s relics were originally stored in the Jesuit church in Pińsk, moved to Połock after its closure, and were taken to the Hygienic Exhibition in Moscow in 1922. Recovered thanks to the Pope’s intervention in 1924, they were taken to the Il Gesù Church in Rome. By the 1920s, Polish church authorities were already making efforts to canonize Andrzej Bobola and return his relics to Poland. Several Polish cities tried to obtain the saint’s remains, including Vilnius, Warsaw, Pińsk and even Janów Poleski.
The canonization, which took place on 17 April 1938, in particular the ceremonial return of the relics of St. Andrzej Bobola to Warsaw in June 1938, took the form of a great religious and patriotic demonstration. It was accompanied by numerous ceremonies in which the highest church and state authorities participated, with extensive paratheatrical scripts, as well as specially designed decorations and music composed for the occasion. The press reported these in great detail, constituting a fascinating case of an event of both great religious significance and broad political context.

The subject area of the cult of images regarded as miraculous during the Old Polish period has long enjoyed the interest of scholars, who analysed it in historical, theological, religious, artistic or social terms. This applies to both single images (usually paintings) as well as to syntheses including selected groups of cult objects. The crowned pictures are of greatest interest, of course, but relatively little space has been devoted to local Marian centres. The aim of this article is to draw attention to eighteenth-century ceremonies involving miraculous paintings in the former Bełsk Province, especially in the local sanctuaries. Three ceremonies have been analysed: the coronation of the miraculous painting of Our Lady of Sokal, and ceremonies with the participation of the miraculous paintings of Our Lady of Łopatyn and Our Lady of Tartaków. The lack in the literature of a precise description of the course of the coronation of the miraculous Our Lady of Sokal picture has so far made general conclusions difficult.

This article deals with Fryderyk Chopin's juvenilia and the occasional verse dedicated to him by his his relatives and friends. Extraordinarily diverse in tone and nature (versified happy birthday and nameday messages, friendship book entries, humorous and partying verse), they offer unexpected insights into various aspects of the composer's biography and his participation in the literary culture of his epoch, especially the more private occasions and celebrations.

One of the most important functions of 18th-century occasional decorations was to communicate current political issues. The artistic setting of ceremonies related to political events can of course be analyzed as an independent entity but may also be studied as a fragment of a larger message that encompasses prints, literature and political ceremony.
The present article will adopt the latter approach, and analyze the political message of the 1750s on the subject of the division of the Entail of Ostrog, resulting from the so-called “Transaction of Kolbuszowa” in 1753. This event, which had a huge impact on political relations of the time, was also of key importance to the chief players of the period as well as their artistic initiatives (for example J. K. Branicki, who became the Great Crown Hetman after Józef Potocki’s death). The theme of the Entail of Ostrog can be seen in the artistic settings of ceremonies related to the activities of the Senatorial Commission, as well as in those related to two terms of the Crown Tribunal, which in 1754 and 1755 was overshadowed by the consequences of the Kolbuszowa transaction. The above-mentioned bodies acted on behalf of the entire Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; therefore, ideas of political unity and total consensus were emphasized in the decorations. In this way, specific decisions were legitimized. Occasional decorations made reference to the Gigantomachy, understood as an internal conflict, and stressed the importance of overcoming internal enemies for the sake of state unity. Banquets were also of great importance in conveying this message, not only because participation alone was seen as a manifestation of belonging to a certain community, but also because the ideological content of the table decorations presented the political values of the guests and served as a commentary on current political issues.

The putting on of spectacular ceremonies finalizing the acts of beatification and canonization of Stanisław Kostka, taking place in the principal Jesuit centers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, was an important artistic activity of modern times. The content programs of the decorations which accompanied the celebrations between 1606 and 1726, known to us from written sources, reflect the propaganda of the Kostka ceremonies. The oldest occasional decorations and outdoor shows taking place in the city of Jarosław had been organized on the initiative of his relative Anna née Kostka Ostrogska. They were organized in connection with the proclamation of Stanisław Kostka as Blessed by Pope Paul V in 1606. The theme of the decorations accentuated the importance of the moral values of this ascetic follower of the Counter-Reformation Church, while the widely used language of allegory defined his individual spiritual values and illustrated scenes from his life and miracles.
However, Stanisław Kostka soon became seen as an advocate of the Polish Lithuanian-Commonwealth in its military struggles in the East, especially in the conflict with the Ottoman Porte. After the victory of Chocim (Khotyn) in 1621 he was revered as the patron saint of the Polish knighthood, and after the victory at the Battle of Chocim in 1673 he was rapidly proclaimed (in 1674) one of the main patrons of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. It was this aspect of Kostka’s promotion that was used in the decorative themes of his thanksgiving ceremonies after the closing of the beatification process and the decree of canonization by Pope Clement XI in 1714. The decorations of the Jesuit Church in Lublin, described in detail in the records of the Society of Jesus (1715), explained and glorified the new role of the young saint. His role as a guarantor of peace and stability of the Commonwealth, revealed in God’s eternal plans, was presented through astral configurations and complicated semantic systems. Kostka’s canonization, which had raised the importance of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as being linked to the papacy and the Catholic faith, was seen as the culmination of a great historical message and the revelation of the secret given to Poland, also recognizable through astral configuration.
The military and diplomatic triumph over the Ottoman Porte was considered a breakthrough moment, opening a period of happiness achieved thanks to Kostka’s intervention and the support of Heaven. The result of a united front in the battle with a common enemy was to achieve a state of happiness that strengthened the ecclesiastical and monarchical order, an idea taken up by the decorations seen in Jarosław and Vilnius, amongst others. The ad hoc political content was moved to the sphere of the monastic political philosophy and historical theology.
An allusion to the happy future that mathematicians had supposedly predicted was also included in the decorations. After the partition of Poland and the dissolution of the Jesuit order, the revival of the fading cult of Stanislaw Kostka took place in the Second Polish Republic, particularly during the jubilee celebrations of the 200th anniversary of his canonization in 1927. This was seen in the ceremony of bringing his relics from Rome to the new church in Rostków, which was attended by the President of the Republic of Poland Ignacy Mościcki. However, there was a significant change in semantics as Stanisław Kostka was now described as the patron saint of children and youth, frequent Holy Communion and felicitous vocational choices.

In the early modern period, there were around 40 religious confraternities in the agglomeration of Cracow, one of the oldest and most important being the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary at the Dominican Church of the Holy Trinity. It is not known when it was founded, but it was probably already operating in the late Middle Ages. In 1600, this confraternity, existing “ab immemorabilis tempore”, was reformed by Fr. Abraham Bzowski, who on this occasion prepared and published an extensive dissertation, having the character of its “statutes”. From 4 February 1601 the seat of the renewed confraternity was in the Chapel of the Three Kings, at the far end of the northern nave of the church. It contained the Brotherhood’s altar which was transferred, probably after 1688, to the church of St. Giles and placed on the altar’s stone in the apse of the presbytery. The altar contained the holy picture of the Virgin Mary of the Salus Populi Romani type, connected by tradition established in the first half of the 17th century with Pope Clement VIII, who was to grant it indulgences. Bernard Maciejowski, then Bishop of Łuck, later Bishop of Cracow and finally Primate, is considered as the donor of the painting. Every first Sunday in October, the Cracow copy of the Roman image was carried out by the brothers out of the chapel and in a solemn procession around the Main Square. This custom was linked to the victory of the Christian fleet over the Turkish one near Lepanto in 1571, after which Pope Pius V established its liturgical memory (7 October). In Poland, this tradition gained a new dimension after to the successful defence of the Chocim fortress against the Turks in 1621. The devotion to the Rosary was cultivated not only in the Brotherhood’s chapel, but also in the Conventual Church, where the altar of the Holy Rosary stood to the left of the choir entrance. Symmetrically to it, on the right side of the rainbow arcade stood the altar of the Confraternity of the Holy Name of Jesus, founded in 1585 by Fr. Bartłomiej of Przemyśl. Its aim was to eradicate the sinful custom of swearing oaths, and because of the connections with the Confraternity of the Holy Rosary it was called the Archconfraternity of the Rosary of the Most Holy Name of Jesus. The spreading of the rosary prayer by the Order went beyond the Conventual Church. A special role in this work was played by the Gothic Church of St. Giles, which the Dominicans took under their protection in 1588. An important caesura in the history of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Rosary was the move to a new spacious oratory, which was erected on the site of the medieval Chapel of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the far end of the southern nave of the church. One of the reasons for undertaking this new work is considered to be the desire to commemorate the victory of John III Sobieski over the Turks at Vienna on 12 September 1683. The opulent decor and interesting ideological programme have only partially survived, but they can be reconstructed on the basis of preserved written sources, as can be the character of the Brotherhood’s celebrations. Particularly interesting monuments include those connected with the so-called Century of the Rosary, established with the consent of Pope Innocent XII (1694). It was a congregation of 100 brothers and 100 sisters, whose task was to pray continuously for the souls suffering in Purgatory. Among other things, a book of this association has been preserved, which contains illuminations showing the salutary effects of the prayer of the Rosary.

The year 1933, which marked the 15th anniversary of Polish independence, also saw the celebrations of the 400th birthday of Stefan Batory and the 250th anniversary of the Relief of Vienna led by King Jan III Sobieski. Both events allowed for a wide campaign of propaganda for the Sanation movement’s updated political programme, clad in historical analogies, especially in the context of Eastern policy. For this reason, the ceremonies organized in the Borderlands, a particular lieux de mémoire associated with great kings, who were seen in official historical politics as natural harbingers of Józef Piłsudski, took on a special character. This provided an excellent opportunity for the propaganda of the Polish civilizing mission in the East and the promotion of the idea of Poland as a superpower. The main ceremonies commemorating Stefan Batory were organized in Grodno, where the monarch died in the historic castle in 1586. These celebrations, broadcast by radio and widely reported by the press, were attended by President Ignacy Mościcki and many national and local dignitaries, ministers, senators, deputies, voivodes, bishops, generals etc. Lavish occasional decorations, saturated with specific symbolism, were set up as modernized late 16th-century architectural stylizations. The activities of the Grodno Castle reconstruction committee were officially inaugurated on the 350th anniversary of Batory’s death. Even more magnificent were the two-day festivities commemorating the Victory at Vienna organized in Olesko, which overshadowed the central celebrations in Kraków. The programme of the ceremony proclaimed that “a deed of European importance – by King Jan III and the then-superpower Poland – must be reflected by a programme of celebrations of its 250-year anniversary on a superpower scale”. An extensive open-air spectacle was organized with the participation of thousands of extras, including soldiers in historical costumes, several hundred fire brigades, scouts and aviation squadrons. Particularly spectacular was the especially arranged musical performance combined with night illuminations. These celebrations were enhanced by other accompanying events such as the Star Automobile and Motorcycle Rally and the sightseeing rally On the Trail of Sobieski. In other Borderland towns such as Tarnopol the jubilee was celebrated on a smaller scale, where a number of outdoor events were organized under the umbrella name Harvest Festival of King Jan III and the Arrival of the Austrian Emperor’s Legation with a Request for the Relief of Vienna.

The article discusses the artistic setting of the largest religious ceremony of the beginning of the 20th century, the coronation of the icon of Our Lady of Consolation in the Church of St. Peter and Paul in Lviv. The painting itself was considered to be one of the palladiums of the city, as in 1656, during the Swedish Deluge, the papal nuncio Vidoni first uttered the call to the “Queen of the Polish Crown” in front of this Marian image, in the presence of King Jan Kazimierz and the court.
In 1904, on the occasion of the jubilee of the announcement of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Marian Congress took place in Lviv, and in that same year the decision was made to create new crowns for the painting of the Mother of God and Baby Jesus. A committee, composed of representatives from the aristocracy and bourgeoisie of the city, was set up to raise the appropriate funds, and the then Archbishop of Lviv, Józef Bilczewski, was asked to perform the solemn coronation. An artistic and technical committee was also established, which included the architect Teodor Talowski (chairman), Antoni Popiel, Andrzej Romaszkan, Tadeusz Czapelski and Karol Richtmann, who made the decision to transform the altar where the painting was placed and to convert the area of the church bay into a distinct chapel. The works were led by Karol Richtmann, the altar was renovated by the painter Karol Domański, and the new bronze antependium was designed by Antoni Popiel. The bolt with the depiction of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception was made by the sculptor Piotr Wójtowicz. The icon of the Virgin Mary itself was restored by Henryk Kühn. The chapel vault was decorated with paintings by Tadeusz Popiel, and its space was separated from the rest of the church by a grid made according to a project by Alfred Zachariewicz. Antoni Popiel designed golden crowns and a new dress for the figures of the Mother of God and Baby Jesus, made by the goldsmith and jeweller Jan Wojtych. The Committee also commissioned new stained glass windows for the chapel from the Kraków workshop of Stanisław Ekielski and Antoni Tuch. The main work was completed in July 1905.
On 12 February 1905, a coronation decree was issued in Rome, and Archbishop Bilczewski was appointed to perform the coronation act. On 28 April 1905, another decree was issued recognizing the antiquity and miraculousness of the painting, and the ceremony was scheduled for 28th May.
The church façade, side elevation and interior were decorated extensively, while the focal point was prepared for receiving the painting – “The Gothic golden throne with motifs from the tomb of Kazimierz the Great”. The decorations were designed by Stanisław Jasieński, a renowned painter and theatre decorator of the time. The streets and squares which the coronation procession went through were also adorned. The ceremony was very carefully planned and directed; it was attended by the clergy of the three Christian rites, local authorities and representatives of all social strata. When analyzing the coronation ceremonies, it is important to underline their considerable reliance on the schemes of coronations of Marian images which took place on Polish territory in the 18th century. The tradition of the last Marian coronation, of a painting from the Dominican Church in Lviv in 1751, was strongly referred to and accentuated in occasional prints that accompanied this solemn act. The reference to old Polish coronations can be seen in numerous occasional prints, in reporting on the course of the ceremony, as well as in the extensive descriptions and texts of sermons published. This ceremony had an exceptional social and national dimension, as it was the first such coronation in the former Polish lands since the loss of independence, and the most important ceremony before the outbreak of the First World War. Not without significance in this context was the underlined similarity of forms between the coronation throne and the canopy over the tombstone of Kazimierz the Great in the Kraków Cathedral, or the calling of one crown as Kazimierzowska and the other Jagiellońska. The new artistic remodeling of the Chapel of Our Lady in the Jesuit Church was a prelude to the renovation of the remaining altars in the church. The coronation ceremony and the restoration of the chapel gathered together the most important artists of the early 19th century working for the Church patronage in the capital of Galicia. The chapel designed by Teodor Talowski successfully combines an 18th-century retabulum with paintings by Tadeusz Popiel, being probably the last example of a true Baroque bel composto.

In his voluminous memoirs compiled in the early 17th century the Dominican Martin Gruneweg describes a pageant named the Parade of the Planets that took place in Warsaw on 15 February 1580. Central to its stage design was the iconography of the seven planets, each of them represented by its Zodiac sign and its affiliated House. However, no less important for the spectacle was the appearance of numerous characters and stage props from the carnival tradition, e.g. richly dressed men from the Orient, Bacchus, a procession of floats. The Parade of the Planets was a festivity which brought together the court and the townsfolk; it was probably organized by both court and town. More generally, it could be described as an urban carnival parade mimicking some features of the Renaissance Trionfo. The knowledge of celestial phenomena presented in this spectacle was probably adjusted to the needs of a wide audience of the ‘middling sort of people’, whose belief in the geocentric model of the cosmos was still intact. It seems that the Parade of the Planets contained hardly any profound insights or hermetic clues. Gruneweg, though, does find it susceptible to an allegorical interpretation which reveals the spectacle's embedding in Christian spirituality and middle-class virtues. He is pleased with the colourful spectacle, but warns of taking too much pleasure in this kind of entertainment.

Benedykt Roszkowski, a reformed friar from the Order of Reformed Friars Minor (Reformati) in the Greater Poland province ( Wielkopolska), became famous as a religious preacher (sermoniser). He held this position for twenty-one years, in various centres of the province, and held the ministry of guardian a number of times. He was also a member of provincial government in the form of secretary and definitor (1779–1782) as well as fulfilling the role of custodian or provincial deputy (1785–1788). The friar also helped create settings for church ceremonies.
This article discusses Roszkowski’s hitherto unknown manuscript containing a description of the artistic settings of six funeral ceremonies that took place in the Reformati Churches during the years 1758–1762. The descriptions were illustrated with the friar’s own watercolours depicting the theatrum created during funeral ceremonies. The document, written in Latin, was made between 1762 and 1764 as Roszkowski’s gift to the Provincial Superior of Greater Poland, Father Dionizy Sydry. His descriptions include the funeral of the Crown Oboźnina (wife of the Crown Great Camp Leader) Teresa Teofila Lipska née Dąbska, and the funeral rites in memory of the Oboźny (Crown Great Camp Leader) Prokop Lipski in the Reformati Church in Poznań (1758); the funeral of the Master of the Hunt’s wife from Wschowa, Zofia Gorzyńska, in the Reformati Church in Miejska Górka (1761); the exequies of Zofia Puklatecka in the Reformati Church in Poznań (1762); the funeral of Brygida Czapska née Działyńska, the wife of the Malbork voivode, in the Reformed Church in Pakość, and the funeral rites in the parish church in Konarzewo (1762). For all these funerals, the friar designed both the interior of the church and the castrum doloris placed in the centre. The baldachin-type castrum doloris dominated: on a multi-step platform (sometimes taking the shape of a fortress with bastions) with a raised coffin were figures of Virtues or personifications, and on its sides were obelisks in the form of rocaille or decorative columns crowned with busts of Virtues. The whole structure was topped with a hanging fabric baldachin. In such artistic settings, the friar combined heraldic content with references to both the Bible and mythology. With the informal character of its descriptions, this manuscript differs from the occasional prints published by Roszkowski. Not only does the friar specify the material from which individual elements were made, but he also demonstrates the real context of their presentation. It is the first time we find in one document the descriptions of so many elements of the pompa funebris, along with their visual representations, made by a man who was artist, designer and preacher in one. These various aspects make Roszkowski’s work a special source for research on the funeral culture of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, one which finds no equal.