Section for the Historical-Geographical Dictionary of Masovia and Podlasie
Head: Dr Anna Sala
Cooperators:
Dr Andrzej Buczyło
Michał Zbieranowski, MA
The Section for the Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Mazovia and Podlasie in the Middle Ages was created in three stages. In 2012, Dr Anna Salina and Dr Marta Piber-Zbieranowska, formed the Mazovian Dictionary Team, which – after the joining of Dr Tomasz Jaszczołt (2014) and Dr Andrzej Buczyło (2015–2021) – was transformed into the Mazovian and Podlasie Dictionary Team. Dr Michał Sierba worked in the Team from 2022 to 2024, and Dr Emil Kalinowski joined in 2023. At the end of 2024, the team acquired the rank of a section. Currently, its associates are Dr Andrzej Buczyło and Michał Zbieranowski, MA.
Under the care of the Section is the Historical Dictionary Card Index of Mazovia in the Middle Ages created by Prof. Adam Wolff and his collaborators: Dr. Anna Borkiewicz-Celińska, Dr. Kazimierz Pacuski and others,. It gathers source extracts concerning all settlements and physiographic objects of medieval Mazovia within the pre-partition borders, i.e. from the Płockie, Rawskie and Mazowieckie voivodeships. Scans of the individual cards are gradually being placed online as part of the Digital Repository of Scientific Institutes (www.rcin.org.pl) at http://www.rcin.org.pl/publication/8825 [accessed 10.06.2024].
Work on the Historical and Geographical Dictionary of Podlasie was already begun in the 1960s by Prof. Jerzy Wiśniewski. His untimely death (died in 1983) prevented him from completing the planned project. Prof. J. Wiśniewski began to compile a file of the Podlasie Dictionary which, together with other materials, is now in the possession of his heirs in Krakow.
The Wolff file, which is now a closed collection, as well as digital files resulting from extensive source searches conducted by members of the Team, are the basis for the preparation of the Historical-Geographical Dictionary of Mazovia in the Middle Ages and the Historical-Geographical Dictionary of Podlasie Province in the Middle Ages. Mention should be made of new possibilities which have emerged following access to Eastern Europe historical archives and libraries, enabling a considerable expansion of the scope of searches and sources used in the preparation of Dictionaries of Mazovia and Podlasie. Queries are also being conducted in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and Hungary.
After the completion of work on the Historical-Geographical Dictionary of the Płock Voivodeship in the Middle Ages (compiled by Anna Borkiewicz-Celińska, z. 1–4, ed. 1980–2000), the newly established Dictionary Team returned to the original concept of publishing notebooks devoted to individual lands of the Mazovian Voivodeship, referring to the Dictionary of the Wyszogród Land published in 1970. In 2013 and 2017, notebooks covering the land of Warsaw and the land of Liw were published, and in 2021, the first volume devoted to the land of Czersk with entries A – Cychry. The second volume of the Czersk land, currently under development, will be published in 2026.
In 2015, work on the Podlasie Dictionary resumed after a break of more than thirty years. Prof. Wiśniewski’s original concept, which covered not only the historical Podlasie Voivodeship, but also parts of the Brześć Litewski, Troki and even Novogródek Voivodeships lying within the current borders of Poland, was slightly modified. It was decided to link the coverage of the Dictionary to the borders of the pre-partition Podlasie Voivodeship. This was due to the fact that the source base was preserved, the colonisation of this area was later than in other regions of Poland, and the fact that in the middle of the 16th century a Volok reform was conducted in Podlasie and only afterwards the settlement network became clearly stabilised. Dictionary works abandoned the division into individual lands, treating the Podlasie Voivodeship as a whole. In 2021, the first volume of the Dictionary was published, including the entries: A – Bojanka. The next volume is scheduled for publication in 2026.
The section has participated and is participating in grant projects such as:
- ‘Warsaw through the centuries – from its beginnings to the 20th century. Realisation of scientific research as part of the Varsavianist Research Team’ (a task commissioned by the Minister of Education and Science);
- ‘Mazovia for the Crown. The 500th Anniversary of the Incorporation of Mazovia into the Polish Kingdom’ (commissioned by the Mazovian Museum in Płock, financed from the budget of the Marshal’s Office of the Mazovian Voivodeship and implemented by the Mazovian Research Team).
As part of their interest in the history of Mazovia and Podlasie, members of the Section also deal with it in their individual work. Dr Anna Salina researches the history of the Church in Mazovia and prepares critical editions of Mazovian sources, e.g. from the holdings of the Płock and Warsaw church archives or The Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw. In the field of regional studies, she devotes particular attention to the past (from the Middle Ages to the 20th century) of the areas situated on the lower Narew and Bug rivers, including genealogical and genetic research and their popularisation.
Dr Marta Piber-Zbieranowska‘s research interests relate in particular to the last quarter of a century of political independence of the Duchy of Mazovia, and in particular to the regency rule of Princess Anna Radziwiłłówna, who, after the death of her husband Prince Konrad III, ruled in the years 1503–1518 on behalf of her minor sons Stanisław and Janusz III. Her doctoral dissertation was devoted to this topic. Currently, her research focuses mainly on issues concerning the court of the Mazovian dukes in the late Middle Ages and the official and court elite of the period.
Dr Tomasz Jaszczołt researches the property relations and settlements in the Podlasie Voivodeship and Eastern Mazovia and Western areas of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 15th–17th centuries. He also researches the development and formation of the parish network of the Roman Catholic Church in Podlasie in that period. He also contributed to the compilation of Roman Catholic clergy rosters of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. He prepared a number of articles on the genealogy of noble families in the Podlasie region and the lands of Eastern Mazovia. He is also interested in the functioning of courts of the nobility and the application of Polish law in Podlasie up to the Lublin Union. In addition, he is preparing an updated index of Podlasie officials up to 1569, which is also intended to include offices that existed in Podlasie up to that year but were omitted from printed index. He is also involved in a project to publish successive volumes of index of officials of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with a particular focus on the 15th and 16th centuries.
Dr Emil Kalinowski is involved in the history of Podlasie and eastern Mazovia in the late Middle Ages and early modern period (16th and 17th centuries). His research interests focus on the history of the nobility and noble settlements in the Mazovian-Podlasie borderland, their genealogy and political culture, as well as historical geography, regional history and microhistory. He is also interested in the socio-cultural history, military, customs and jurisdiction of the nobility, as well as elementary disasters in Podlasie (epidemics, fires). He took part in the work on editing Podlasie sejmik records from the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries.
Dr Andrzej Buczyło is involved in the history of Podlasie and the Brest region from the 15th to the 18th century. He also studies the formation of the parish network of the Eastern Churches (Orthodox and Uniate) in the area in question. His interests also include historical geography and broadly defined auxiliary sciences of history.
Michał Zbieranowski, M.A., was an employee of the Departament of Historical Atlas of the Institute of History of the Polish Academy of Sciences between 1991 and 2014. His research interests include the late medieval and early modern periods, the history of settlements, social history, in particular the history of Mazovia and Warsaw, the Ciołek family (mainly the Żelechów branch), the seats of knights on the border of Mazovia and the Stężyca region; in addition, the history of Scottish immigration in modern Poland in the Mazovian and Podlasie areas.
Previously published volumes of the Historical-Geographical Dictionary of Mazovia in the Middle Ages:
- Słownik historyczno-geograficzny ziemi wyszogrodzkiej w średniowieczu, edited by A. Wolff and A. Borkiewicz-Celińska, ed. by J. Wiśniewski and [subsequently] A. Gąsiorowski, Wrocław 1971.
- Słownik historyczno-geograficzny województwa Płockiego w średniowieczu, oprac. A. Borkiewicz-Celińska, ed. by J. Wiśniewski and [subsequently] by A. Gąsiorowski, Wrocław 1980–1919. Gąsiorowski, Wrocław 1980–1981, Warsaw 1998–2000.
- Słownik historyczno-geograficzny ziemi warszawskiej w średniowieczu, oprac. A. Wolff, K. Pacuski, edited by M. Piber-Zbieranowska, A. Salina, edited by T. Jurek, Warsaw 2013.
- Słownik historyczno-geograficzny ziemi liwskiej w średniowieczu, edited by M. Piber-Zbieranowska, A. Salina, with the collaboration of E. Kowalczyk-Heyman, ed. by T. Jurek, Warsaw 2017.
- Słownik historyczno-geograficzny ziemi czerskiej w średniowieczu, part 1: A – Cychry, edited by Marta Piber-Zbieranowska and Anna Salina, with archaeological collaboration by Magdalena Bis and Wojciech Bis, Warsaw 2021.
- Słownik historyczno-geograficzny województwa podlaskiego w średniowieczu, part 1: A – Bojanka, edited by Andrzej Buczyło and Tomasz Jaszczołt, with archaeological co-operation by Magdalena Bis and Wojciech Bis, Warsaw 2021.
These volumes are also available electronically at: http://www.slownik.ihpan.edu.pl/index.php.
The resources of the Wolff Directory can be used on site (IH PAN, room 16) only by appointment – by telephone (22 831 63 38) or email slownik_maz@ihpan.edu.pl.
