OUR RESEARCH

The Library of Old Polish Political Thought

The goal of this Project is to translate (from Latin to Polish) and publish selected political treatises by Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth authors from the 17th century. The implementation of the Project aims to: support the development of research on 17th-century political thought of the Polish- Lithuanian Commonwealth, enable a fuller understanding of the sources of that political culture, and contribute to the popularization of the doctrinal legacy of Poland’s “Silver Age.” For this reason, the Project will benefit both professional scholars of political thought and a broader audience seeking a deeper understanding of Polish political culture and tradition.

The translated political treaties were shaped significantly by the experience of the political system of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, based on the provisions of the Henrician Articles. Thus, this reflection emerged within a mature “nobles’ democracy”, whose institutional form exhibited features of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. At the same time, throughout the 17th century, this system underwent multiple crises and gradually drifted toward magnate oligarchy. The Polish experience differed significantly from the constitutional evolution of most European states at the time, resulting in the emergence of a distinctively Polish political culture. Native political thought reflected this distinctiveness and attempted to grapple with the Commonwealth’s institutional uniqueness in contrast to other European states.

A particularly prominent ideological current in Poland was republicanism, along with its key debate over the relationship between freedom and equality. The exceptional originality of 17th-century Polish culture—including its political culture—played a formative role in shaping Polish identity in the centuries that followed. It would not be a mistake to trace elements of the era’s emphasis on self- organization and love of liberty in later national uprisings and in the 20th-century resistance against totalitarian systems, culminating in the Solidarity movement.

It is characteristic, however, that the political thought born of the 17th-century political culture is today still not sufficiently examined in scholarly terms, and lacks recognition it deserves. In this regard, the Project may lead to a significant breakthrough and bring this intellectual tradition back into the conversation. One reason for the limited knowledge of the political ideas of the "Silver Age" is that they addressed the state not as a fallen or occupied entity, but as one still sovereign, capable of maintaining agency in international relations and exerting real influence on its external environment. Moreover, the political nation – embodied by the nobles – retained for most of that century a meaningful degree of internal autonomy in deciding the fate of the country.

For this reason, 17th-century Polish political thought was marked by a highly practical orientation, shaped by the reality of a functioning free political system. It typically did not involve the creation of radical intellectual constructs aimed at redefining or overthrowing the existing socio-political order. This historical situation did not repeat itself in later centuries over any extended period. The challenge of the Polish Enlightenment was to reform the state under conditions of limited sovereignty, often borrowing models from Western political thought. During the Partitions, the key issue became the recovery of the state itself, whereas the Second Republic approached the tradition of "Golden Liberty" with caution, often seeing it as a cause of Poland’s past downfall. Under Communist rule, with severely restricted sovereignty and an imposed ideological system, the state sought to highlight only those elements of Polish socio-political thought that could be framed as “progressive” under Marxist interpretation.

Thus, the later political circumstances in Poland were not conducive to engaging with or rediscovering the richness of 17th-century political thought. The gap in this area is even more striking when we consider that 16th-century Polish political treatises are relatively well known to the broader public. While their high quality, later influence, and often innovative nature are not in question, it is worth noting that their wider availability—thanks to translations from Latin—is much greater than that of comparable 17th-century works.

Another obstacle to accessing 17th-century treatises is the highly specialized form of Early Modern Latin in which most political texts of Poland’s “Silver Age” were written. This has meant that most current research into these works is conducted by classical philologists or Polish philologists, which, while valuable, often results in less emphasis on the doctrinal and theoretical dimensions of these texts. A good example of limited access to primary sources among scholars of ideas is seen in the most recent publications on the political thought of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, where analyses of key 17th-century thinkers are still largely based on a single (albeit excellent) selection of texts published in 1979 under the editorship of Professor Zbigniew Ogonowski.

The gap in the study of 17th-century Polish thought is all the more pressing given the significant academic progress made in recent decades in Poland in analyzing Western traditions of political thought. As a result, most Polish scholars in this field now have greater expertise and conduct more frequent research on foreign doctrines than on their own intellectual heritage—even though that heritage is highly original and intellectually promising.

It is a legitimate expectation that political thought scholarship in Poland should engage more deeply with its own tradition and bring it into the broader Euro-Atlantic academic discourse. The realization of this Project is intended to foster that deeper engagement, support the development of research into 17th-century political thought, and contribute to its wider recognition both nationally and within the history of European civilization.

As part of this Project, the following Latin political treatises by Polish authors have been translated into Polish and published:

Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro, Scriptorum seu Togae et Belli notationum fragmenta, Gdańsk 1660; Introduction – Marek Tracz-Tryniecki

Kasper Siemek, Civis bonus, Kraków 1632; Introduction – Paweł Sydor, Ilona Balcerczyk

Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro, Militarium, seu axiomatum belli ad harmoniam togæ accommodatorum libri duo. Accessere minutiora quaedam, ejusdem authoris scripta. Liber I, Amsterdam 1668; Introduction – Marek Tracz-Tryniecki

Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro, Gestorum Populi Poloni sub Henrico Valesio, Polonorum postea verò Galliae Rege, Gdańsk 1652/1660; wstep – Marek Tracz-Tryniecki

Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro, Vir Consilii monitis ethicorum nec non prudentiae civilis, Lwów 1730; Introduction – Marek Tracz-Tryniecki

Aaron Alexander Olizarowski, De politica hominum societate libri tres, Gdańsk 1651; Introduction – Piotr Niczyporuk i Paweł Sydor

Kasper Siemek, Lacon seu de reipublicae rectae instituendae arcanis dialogus, Kraków 1635; Introduction – Paweł Sydor, przypisy – Józef Macjon.

Łukasz Opaliński, Pauli Naeoceli de Officiis libri tres: in quibus Sapientiae Christianae, id est, Moralis Philosophiae, Jurisprudentiae, immo et Theologiae pleraque et praecipua, Amsterdam 1668 lub 1703; Introduction – Marek Tracz-Tryniecki

Piotr Mieszkowski, Polonus iure politus mores patris ad leges conformans, Kalisz 1637; Introduction – Tomasz Tulejski

Jan Sachs, De scopo Reipublicae Polonicae, adversus Hermannum Coringium, professorem Helmstadiensem, dissertatio qua simul Status Regni Poloniae novissime describitur, Wrocław 1665.; Introduction – Tomasz Tulejski

Forthcoming

Jan Krzysztof Hartknoch, De republica Polonica libri duo, quorum prior historiae polonicae memorabiliora, posterior autem jus publicum reipubl. polonicae, lithuanicae provinciarumque annexarum comprehendit, Lipsk 1698; Introduction – Maciej Chmieliński

Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro, Militariom, seu axiomatum belli ad harmoniam togæ, accommodatorum, cum XXXIL figuris aeneis et explicatione omnium terminorum architecturae militaria, genuinis polonis vocibus redditorum. Liber secundus, Lipsk 1757; Introduction – Marek Tracz-Tryniecki