Kazimierz Baran 310 1493-1526, Wydawnictwo Sejmowe, Warszawa 1996.^ The edition of source materials was accompanied by a detailed research allowing to arrive at a deep insight into the mechanisms responsible, for the functioning of the PolishLithuanian State. Monographs and contributions followed. They were illustrative of free elections of the monarchs and also provided the details of parliamentary sessions, the organization and functioning of Konfederacjas, local assembly of the nobles, etc. And it is, perhaps, not incidental that the local assembly of nobility brethren attracted a considerable attention of historians. This assembly was called Sejmik (Dietine). The functioning of the Sejmik was an implementation of future Jean Jacque Rousseau’s direct democracy because actually every nobleman could attend it. Since the respective, almost 70 provinces of the Republic, abounded in nobility it was natural that the Sejmik met in the building of the church or in the cemetery in order to house everybody who wanted to take part in the session. Old engravings and paintings traditionally show the Sejmik in such places. Though every noble could arrive at the session most individuals were prevented fromdoing so by everyday reasons. Particulary in slack periods a small group of participants could be observed. But when important questions emerged a real crowd might be attracted. The sessions were tumultuous and noisy but the belief prevailed that things could be settled down by debate. This - as Czeslaw Milosz wrote - accounted for the lack of palace coups and assassinations. The sessions functioned as a real safety valve.^ Most of the production on Polish legal history is of course in Polish. The major periodical in which Polish legal historians publish their research is Czasopismo Praxcno-Historyczne with its editoral office in Poznan. Traditionally each article printed in it is followed by a short summary in French. However, some part of Polish research in legal history reaches the non-Polish reader mostly thanks to what Polish legal historians publish in English, German, French, Italian and other languages. I may briefly and only in an exempli gratia way point to a few volumes or a series of papers published in such Ianguages, and made available to the non-Polish reader thereby. Being myself a member of the Cracowmillieu of legal historians I wouldpoint to some recent contributions written by WaclawUruszczak and depicting the constitutional theory and practice in the Commonwealth. These are: Laprocedure des débats a la diéte générale du Royaume de Pologne dans le premiere moitié du XVP' ^ From the point of view of the non-Polish reader it is noteworthy that the volume is, apart from introduction, in Latin. Polish nobles of the past had a perfect command of this language. When the free election resulted in the foregner arriving at the throne of Poland it was Latin which served as a means of communication between the King and the mass of nobility (take Stephen Bathorv’s case at the declining decades of the 16'^ centurv as an example). ^ Interesting studies of the Sejmik functioning were produced in Polish by Stanislaw Plaza, see for instance his Sejmiki i zjazdy szlacheckie zi'ojen'odztiz' poznanskiego i kaliskicgo. Ustroj i funkcjonoiiante (1572—1632), Warszawa — Krakow 1984.
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