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Waldemar Chorążyczewski - Private
political archives in Poland of the XVI century
"Private political archives" are understood by me as all
acts collected intently by a private person. These acts
are connected with the person's participation in political
life and gathered in order to be used in public activity
as the source of argumentation and information about
factors and mechanisms of political processes. Private
political archives of the first half of the XVI century
were mainly created by royal servants, often with
reference to their job duties. These duties could inspire
to collect political acts for private purposes. During the
reign of Sigismund Augustus, archives of gentry activists
were developed to small extent and they mainly focused on
parliamentary life. Private political archives were
created outside the executionist movement, namely in the
community gathered around the royal court. After 1572,
Crown and Lithuanian magnates greatly influenced the
creation of political archives.
Archives of lesser gentry, scarce and poor, did not
disappear completely. However, they became difficult for
identification. Therefore, developmental process concerned
exclusively documentary "treasure troves" created by
magnates. They had the financial means and possibilities
to create truly valuable political archives. The same as
in the previous period the dynamisms of executionist
movement was reflected in political archival
documentation, now the creation of patronage system and
clientele, or traditionally understood magnate oligarchy,
(depending on the point of view) corresponded best to
archives development. The heritage of previous generations
was the treasure trove of patterns and solutions. However,
this trove was used selectively, on one hand giving up
patterns and rights that were uncomfortable, and, on the
other, giving the value of precedence to unexpected acts
that gained more importance or even new content in changed
political conditions. The application of interpretation
principle
raised interest in old acts and patterns of behaviour
described in acts. Consequently, they became an
inseparable part of Polish political culture of the XVI
century, and their collection became indispensable for any
politician trying to play a more significant role in
public life. It is easy to see some kind of regularity -
the bigger role to be played, the bigger scope of archival
materials to be used and collected. However, it was
characteristic for political archives that their main part
was not used until some external necessity and the user's
will raised in order to exploit one specific text
corresponding to one specific situation.
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