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Marcin Hlebionek - The seals
of Adam Sędziwój Czarnkowski, the general starost of
Grand Poland
Adam Sędziwój Czarnkowski descended from an old noble
family with origins in Grand Poland that can be traced
back to
at least the first half of the fourteenth century. He
belonged to the younger family line started by Sędziwój
Czarnkowski,
the castellan of Przemęt (his brother, Maciej, is
considered to be the progenitor of the older line), a son
of Sędziwój,
the voivode of the Poznań, and a grandson of Jan, the
castellan of Gniezno. Adam was a grandson of Sędziwój and
a son
of Wojciech Sędziwój Czarnkowski, the general starost of
Grand Poland, and Jadwiga Sierpska from Gulczewo of the
Prawdzic coat-of-arms, the daughter of the voivode of
Rawa. As a reward for his contribution to the wars with
Russia,
he was appointed the starost of Pyzdry by King Stefan
Batory in 1579. At the same time, he inherited the title
of
the commander of the Knights of Saint John in Poznań
(komandor poznańskich joannitów) from his father. During
the reign
of king Sigismunt III, he was a supporter of the king. It
was during that time that his career proceeded quickly:
in 1593 he became the general starost of Grand Poland, and
in 1606 he was appointed the voivode of Łęczyca.
Not all of Adam Sędziwój Czarnkowski's seals survived to
this day, but those remaining allow the analysis of the
sigillographic collection of one of the oligarchs of Grand
Poland. This collection, however, is specific. It seems
to be unusually numerous when compared to the seal
collections that belonged to other, even the richest,
noblemen.
That is because Czarnkowski's collection included official
seals necessary to carry out the duties of the general
starost and other, lower posts, e.g. those related to
governing a castle court and office (urząd grodzki), as
well as
personal seals, which can be divided into several
sub-categories. The collection grew mostly because
Czarnkowski
held the office of the general starost of Grand Poland and
this required using seven, out of nine, known types of
Czarnkowski's seals. It shows to what a great extent the
seal collections
of noblemen were influenced by the offices they held. It
also allows the author to state that a seal collection of
a
nobleman reflected his social status and the amount of
offices he held. The images and inscriptions on
Czarnkowski's
seals were part of the communication system present in
Poland at the time. The words inscribed in the seals not
only allowed the identification of an official but also
his competence. This became particularly important after
the judicial reform (reforma sądownictwa grodzkiego) in
Grand Poland, when the competence of the deputy starost of
Kalisz and Poznań covered only selected districts.
However, it was the coat-of-arms that was the main medium
for
conveying information and that allowed the transferring of
quite complex messages. Because Czarnkowski's seals
functioned on the verge of the private and public spheres,
they not only provide a lot of information about the
history
of the starost office, but through their images they also
give us an insight into the world of ideology of the
nobility
and its related symbols. In this case, the coat-of-arms on
Adam Sędziwój Czarnkowski's seals helped encode the legend
of this version of the Nałęcz coat-of-arms that was used
by his family. Its design emerged probably around the
first
half of the sixteenth century and had something to do with
the case of forgeries (czarnkowskie falsyfikaty). However,
the images on the seal can be also interpreted as
referring to the aspirations of the magnate who, according
to a legend,
had royal ancestors and began to think of himself as a
prince as well.
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