nr 1 (2) 2020

Bona Sforza d’Aragon and the Role of Fashion in Creating Her Image

PixAgnieszka Bender, Articles and Studies, Heritage of Bona Sforza, nr 1 (2) 2020

The main goal of the article is to examine how queen Bona Sforza’s taste and interest in fashion has been influenced by her nearest milieu – including her mother, Isabella of Aragon – since her childhood in Italy and until her arrival in Poland. In the first part of the text, the author seeks to obtain an answer to the question of how the Renaissance fashion could influence Bona’s look and garments. The author proposes her own translations of several sources which shed new light on the subject. The description of wedding celebrations written by Giuliano Passero, Giuliano Passero cittadino napoletano o sia prima pubblicazione in istampa, delle Storie in forma di Giornali (Napoli, 1785) is especially important for this article. The new translation of this text differs occasionally from that published by Władysław Pociecha several years ago. In the second part of this article, the author analyses ceremonial dress and jewellery which we can see on the earliest preserved portrait of Bona, painted most likely in Italy, around 1518. The woodcut, included in Jost Ludwik Decjusz’s De Sigismundi regis temporibus liber III in 1521, could not precisely depict the facial features and details of the young queen’s apparel.

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Tommaso Fiore and the Crows of Warsaw

PixAlessandro Ajres, Discussions, overviews and commentaries, Heritage of Bona Sforza, nr 1 (2) 2020

The book is a commentary on the second trip that Tommaso Fiore made to Poland in 1953. He enthusiastically confronts what he considers to be enormous progress in comparison to his first visit (1948). Moreover, while speaking with some representatives of Polish society, he explores various topics, such as agriculture, the state-religion relationship, or the freedom of intellectuals. The text is a rare and detailed account of what was the Poland of the 1950s as seen from the perspective of a great historian.

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Zofia and Livio Odescalchi in Two Epistolary Sources

PixHeritage of Bona Sforza, Iwona Dorota, nr 1 (2) 2020, Varia

The princely Odescalchi family was at the center of political and social events of 1847-1848 in Rome, in the midst of the revolutionary turmoil that shook Europe in general. Such events are mirrored in the correspondence of Zygmunt Krasiński and the Odescalchi-Branicka couple. Zofia and Livio come across as active figures, deeply engaged politically and emotionally. Along with their correspondence, Krasiński’s letters represent a complex canvas of facts and imagination, emotions and events, depicting many of the crucial figures and developments of the 19th century.

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The Funeral of the Queen by Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz – Editing the Text

PixHeritage of Bona Sforza, nr 1 (2) 2020, Presentations, Robert Papieski

The article mainly quotes a previously unpublished manuscript of Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz’s novel about Bona Sforza, entitled The Funeral of the Queen, which he has worked on between the 6th of June 1949 and 1953. The editor presents the origins of the book and its development. Additionally, all documents that Iwaszkiewicz researched and collected while working on the novel are included in the book, including notes, nine versions of the first sentence of the novel, and the letters from Ludwik Kolankowski and Zofia Zarembianka, who provided Iwaszkiewicz with factual information. The conclusion of the article reveals the nature of Iwaszkiewicz’s writing, showing that a huge amount of documents he researched– instead of helping him – paralysed him.

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National and Liberal. The Constitutionalism of the Italian Risorgimento

PixHeritage of Bona Sforza, Maurizio Griffo, nr 1 (2) 2020, Varia

The Italian Risorgimento, that is the historical process that led to the unification and independence of Italy, is characterized by the constant conjugation of the national principle with the request of institutions of freedom. The article reconstructs this process through its topical moments (Jacobin triennium, motions of 1820-1821, decade of preparation), focusing on the post-1848 phase, when only the Kingdom of Sardinia maintained the constitution, becoming, thus, an essential point of reference for the patriotic movement.

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