This paper is a form of a report on conservation repairs on the internal walls of the semibasement of the Castle in Kórnik. One key element of these works is the desalination of the cellar walls. The excessive amount of salt results from a number of measures undertaken towards the end of the 19th c. and in the early 20th c., in order to rescue the architectural gem against a disaster. Carried out in the early 1950s, the cebertization (petrification of soil) proved to be the most spectacular measure leading to the stabilization of the structure. Unfortunately, however, this operation generates a side effect in the form of a huge amount of harmful salts, which permeate from the soil into the castle walls, leading to their gradual destruction.
In view of the progressing degradation of the walls in the castle cellars, measures leading to the elimination of the increased level of dampness and the damaging salts in the walls were implemented as of 2012. After works stabilising the level of dampness were carried out, the process of desalination, i.e. removal of salt from the structure of the walls, was undertaken as the subsequent stage – and is currently in progress. Special compresses placed onto the surface of the salinated building are used for the purpose.
The scale of the facility and the complexity of desalination itself resulting from the size and heterogeneity of the semibasement walls enforced the necessity to determine the appropriate scope of the works and assign them individually to each wall in the particular parts of the cellars. In the course of a year, in three stages, the majority of the wall surface was successfully covered with the first compress. The desalination method adopted does not bring about instant results, and the possibility to assess its final effects requires time.

This paper presents a new edition and translation of the contract for the erection of the castle in Kórnik that was concluded in 1426 by and between a chancellor of the Poznań cathedral chapter, Mikołaj z Górki, owner of the Kórnik estate, and a Poznań carpenter Niklos (Nicholas). It is the oldest known document of the history of the first, medieval wooden castle. Written down in Latin, it has survived in the book of the Poznań Consistory. It has a special value as a source of information, but it is also unique from the point of view of diplomatics as the so-called chirograph (a document marked by its characteristic way in which it is written down and its manner of authentication). The contract is not only a first-rate source for research into the history of wooden and defensive architecture in late medieval Poland, but also, in view of the Polish words used to explain Latin terminology in the text, can be considered a memorial to the Polish language of the past. The four German words have a similar value, too.

Co wiemy o kornikach? Sporo, ale wciąż za mało.

Historia ataków kornika w Parku Narodowym Szumawa.

Co człowiek robi w puszczy.

O zdanie w sprawie działań zmierzających do zwalczenia pojawu kornika w Puszczy Białowieskiej poprosiła specjalistów Polska Akademia Nauk. Czy ochrona tego lasu powinna polegać na ingerencji, czyli wycince i wywózce zarażonych drzew?

The subject of this article is the chancellery and archival analysis of the alderman’s and the magistrate’s book for the town of Kórnik from 1580–1607. At present the manuscript is kept at the headquarters of the State Archives in Poznań. Based on appropriately selected literature and information contained in the book, it was possible to carry out an external and internal critique of the source. It needs to be highlighted that the manuscript has only rarely been as a historiographical archival source.

The Kórnik Library is one of the oldest and most valuable establishments in Poland. By creating a library during the Partitions of Poland and collecting valuable old books and manuscripts, Tytus Działyński intended to save and foster Polish culture and traditions for posterity. Heir to Tytus – Jan Działyński – secured and expanded the Library. Having no heir himself, Jan Działyński left the Działyński inheritance to his nephew, Władysław Zamoyski, who continued his grandfather's and uncle's work. Just before his death, Władysław Zamoyski donated the entire inherited property to the Polish nation. In 1924, he established a Foundation meant to supervise the Library, a museum and the Institute of Dendrology. The Zakłady Kórnickie Foundation operated until 1953 when it was taken over by the Polish Academy of Sciences and has remained within its structure until today. The library continues assembling, developing and sharing its collections. The latest technologies have enabled us to provide the library and museum collections to the largest possible number of readers. The collections have been successively digitized and made available on the Digital Platform of the Kórnik Library created as part of the EU project POPC.02.03.01-IP.01-00-002/15 “Digital access to the resources of the Polish Academy of Sciences in the Library”.

This paper discusses Gen. Józef Bem’s activity related to the promotion and improvement of the Polish mnemonic method ( méthode mnémonique polonaise) in France. The manner of teaching chronology – and, over time, also other subjects – announced by Antoni Jaźwiński at the turn of the 1830s, was developed from 1836 by Gen. Bem and his collaborators. The evolution of the system, changes of the name of the method, as well as efforts to popularise it in education, have largely been reconstructed on the basis of materials held by the Kórnik Library. The analyses covered an interesting, mainly hand-written collection Korespondencja gen. J. Bema w sprawie metody tegoż uczenia historii [ Gen. J. Bem’s Correspondence Concerning His Method of Teaching History] and other relevant sources. The research made it possible to verify the findings of Gen. Józef Bem’s biographers concerning his activity in the period 1836–1846. Source analysis also facilitates reflection on the actual significance and impact of Bem’s didactic solutions, which as of 1841 were called méthode mnémonique franco-polonaise.

Between about 1414 and 1592, the castle in Kórnik belonged to the Górka family – representatives of the Polish Crown’s power elite in the Early Modern era. In the third quarter of the 16th century, on the initiative of its then-owner, Count Stanisław Górka, the castle and its surroundings were modernised and extended. This article seeks to reconstruct and interpret the resulting residence complex, with particular focus on the castle, but also the private town, family church and hunting lodge. Some basic questions are asked concerning the new architectural solutions appearing at the time, the provenance of the formal-ideal models, and the author of the modernization design. In the adopted research method, assuming an interdisciplinary approach, the residence is seen as resultant of the investor’s needs and possibilities arising from his social, political and financial position.

Th e article describes two Cyrillic Gospels from the Kórnik Library: BK 11985 and BK 896. It presents the cultural context of their creation, as well as their history, content, illuminations and a short lexical description. Both codices were the result of a cultural and spiritual revival in the Orthodox Church in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Both of them were luxury, professionally made goods; their copyists were experienced specialists. BK 896 represents a higher level of artistry. In view of their lexical characteristics, the manuscripts can be classifi ed as the third so-called Mount Athos-Tyrnovo linguistic redaction of the Gospel.