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SHORT NOTES

Even though interest in funeral sermons has been growing for years, Polish research on this subject still lags behind the studies conducted, for instance, on British, Frcnch and German funeral sermons. This solidly prepared edition, eąuipped with a critical apparatus and an extensive introduction, is therefore most welcome. (MP)

Ryszard Szmydki, Artystyczno-dyplomatyczne kontakty Zygmunta III Wazy z Niderlandami Południowymi [Sigismund III Vasa’s Artistic and Diplomatic Contacts with the Southern Netherlands], Lublin 2008, Wydawnictwo Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego, 350 pp., 33 ills., appendix of sources, bibl., indexes, sum. in English

Ryszrad Szmydki’s interesting study discusses the contacts between the king Sigismund III, the first king of the Swedish Vasa dynasty, and the Southern Netherlands in 1598-1632, that is, between the death of the king's first wife, Anna, and the death of the king. The memoriał ceremonies organized in Brus-sels after the death of Anna, who came from the Habsburg family, provided an opportunity for enlivening contacts with the artists of the Netherlands. These contacts had a long tradition which is described in the first part of the book. In the next three parts the author discusses Sigismund’s patronage of the arts, the reasons why the king ordered paintings, his collections and his building investments. According to the author, the facts he has established make it pos-sible to compare Sigismund Vasa’s collection with the collection of Rudolf II, for il included works by Peter Paul Rubens, Johann Brueghel, Anton van Dyck, Jacob Jordanes and Pieter Claesz Soutman.

The facts and works discussed by the author are not, of course, unknown and have already been analyzed by Jan Białostocki, Juliusz Chrościcki, Jerzy Lileyko and Adam Milobędzki. But thanks to his research in the archives of Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, The Hague, Leiden and Lille, Szmydki has been able to present new conclusions and make the known facts morę precisc. (MP)

Mariusz Drozdowski, Religia i kozaczyzna zaporoska w Rzeczypospolitej w pierwszej połowie XVII wieku [Religion and the Cossacks of Zaporozhe in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the First Half of the 17th Century], Warszawa 2008, DiG, 268 pp., bibl., appendix, index of persons

Mariusz Drozdowski discusses the religiousness of the Cossacks of Zaporozhe after the Union of Brest which was to unitę the Orthodox Church with Catholi-cism. The Cossacks, most of whom were of the Orthodox faith, came out against the Union, like the majority of their co-religionists. The author presents changes in the religiousness of this military community in four chapters. In the first, he deals with the fate of the Cossacks after the Union of Brest (1596). In the second chapter, he discusses the Cossacks' aspirations to secure the regulation by the