„Pisma wszelakie ostrożnie do druku podawane być mają”. Zagadnienie cenzury ksiąg podejmowanej na sejmikach ziemskich w XVI i XVII w. Zarys problematyki

Abstract

The issue of censorship of books, as well as any other writings, was already submitted to the deliberations of sejmiks and land sejmiks in the 16ᵗʰ century, and initially largely concerned the evaluation of historical works then appearing in print. In the centuries that followed, matters related to books, especially their content, were addressed at sejm and sejmiks in the parliamentary instructions passed there. This included the permission granted to printers (privileges) or lack thereof for the publication of certain titles, as well as the authors of works. Adopted sejm (sejmik) instructions for deputies, as well as entries in sejm diaries, did not have the force of law. It is worth noting that the sejm instructions passed at the time, concerning, among other things, the censorship of books, indicated the already growing state of national and social consciousness. It was also manifested in the incessant demands of the nobility expressed at sejmiks regarding the printing of books in Polish, and one of the earliest resolutions on this issue was the demands presented by the nobility of Greater Poland in 1534 at the sejmik in Środa. [Translated by Stefan Kubiak]