Zmarnowana szansa. O nowym-starym wydaniu dzieł Świętosława Orzelskiego

Abstract

A wasted opportunity. On the new-old edition of Świętosław Orzelski’s works Between 2019 and 2022, Włodzimierz Kaczorowski, a historian affiliated with Opole University, published a total of five volumes (with one volume being published twice) containing the works of Świętosław Orzelski, a sixteenth-century Polish parliamentarian, orator, and chronicler. It is, in fact, a reissue of the translations of these works made and published by Włodzimierz Spasowicz almost one hundred and seventy years ago with the addition of scholarly enhancements. Kaczorowski enriched the volumes with introductory notes, afterwords, extensive footnotes, and indexes. The article is a critical analysis of the result achieved, pointing out numerous errors, misrepresentations, and raising questions about the advisability of “revitalisation” of an outdated translation. The reviewer justifies the concern that issuing a source publication in such a form can do more harm than good to research on the history of Poland in the sixteenth century.