The Sensus Historiae journal publishes academic articles in the field of historical sciences and interdisciplinary articles reflecting on the historical experience of societies. The aim of the journal, as expressed in its title, is to study the transformations of historical consciousness, memory, and historical culture of societies from the modern era to the present day, i.e., during the broadly understood modern period to the present day. We are interested in the processes of transformation of these historical phenomena within nation states, as well as the mutual perception of societies that are both neighboring and distant in time and space. The mission of the journal is to interpret national histories within a network of connections, mutual influences, and parallels (this involves interpretative strategies such as those indicated by the terms connected history, Beziehungsgeschichte, histoire croisée, etc.) with varying spatial scope, from the Central European context, through the European context, to connections between regions on a global scale. We invite researchers interested in issues related to historical consciousness, historical culture, political thought and culture, the history of ideas, cultural history, historical education, historical sociology, historical memory, the history of historical identities, history teaching, historical theory and methodology, the history of historiography, etc. to publish their work in our journal. Together with our authors, we reflect on how individuals and historical communities articulated their historical experience and how they perceived each other as agents of history. Archival volumes of the journal can be found at: https://www.sensushistoriae.epigram.eu The journal does not charge any fees for article submission, review process and article publication. ABOUT THE JOURNAL CURRENT ISSUE ARCHIVE INDEXED IN: JOURNAL METRICS: Ministry of Science and Higher Education (2024): 40 DOI: 10.14746/sh ISSN: 2082-0860 PUBLISHED WORK ARE LICENSED UNDER A CREATIVE COMMONS: From vol. 55/2 (2024- ): Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International DATA ARCHIVING The PRESSto platform digitally preserves the content of this journal using the PKP Preservation Network (PKP PN), which provides digital long-term preservation of data and secured access to the content of the journal. The journal Sensus Historiae" complies with the I40C standards for open citations. PUBLISHER Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań Faculty of History
The World of the Ladies’ Court in the Modern Era - Introduction
Research on women’s courts - and, by extension, on the standard of living of the magnates and nobility - has a long tradition, yet it continues to spark interest, and many issues require in-depth study and verification of established facts. The articles collected in this issue of "Sensus Historiae" constitute an important contribution to research on the history and role of women’s courts and their patronesses in the early modern era.
Copyright (c) 2026 Bożena Popiołek, Agnieszka Jakuboszczak https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Ceremonial and the Representation of Female Queenship between Exception and Everyday Life
The wedding journey of Marie Louise Gonzaga Nevers from France to Poland, undertaken between November 1645 and March 1646, represents one of the most complex and significant episodes in seventeenth century European political culture and provides a privileged observatory for analysing the ways in which female queenship is constructed and represented between the exceptional dimension and everyday practices of power.
Copyright (c) 2026 Francesca De Caprio https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The Rzewuski Ladies’ Domestic and Foreign Travels Throughout the 18th Century. Various Aspects of the Mobile Everyday Life of Aristocratic Women
In the 18th century, the magnate family of Rzewuski gained significant political influence in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Travel was one of the indicators of the status of Polish and Lithuanian magnates. The women of the Rzewuski family, following the example of the men, led a mobile lifestyle. They traveled between their estates and manors. They accompanied their husbands on their way to the sejm (Warsaw or Grodno). They visited family and neighbors. More and more often, they also went on trips abroad. These were mainly sightseeing trips around Europe (grand tours) and spa trips to famous mineral water resorts. The women who traveled most frequently around the country and Europe were: Anna Rzewuska née Lubomirska, Konstancja Rzewuska née Lubomirska, wife of Seweryn, and Ludwika Pelagia Rzewuska née Potocka. The everyday life of the women in the Rzewuski family can be studied through historical sources such as letters, diaries, parenting instructions, expense records (e.g., lists of purchased items), passports, and lists of spa guests. These sources show both everyday life at home (women as caring mothers, daughters, and wives) and on the road (fashionable magnates participating in the social and cultural life of 18th-century Europe).
Copyright (c) 2026 Adam Kucharski https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
An Amateur on a Journey: On the Artistic Work of Polish Women Travelling in Italy during the Stanisław Era and in the Early Decades of the 19th Century
The article explores the artistic activities of Polish women who travelled through Italy during the reign of Stanisław August and in the first decades of the nineteenth century, interpreting it as a form of leisure that integrated education, self-fashioning strengthened through conscious engagement with the artistic culture of contemporary Europe. Artistic practice undertaken while traveling was not merely an incidental aspect of the journey; rather, it was a deliberate, carefully conceived, and consistently pursued endeavour. It aligned both with prevailing models of female education and with the broader processes of self-cultivation embraced by mature women travellers. Drawing on selected examples, the author argues that during their stays in Italy women operated in multiple capacities: as students, as organizers of educational initiatives, and as creators. They acquainted themselves with a variety of artistic techniques, established relationships with practicing artists, and often refined skills under their professional guaidance. A journey to Italy provided an opportunity to develop individual creative competencies, strengthened through intensive contact with the artistic culture of the places visited.
Copyright (c) 2026 Katarzyna Jagiełło-Jakubaszek https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
"Rumours are Circulating Here at Court…" News from European Courts in Polish-Language Handwritten Newspapers, as Reflected in the Subscriptions of Elżbieta Sieniawska (née Lubomirska), Castellan of Kraków (d. 1729)
The article examines Polish‑language manuscript newspapers subscribed by Elżbieta Sieniawska (d. 1729) in order to reconstruct contemporary images of European courts at the turn of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Local editors and information agents collected and translated material from foreign gazettes, thereby constructing images of foreign courts that were often simplified, stereotyped or overtly propagandistic. These portrayals nonetheless exerted a tangible influence on the political awareness, cultural tastes and imitative aspirations of the noble readership. In this sense, manuscript press emerges in the article as a crucial medium - a kind of ‘fourth estate’ - in mediating the Polish public’s perception of European political realities and the web of relations between the ruling houses.
Copyright (c) 2026 Monika Łękawska https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
A Portrait of the Life of Lidmila Teresa Clary-Aldringen (1641–76) as described in Her Husband’s Diary from [1671] 1675–76
The main focus of this article is an examination of the daily life of a noblewoman, as described in the diary of a Baroque-era nobleman, Jan Marek Jiří Clary-Aldringen (1638-1700). The information contained therein relates to the most significant events in the daily life of Lidmila Terezie Clary-Aldringen (1641–76). In his diary, Jan Marek Jiří primarily describes his wife’s serious illness and death. This article presents, for the first time, information about a previously unknown fragment of Jan Marek Jiří Clary-Aldringen’s diary from the years 1671–76.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jiří Wolf https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Urszula von Altenbockum (Lubomirska) – Favorite of Augustus II the Strong and Owner of the Palace in Neschwitz
The first official Polish mistress of Augustus II the Strong was Urszula von Altenbockum, wife of Jerzy Dominik Lubomirski. The magnate gained an important position in court circles, engaging in politics, participating in ceremonies, and serving as one of the king’s trusted advisors. This article presents themes related to the duchess’s life and her residences – Hoyerswerda Castle, a palace in Friedrichstadt (currently a district of Dresden), and the residential complex in Neschwitz. In the latter, a summer palace designed by Johann Friedrich Karcher was built, along with pavilions and a French-style garden, enriched with high-quality sculptures. The effects of the transformations introduced during Urszula von Altenbockum’s reign were documented in estate inventories.
Copyright (c) 2026 Alina Barczyk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
The Role of Gifts and Purchases in Shaping the Epistolary Expression of Emotions in the Letters of Konstancja Czapska née Gnińska, Wife of the Pomeranian Voivode
Based on an extensive collection of letters of the Pomeranian Voivode’s wife Konstancja Czapska, the widow of Piotr Jan Czapski (1685–1736), addressed mainly to her daughter Magdalena and Magdalena’s husband Duke Hieronim Florian Radziwiłł, written in the 1740s and 1750s, the article is to illustrate the role which everyday objects sent between them – such as treats, items of clothing, but also valuables in the form of fine jewellery – played in the formation of an emotional bond at a distance. The sources under examination allow us to sketch a picture of the material needs and tastes characteristic of the House of Wettin period, but above all to show how writing about this sphere of life contributed to the enrichment of the epistolary style. Family-oriented language, centred on the minutiae of everyday life, served as a powerful means of expressing emotions. The analysis also demonstrates the letter writer’s use of references to motifs drawn from literature and culture, which allowed her to imbue the items she sent with additional, often metaphorical meaning.
Copyright (c) 2026 Iwona Maciejewska https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
New Images of Maria Clementina Sobieska Stuart in Rome
This study presents a group of previously unpublished representations of the Polish noblewoman and Queen of Great Britain, Maria Clementina Sobieska. Together with her consort, James III Stuart, she spent her brief life in Rome, where significant material testifying to her presence is still preserved. Among these are her funerary monument in St Peter’s Basilica, depictions of her elaborate funeral ceremonies, as well as official prints and paintings portraying her in her royal capacity. In the 2025 exhibition held at the Capitoline Museums, dedicated to the presence of the Sobieski family in the Eternal City, the section on Maria Clementina featured two paintings depicting her in devout guise, together with her remarkable plaster bust painted to resemble bronze - thus far a unique example. Considered collectively, these three works enrich and nuance the image of a young woman who, despite the adversities she faced and the public role she was compelled to assume, consistently remained true to herself.
Copyright (c) 2026 Francesca Ceci https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
‘For Her Ladyship.’ The Enlightenment, Fasting and Dietary Practices in the Menu of an Aristocratic Lady from 1771 to 1780
The article examines food consumption, in particular fasting practices, at the court of Joanna Lubomirska, drawing on a unique collection of menus from 1771–80. The source includes menus for nearly 170 days, as well as several additional menus from 1778, allowing an analysis of recurring patterns rather than isolated examples. The author treats menus as a record of the cultural construction of meals, in which dietary norms, religious rules, and social hierarchies become visible. The discussion situates the material within the eighteenth-century context of the reception of French culinary models, the globalisation of food, and, above all, the liberalisation of Catholic fasting. The analysis shows that fasting in the duchess’s own menus is weakly marked or merely symbolic. Fasting is more clearly visible in the menus for the ‘second table’ and for the ‘young ladies,’ sometimes even in a strict form that also forbade the consumption of dairy products. In practice, parallel versions of meals appear - ‘with fasting,’ ‘with butter,’ and ‘with meat’ - which reveals both the differentiation and the negotiation of norms. The article emphasises the social dimension of fasting and its links to status, lifestyle, and the Enlightenment culture.
Copyright (c) 2026 Jarosław Dumanowski https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0