Renesans w Polsce, „Odrodzenie” to złoty wiek kultury polskiej, to czasy króla Zygmunta I Starego, patrona wielu artystów, który zatrudnił architekta Bartolomeo Berrecci z Florencji, do czasu panowania syna, króla Zygmunta Augusta, następnie do czasów króla Stefana Batorego i kanclerza Jana Zamoyskiego. Wówczas Miasto Zamość zostało zaplanowane na prawach i na wzorach włoskich miast handlowych, słynnej renesansowej koncepcji miasta idealnego „città ideale” w określonej sytuacji.

Philosophers are motivated to do research concerning pattern recognition because of wide range of its applications. One of the pathfi nders of research in that area was Satosi Watanabe, who has been frequently commented in the literature concerning this subject. The rule of decrease in entropy and the rule of simplicity are described in the context of pattern recognition. Although the concept of entropy had been initially used in the area of thermodynamics, it could be adopted also in the fi eld of pattern recognition. The concept of entropy should be then suitable transformed. A few of examples of the entropy concept application and the relationship between entropy and simplicity are discussed in the article. Simplicity considered by Watanabe should be treated mainly as polynomial curve simplicity, however the issue is described in the wider context.

The author analyses onymic practices of Poznań–based craftsmen forming guilds. In the names of the inhabitants of Poznań, which stabilised until the end of the 18th century, she seeks traces of the so-called cognomens, i.e. secondary personal designations granted to apprentices who were becoming masters. The names resulted from community acts of creation, which were of ludic nature. Referring to German onymic practices and pointing to the so-called Schleifnamen, the author discusses specific codes of European middle-class culture. She focuses on the transfer of models and patterns to Polish urban communities.

This article concerns the mutual expanding and enriching influence of the social history and historical demographics research issues, visible in popular historiography, at least since the end of the 20th century. The author uses selected achievements of international historiography as a backdrop for a presentation of the main achievements of Polish historical demographers, who conducted modern studies into the forms and living patterns in the territory of Poland ranging from the late mediaeval times up to the 20th century, on a larger scale than ever in the past. The article highlights the presence of new sociocultural and demographic issues such as areas of solitary females, location and significance of the elderly, occurrence of the life cycle servants phenomenon in the Old-Polish society.

Cwaniary (Female Wanglers) is not only a metatextual novel with numerous references to popular culture, but above all an important contribution to the discussion about the place and role of women in contemporary society. The author breaks with the nineteenth-century image of matka Polka, the Polish Mother, whose existence is confined to family and home. The creations and actions of the female wanglers in Cwaniary, outsiders who defy popular stereotypes by pursuing outré lifestyles, are underpinned with allusions to a nascent rebellion against patriarchy, systemic suppression of women's rights, and the resulting marginalization of women in society. Unfortunately, Poles still have great problems with openness to other cultures, nations, and non-heteronormative sexual orientations. The Poles, it seems, are caught between an irrational fear of disintegration of the structures of their relatively homogeneous society and the need to move on and reinvent themselves as the 'modern subjects' of critical theory. It is a choice between holding on to an anachronistic model of Polish culture founded on suppression or catching up with the 21st-century world of openness, diversity and multiculturalism.

Standard shipping documents such as bills of lading, charter parties, ship management contracts or cargo declarations are prepared to facilitate international maritime traffic. Their application improves the process of determining the content of various types of contracts, which is important in view of the increasing pace of economic turnover. The Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) plays a leading role in the development of such documents. The shipping documents it creates, as well as individual contractual clauses, are widely used in global shipping. BIMCO's activity, including its contribution to the creation of rules, general terms and standard contracts for international trade, is fundamental, and BIMCO itself can be considered the most important international maritime non-governmental organization in this respect.