Court, village and vicarage in the west Lesser Poland at the end of the 18th and at the beginning of the 19th century in the light of the newest research

Abstract

In the article initial results of research conducted within the research project “Court, village and vicarage in the social space of the west Lesser Poland in years 1772-1815” have been presented. It appears that studies done on the basis of sources produces in the conditions of the legal and political system of the First Republic of Poland, of the Austrian and Prussian annexed territories as well as the Duchy of Warsaw are surprisingly good. Most of all it was a very good idea to compare and confront sources of various origin e.g. old-Polish area inventories with Austrian tax and urban records. Thanks to that the image of countryside relations at the era of the Fall of the Polish state may be presented in a new and at the same time more complete light. It should be added that this picture seems to be totally different from the one that was popularized in the 50s and 60s of the 20th century when the thesis about the class battle in the countryside was attempted to be promoted.