Jan Ptaśnik (1876 – 1930) was a Polish historian of medieval and urban history. His work focused heavily on documenting Italian influence in Poland.Krzyzanowski, J. (1930). Jan Ptaśnik. The Slavonic and East European Review, 9(25), 222–223.
Biography Ptaśnik was born into the peasantry in 1876 near Bochnia. According to historian writing in the Polish Biographical Dictionary, the initial expectation for Ptaśnik was the priesthood. However, Ptaśnik received his education at the gymnasium in Bochnia and at Jagiellonian University, receiving a doctoral degree from the latter in 1903. Ptaśnik then went to Rome to study art, archeology, and diplomatic history. He was made associate professor at Jagiellonian University in 1919. In the 1920s, he became a dean at the University of Lviv.Wiesław Bieńkowski, Ptaśnik Jan, [in:] Polish Biographical Dictionary, vol. XXIX, Wrocław–Warsaw–Kraków–Gdańsk–Łódź 1986.
During his career, Ptaśnik authored multiple books and edited the Monumenta Poloniae Vaticana from 1913.Bajer, P. P. (2012). Scots in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 16th to 18th Centuries: The Formation and Disappearance of an Ethnic Group. Netherlands: Brill. p. xxii. .
Ptaśnik died in 1930 after a surgical operation.
Works (1922) Kultura włoska wieków średnich w Polsce, trans. The Italian Medieval Civilization in Poland (1925) The Religious Life
Legacy Professor Jaroslav Miller considers Ptaśnik to be a pioneer in the field of urban history.Miller, J. (2016). Urban Societies in East-Central Europe, 1500–1700. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. p. 197. .
Historian Meir Balaban critiqued Ptaśnik's portrayal of Jews in Poland.Aleksiun, N. (2021). Conscious History: Polish Jewish Historians Before the Holocaust. United Kingdom: Liverpool University Press. .
References