Concerning the Contracts for Art Commissions of the Dominicans of Lvov in the Early Modern Period (i7th-i8th c.)

For many years, the publishing of archival materials has been an important and recurring research objective, of vital importance both for historians and art historians. This is eąually relevant to the research on the history, art history and culture of the eastern lands of the former Commonwealth of the Two Nations in the early modern era, which experienced intensive development in the past few years. The present publication of archival materials presents selected contracts for art commissions concluded by the Dominicans of Lvov in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, that is, documents of paramount importance for the research on old Lvov and the former Ruthenian voivodeship. The Archiye of the Dominican Order in Cracow preserves a coT lection of extremely interesting and hitherto unpublished materials (ref. no. Tw 437), in the catalogue described generically as documents related to the renovation and refurbishment of the Corpus Christi Church in Tvov, with a scope extending from medieval times to the twentieth century. It includes also loose documents, moved here from other collections, of contracts concluded by the authorities of the Order for artistic commissions related to the Tvov Corpus Christi friary in the second half of the seventeenth and in the eighteenth century. The present publication concentrates above all on highly interesting contracts, important especially for our understanding of the local art of the period, concluded between the Dominicans and the following artists: Sebastian Fesinger, Maciej Muller, Kasper Kolert, Krzysztof Rakowski, Wawrzyniec Sokołowski, Jan Gertner, Jan Filipowicz, Klemens Ksawery Fesinger, Franciszek Olędzki and Marcin Urbanik, among