W niniejszej monografii przedstawiono przebieg kariery politycznej pisarza i sędziego ziemskiego zatorskiego Jana Pisarzowskiego (1599-1679), pochodzącego się z niewielkich Pisarzowic koło Zatora. Małopolski szlachcic wywodził się z rodziny o średnim statusie majątkowym. Niemniej w ciągu swojej długiej kariery sześciokrotnie pełnił funkcję deputata do Trybunału Koronnego, dwukrotnie posła na sejm, wielokrotnie wybierany był marszałkiem sejmikowym. Tymczasem w polskiej literaturze przedmiotu problematyka awansu społeczno-politycznego członków rodzin średnioszlacheckich była podejmowana w ograniczonym zakresie. W przyczynkowych artykułach, umieszczonych w czasopismach, zbiorach materiałów pokonferencyjnych oraz w Polskim słowniku biograficznym opisywano kariery tylko niektórych przedstawicieli aktywnej szlachty. Wynikało to niewątpliwie z braku materiałów źródłowych. Przypadek Jana Pisarzowskiego jest wyjątkowy, ponieważ w zbiorach Biblioteki Jagiellońskiej w Krakowie oraz innych instytucji zachował się obszerny zbiór źródeł związanych z postacią małopolskiego szlachcica. Pozwoliło to na przedstawienie szeregu okoliczności, które wpłynęły na rozwój kariery Pisarzowskiego, począwszy od uwarunkowań rodzinnych, przez kwestie związane z relacjami z monarchą, problematykę klienteli, czy stosunków z lokalną szlachtą, a skończywszy na czynnikach indywidualnych.

This monograph presents the career of Jan Pisarzowski (1599-1679), a Lesser Poland nobleman from the village of Pisarzowice near Zator. The topic of socio-political advancement among members of mid-dle noble families has only been discussed to a limited extent in Polish literature on the subject. Historians have described the ca-reers of only some members of the nobility in separate publications, most of which were merely contributory articles in magazines, col-lections of post-conference materials, or short entries in the Polish Biographical Dictionary. This undoubtedly stemmed from deficien-cies in the source materials. Polish archives and libraries mainly pre-serve documents related to members of families belonging to the sen-atorial and dignitary elite of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the early modern era.However, in the case of Jan Pisarzowski, an extensive collection of handwritten materials has been preserved to this day, enabling an in-depth study of the methods of pursuing a political career by a Lesser Poland nobleman. The collections of the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow include, among others, genealogical and property sources, a collection of numerous private correspondence, and inventories of villages and movables. A good supplement to the manuscripts is provided by source editions prepared by historians, primarily the sejmik records of the Krakow Voivodeship published by Stanisław Kutrzeba and Adam Przyboś, as well as tax registers from the late 16th and early 17th centuries.The protagonist of the monograph, Jan Pisarzowski, was born in 1599 in Pisarzowice. As a child, he was orphaned by his father, Jan Pisarzowski senior, "komornik graniczny" (court surveyor involved in settling boundary disputes between neighbours) of Oświęcim. Ac-cording to the provisions of the will, his mother Anna and several relatives and friends of the family took care of the boy. The sources lack information whether young Pisarzowski received a university education. Certainly, after coming of age, he managed the family estate in partnership with his brother Andrzej for several years. In 1628, he married Konstancja, the daughter of the Krakow land writer Jan Łukowski, a relative of the Lubomirski family. Thanks to this marriage, Jan gained entry into the nobility connected with one of the most powerful families of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at that time.Pisarzowski began his political activity at the turn of the 1630s. As early as 1627, he attempted to obtain his first land office, but his efforts were unsuccessful. It was only after five years that he received a royal nomination as a Zator writer. He was likely aided in this by the patronage of an influential relative, Mikołaj Porębski, the castel-lan of Zawichost, who supported young Pisarzowski with the then Grand Chancellor of the Crown, Jakub Zadzik.In the 1630s, the Zator sejmik twice elected Jan as its representa-tive in the Crown Tribunal, likely owing to the intervention of the Ru-thenian voivode, Stanisław Lubomirski. Although Pisarzowski served as a deputy four more times, the majority of letters from his corre-spondence originate from the period of his first two terms in the Tri-bunal. It is probable that by then, Jan had already earned a reputation among the Crown nobility and elites as a skilled judge, whose opinions were valued in the trials held before the Crown Tribunal. However, Pisarzowski was not entirely consumed by his activity at the state level. He was an active member of the Zator regional council, which appointed him its marshal over twenty times. Possibly, he utilized his experience in the judiciary to formulate plans for the reform of nobility courts and the Tribunal, which were incorporated into the parliamentary instructions from Zator at the time.As a result of his active political activity, Pisarzowski gained pop-ularity among the local nobility. Several times, King John Casimir appointed him as his envoy to the Zator sejmik and gave him the honorary title of "His Majesty's Secretary." Despite close contacts with Stanisław Lubomirski and his son Jerzy Sebastian, Pisarzowski did not decide to support the latter in his dispute with the king and remained neutral during the rebellion. Even though Pisarzowski's activity decreased from the 1650s, most likely due to his advancing age and recurrent health problems, he did not decide to withdraw from public activity. In 1652-1655, he received a royal nomination for the office of Zator. In the early 1670s, he participated in the Sejm sessions twice. During the election in 1674, the then judge of Zator voted for Jan Sobieski, although the regional council had previously obliged the local nobility to reject the candidacy of a "Piast." Pisarzowski's growing political aspirations were reflected in the careful construction of his public image. In 1646, he purchased the village of Głębowice with a brick manor house from the 16th century. Pisarzowski ordered his new residence to be rebuilt and surrounded by a moat, turning it into a comfortable and impressive residence. The judge from Zator also took care of his personal appearance and dressed in accordance with the latest fashion. He owned a large col-lection of clothes, including żupans, kontuszes, and delias, made of various fabrics and lined with fur. Moreover, he owned numerous pieces of jewellery, mainly gold and silver ornamental buttons stud-ded with precious stones.He owned four farm estates, two in Pisarzowice and two in Głębowice, but they did not bring him much profit. He used the crops chiefly for the needs of his own household while his main income was coming from breeding carp, selling salt, and distributing spirits. The sources lack information about obtaining additional income re-lated to public activities. On the contrary, Pisarzowski repeatedly lent money to members of the local nobility and even members of the elite.The Lesser Poland nobleman died in 1679 at the age of eighty. The events of his rich biography would be enough to satisfy the lives of several publically active noblemen of the time. However, Pisarzowski did not leave any male descendants; his only son, Adam Maksymilian, was killed during the Swedish invasion ("Swedish Deluge"). Therefore, Jan left his estate to his further relatives, the grandchildren of his brother Andrzej. This monograph mainly presents the details of Jan Pisarzowski's public activity and the methods of pursuing his political career. How-ever, the diversity of the preserved sources enabled other aspects of the world of the Lesser Poland activist to be described as well. As a result, it was possible to paint a reliable portrait of a representative of the provincial nobility from the 17th century.