On the occasion of the city's 600th birthday, the Lodz University Press is publishing the first volume of the monograph "Łódź poprzez wieki. Historia miasta" telling the history of Lodz from the earliest times to 1820, when it was still a small agricultural town.
It also describes the past of the settlements, which used to be separate villages and are now within the city borders. Today, only the names of individual parts of the city, housing estates or streets remind of them. The authors, who used many hitherto unexamined sources, not only put the researchers' findings in order, but also reveal many new facts.
This publication allows the reader to learn about the administrative and economic past of the city. It shows the everyday life of its inhabitants in the Old Polish and pre-modern period. The main text is supplemented with capsules containing fragments of valuable sources, biographies and curiosities as well as illustrations. This is a book about Lodz before it became the "promised land".
Prof. Jarosław Kita from the Institute of History of the University of Lodz for the Polish Press Agency (PAP):
The monograph contains a lot of new findings. Let us remember that from the first research on the period of old Lodz, the so-called agriculture Lodz, several decades have passed. During this time science has moved forward; we have access to new documents, there are often slightly different interpretations of already known texts, and knowledge about Lodz before 1820 is now much broader.
The guests of the meeting will include Prof. Tadeusz Grabarczyk (editor of this issue) and Prof. Jarosław Kita (the series editor).
The meeting will be hosted by Ryszard Bonisławski.
The meeting will take place in the garden if the weather allows. In case of bad weather, we invite you to the Mirror Room.
The event will be accompanied by an exhibition inspired by the book on the premises of the Manufaktura.
The next volume will be released in the autumn. More than 100 specialists from various fields of knowledge are involved in the project, including history, archaeology, ethnology, art history and philology. This is the first complete history of Lodz from the earliest times to the present day.
The project partners include:
University of Lodz
City Library in Lodz
The State Archive in Lodz
Museum of Independence Traditions
Museum of the City of Lodz