Professor Darius von Güttner Sporzyński
FRHistS FRSA

Campus Dean, Canberra Campus

Darius von Güttner Sporzyński

Areas of expertise: East Central Europe; Jagiellon Dynasty; Christianisation; medieval history; sejm; Poland; queenship; queens consorts; crusades; Hospitallers; histories of trade and consumption

HDR Supervisor accreditation status: Provisional

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1342-8167

Phone: +61 2 6209 1110

Email: darius.vonguttner@acu.edu.au

Location: ACU Canberra Campus

Darius von Güttner Sporzyński is a historian of Central Europe with a particular interest in cultural aspects of transmission of ideas and identity.

Darius is the General Editor of Brepols' series "East Central Europe". His publications cover diverse aspects of history from the Middle Ages to early modern and the modern eras. Darius' book Poland, Holy War and the Piast Dynasty (Brepols, 2014) examined the transmission of the idea of Christian holy war to and from the European periphery and challenged established historiographical position that the Poles did not participate in sacred warfare because of their "aversion to the use of violence in the matters of faith."

In numerous publications on the aspects of crusades and crusading Darius analysed medieval Polish chronicles and the impact of chronicle writing on constructing Polish history; for example he edited Writing History in Medieval Poland (Brepols, 2017) More recently Darius' interests expanded to include gendered responses to, and identify performances by, elite women, including a key Early Modern figure, Bona Sforza d'Aragona (1494-1557), Queen consort of Poland and her land management reforms in Lithuania.

He is currently editing two collections of essays for Brepols Publishers: "Jagiellon Europe - Central Europe", examining the early modern dynastic networks of power and gender politics, and "The Jagiellon Queens Consort: Queenship, Role and Impact", examining cultural, familial, religious, and political aspects of women's exercise of power.

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Select publications

Books

Journal articles

  • "Contextualising the marriage of Bona Sforza to Sigismund I of Poland: Maximilian I's diplomacy in Italy and Central Europe," Folia Historica Cracoviensia 2 (2021): 69-90.
  • "The Chronica Polonorum by Bishop Vincentius of Cracow. Preliminary remarks about its historical context, violence and its use," Quaestiones Medii Aevi Novae 26 (2021): 79-90.
  • "Communicating God's war. Accounts of holy war in the Polish medieval narrative sources," Ordines Militares 26 (2021): 43-62.
  • "The life and career of a Knight of Malta in the age of secularisation: Michele Enrico Sagramoso (1720-1791). The Order of Malta and the First Partition of Poland," Ordines Militares, 24 (2019), pp. 301-329.
  • "Bishop Vincentius of Cracow and Chronica Polonorum," Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association 12 (2016): 69-87.
  • "The French revolution and Europe: its echoes, its influence, its impact," Agora, 51.1 (2016): 34-42.
  • "Constructing memory: holy war in the Chronicle of the Poles by Bishop Vincentius of Cracow," Journal of Medieval History 40 (2014): 201-232.
  • "Evolution and adaptation: The Order of Saint John in war and peace," Ordines Militares 18 (2013): 205-217.
  • "Czechy a przenikanie idei krucjatowych do Polski," in Historia Slavorum Occidentis 2 (2012): 91-102.

Book chapters

  • "The Periphery of Europe and the Idea of Crusade: Adaptation and Evolution of Crusader Ideology in Poland under the Piast Dynasty (1100-47)" in Crusading and the Crusader Movement in the Peripheries of the Christian West 1100-1500, eds N. Kersken and P. Srodecki, Turnhout: Brepols, 2022, pp. 69-88.
  • "The conquest of Pomerania according to the anonymous author of the Gesta principum Polonorum of Pomerania in the Polish medieval historiography" in Europe reaches the Baltic Poland and Pomerania in the Shaping of European Civilization (10th-12th Centuries), ed S. Rosik, Wrocław: Uniwersytet Wrocławski 2020, pp. 394-402
  • "The End of the Crusader State in Prussia, 1525" in Fighting for the Faith: The Many Crusades, ed K. V. Jensen, Stockholm: Stockholm University, 2018, pp. 331-359.
  • "Chrzest pogan-chrzest Polski. Konwersja ludów pogańskich a rozwój idei wojny świętej." in Chrystianizacja Polski, eds J. Dobosz, J. Strzelczyk and M. Matla, Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2017, pp. 163-181.
  • "Bishop Vincentius of Cracow and his Chronica Polonorum," in Writing History in Medieval Poland. Bishop Vincentius of Cracow', ed. D. von Güttner Sporzyński, Turnhout: Brepols, 2017, pp. 1-17.
  • "Historical writing (or the manufacture of memory)" in Remembering the Crusades and Crusading, ed. M. Cassidy-Welch, London: Routledge, 2016, pp. 95-113.
  • "Od misji do wojny świętej i krucjaty. Chrzest pogan w kręgu środkowoeuropejskim," in Chrystianizacja Młodszej Europy, eds J. Dobosz, J. Strzelczyk and M. Matla, Poznań: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2016, pp. 201-219.
  • "Holy War and Proto-Crusading: Twelfth Century Justifications for the Campaigns against the Pomeranians and Prussians" in Crusading on the Edge: Ideas and Practice of Crusading in Iberia and the Baltic Region, 1100-1500, eds T. K. Nielsen and I. Fonnesberg-Schmidt. Turnhout: Brepols, 2016, pp. 225-244.
  • "Northern Crusades: Between Holy War and Mission," in The Crusader World, ed. A. Boas, London: Routledge, 2015, pp. 144-162.
  • "Constructing memory. Holy war in the Chronicle of the Poles by Bishop Vincentius of Cracow," in Crusades and Memory, eds M. Cassidy-Welch and A. Lester. London: Taylor and Francis, 2015, pp. 135-149.
  • "Poland and the Second Crusade," in The Second Crusade in Perspective, II: Eastern Europe and the March towards the Holy Land, eds J. T. Roche and J. M. Jensen. Turnhout: Brepols, 2015, pp. 115-154

Textbooks and VCE Study Guides

  • [together with Ian Lyell] "French Revolution Study and Exam Guide", 2nd Edition, History teachers' Association of Victoria: Melbourne, 2022.
  • [together with Ian Lyell] "French Revolution Study and Exam Guide", 2nd Edition, History teachers' Association of Victoria: Melbourne, 2018.

Projects

  • ARC Discovery Project, "A History of Early Modern Natural Resource Management" led by Susan Broomhall: This project aims to analyse how early modern Europeans managed two key assets, water and forests. It expects to generate detailed knowledge of their practices and mindsets that still shape present responses to environmental challenges.
  • Bishop Vincentius of Cracow (Wincenty Kadłubek) and the Chronica Polonorum: This project aims to examine the impact of the Chronica Polonorum on history writing in Poland.
  • Bona Sforza: This project investigates the under-researched activities of Bona Sforza during the period when she was the queen consort of Poland (1518-1548).

Editorial roles

  • Series editor: "East Central Europe, c. 476-1795" published by Brepols Publishers.
  • Editorial Board: "Christianity and Conversion in Scandinavia and the Baltic Region, c. 800-1600" published by Peter Lang.
  • Editorial Board: Historia Slavorum Occidentis
  • Editorial Board: Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association
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