Polish queen Marie Casimire Sobieska, French by birth, left the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth after the death of her husband king John III and settled in Rome in 1699. Supported by her son, Prince Aleksander Sobieski, the queen dowager created at her Roman residence in Palazzo Zuccari one of Rome's most important opera theatres. She used music and drama to uphold her social status and political plans, satisfy her aesthetic needs, and provide entertainment for the granddaughter under her care, along with her ever more ailing son. This is the first monograph about Sobieska's music patronage....

The book presents a collection of articles authored by several members of the Warsaw School of Political Theory, affiliated with the University of Warsaw. The team of scholars, whose roots extend to the 1970s when professor Artur Bodnar founded the Political Theory Research Group at University of Warsaw's Methodical Centre for Political Science (COM SNP), has been conducting research under the leadership of professor Miros(3)aw Karwat. The school's most distinguishing features include: the acceptance of the directives and principles of methodological holism, the acceptance and creative...