Jan Orzelski (1551–1617), parlamentarzysta i kronikarz

Jan Orzelski was actively involved in the political life of the Republic of the Nobles as a member of a regional assembly, a deputy and next a senator. He recorded the history of his family in the work entitled Annales domus Orzelsciae. It was edited by Adam Tytus Działyński on the basis of a manuscript stored in the Kórnik Library together with a family diary Kopia pobożnej pamięci imci Elżbiety Orzelskiej. Annales… consists of two parts: a comprehensive introduction and a chronicle containing annual entries regarding the most important events in Jan Orzelski’s family in the years 1589–1611 (that period being extended to 1618 by adding the diary Kopia pobożnej pamięci…). Much focus in the first part of the Annales... was placed on Stefan Batory’s military campaigns to conquer Polotsk (1579), Velikiye Luki (1580) and Pskov (1581), in which Jan Orzelski took part as a cavalry captain. The author’s intention, however, was not to describe those military campaigns in detail but to present “only some memorable issues”. The Annales... depicts, first of all, the origins of the “family from Orle”, the history and the characteristics of the family members in the male line. The author included his biography as well.