Studies on Late Medieval Gda?sk (Variorum Collected Studies)

Studies on Late Medieval Gdańsk discusses Gdańsk (Danzig), a city whose governing authorities changed in the 15th century, with Polish kings replacing the Teutonic Knights. Located on the Baltic Sea, the town was home to around twenty to thirty thousand people, many of whom made their living working at sea. The world of wealthy patricians intertwined with that of ordinary residents of Gdańsk. Sometimes conflicts and rivalries arose with close neighbours from Royal Prussia or distant ones from Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Devoted to various aspects of maritime life – including navigation, shipbuilding, disasters, and pirate attacks – the chapters in this book discuss issues such as the import of multiple goods and luxury items. They also analyze the fates of individual Gdańsk skippers sailing to England, Spain, and even Iceland. Other protagonists are nobles, mayors and magistrates, and they are also women who tried to influence the reality around them despite legal restrictions.

This book will appeal to students and scholars alike interested in the social and maritime history of Gdańsk.

Beata Możejko is Professor of History at the University of Gdańsk, specialising in medieval history and the auxiliary sciences of history. She is the author of over 170 papers, articles, and monographs, including Peter von Danzig. The story of Great Caravel 1462–1475 (2020), and the editor or co-editor of several books, including (with Anna Paulina Orłowska and Leslie Carr-Riegel) Networking in Late Medieval Central Europe: Friends, Families, Foes (2023). She is a member of the Bureau of the Committee on Historical Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences (2020–2023 and 2024–2027) and of the Committee of Gdańska Encyklopedia (Gedanopedia).