Baroque Culture and the Polish Historical Consciousness Development

The purpose of article is to study development of the Polish historical consciousness in the 16th century when it gained new lines. Political changes, strengthening of Catholicism and sarmatizm ideology directly influenced this consciousness. The historical consciousness found bright reflection in painting and poetry. Due to the huge interest in the past genealogy became popular. The historiography turns into the main direction of human studies. At the same time nature of historical research changes. Instead of the generalizing works on stories covering all past of the Polish state since the most ancient times the works devoted to the actual problems connected with the present appear. Interest in modern political history becomes the main specifics of historical researches. XVII - the beginning of the 18th centuries became a new, special stage of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth history