This book provides a fresh perspective of the history and legacy of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, as well as the often-disputed memory of it in contemporary European for historians, political scientists, cultural anthropologists and other scholars of the history of Central and Eastern Europe in the Early Modern period.

Introduction 1. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: History-Legacy-Memory Part I: The Beginnings of Poland-Lithuania 2. The Principles of Ancient Rzeczpospolita Formation: The Medieval Ruthenian Dimension 3. Words for Images: On Perceptions of 'Greek Manner' in Lithuania and Poland 4. Religious Tolerance and Intolerance in Vilnius in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries Part II: The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 5. "A Free and Feudal Government:" Civic Republican Mentalities in the Cities of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 6. Electing Kings With All Manner of Freedom: The Polish-Lithuanian Elective Monarchy in Context 7. Cases of the Expulsion of Jews From the Towns of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: Strategies of the Burghers and the Jews 8. Tolerance as a Non-Topic: Cooperation on Behalf of the Town Between Catholics, Jews and Protestants in Early Modern Rzeszów 9. The Medical Science Heritage of French Physicians in Lithuania in the Last Quarter of the Eighteenth Century: Jean-Emmanuel Gilibert, Nicolas Regnier and Jacques Briotet 10. Discourses of Tolerance and Intolerance at the Four Years' Sejm (1788-1792) Part III: Legacy and Memory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 11. The Frames of Reference of an Eighteenth-Century Jewish Galician Merchant (Based on the Writings of Dov Ber Birkenthal) 12. The Rights and Privileges of the Polish-Lithuanian Nobility: A Benchmark for the Russian Empire's Legislation of the Latter Half of the Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Century? 13. France Facing the Independence of Poland: New Historiographical Approaches 14. The French Position on the Polish Cause in 1918: Historical Borders and Principle of Nationalities 15. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Politics of Memory in Belarus 16. Organizing the Past: The Policy of the Soviet Authorities Towards the Museums in Lviv, 1939-1941