How to use

Using Respublica is simple: choose your channel, type your question and send it on its way. From that moment your message travels — with a certain wink of the eye — through the intertemporal portal to our researchers, who search the old court books, registers and source records.

An answer may appear after a few dozen minutes, but sometimes preparing it takes longer. After all, delivering a letter across several centuries is not an express service. So please be patient — our scribes, algorithms and the spirits of the archives work best when no one is rushing them.

The most important rule

Treat every question as a separate matter. Do not refer to previous questions or answers, because the system does not hold a classic step-by-step conversation. Instead of writing “add more about this case”, it is better to formulate a complete, self-contained question right away.

In other words: every message should contain all the context needed to prepare an answer. The more precisely you ask, the greater the chance that the researchers on the other side of time will come back with something truly interesting.

Very important: check the sources

Respublica works on source data and transcriptions prepared in part using artificial-intelligence models. This means that both the transcription of an old document and the system's later answer may contain errors.

AI models tend to so-called hallucination, that is, producing records, readings or interpretations that sound plausible but need not follow directly from the source. This risk grows especially when the original text is barely legible, damaged, written in a careless hand, or contains abbreviations, archaisms, chancery Latin or hard-to-recognise surnames and place names.

Therefore every answer should be treated as a scientifically useful starting point for further work, not as a final ruling. The system indicates the specific sources on which it based the answer — and it is precisely those sources that should be the basis for verification.

For research, genealogical, publishing or any work requiring high certainty, you should always compare the answer with the source materials provided by the system. Respublica helps find leads, organise material and speed up enquiry, but it does not replace the critical analysis of a source.

Examples of good questions

You can ask about people, families, localities, prices, conflicts, court disputes, estates, crimes, customs, or specific books and eras.

• Tell me about the history of the Lanckoroński family.
• Describe the case of the raid on the Roszkowski estate in the 17th century.
• Who was Andrzej Batory and what court cases was he entangled in?
• On average, how much might an ox have cost in Kraków between 1600 and 1650?
• Write an article on the most interesting court disputes in the Warsaw books — about 500 words.
• Find examples of cases concerning debts, pledges and sureties in the 17th century.
• Describe the property conflicts that appear in the Kraków castle-court books.

Questions of this kind are best avoided

Some questions are too general, too short, or refer to context the system does not know. The answer may then be random, thin, or — in the language of the old records — not worth entering into the book.

• Read my previous letter and add details to the case.
• Write more about it.
• qwertyuiop?
• What is the meaning of life?
• Who was Jan?

How to ask best?

A good question should be specific. It is worth giving a surname, a locality, a period, a type of case or a topic that interests you. The system copes much better with the question “What cases concerning family X appear in 17th-century books?” than with “Tell me something interesting”.

Remember, too, that Respublica is not an oracle but a guide through source material. Answers help find leads, cases and contexts, but for any more serious use of the information you should always check the indicated sources.

It really is simple: treat every question as a new expedition to the archive. Pack a little context into it, arm yourself with patience and see what can be drawn out of the old books.

And most importantly: have fun. History is often far stranger, funnier and more human than school textbooks suggest.