this year is ending and yesterday was the anniversary of the capitulation of the Swedish garrison of Polish city of Toruń (during the war known in our history as the Deluge aka Potop - AD1655-60) to the allied Polish-Hapsburg armies (siege lasted almost 6 months).
Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski, one of the Polish commanders of the siege, ordered a map printed commemorating this important victory.
From this map comes the partially hidden image of a Polish horseman on a splendid mount, with a Tatar-Turkish style ''buńczuk'' (horse hair tug) suspended from its bridle (with a curb-bit). Interestingly the sword held by the rider is a typical Polish saber of the period, and the manner of holding is quite faithful here, except that is seems to be missing the ''paluch''(thumb-ring) so peculiar to XVII century Polish cavalry sabers (but also present in earlier Swiss and Hungarian sabers); to his right we have a rare image of the Polish infantry of the period.
A detailed story of the siege by Tadeusz Nowak - in Polish - from Kujawsko-Pomorska Biblioteka (digitalized books), or from Kismeta in English.
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