Diogenes spogląda na Ateny. U źródeł eseju warszawskiego
Diogenes looks down at Athens: at the sources of the Warsaw essay

Summary/Abstract: This article opens with an analysis of the entry titled “Warsaw” in Franciszek Salezy Jezierski’s 18th-century Niektóre wyrazy porządkiem abecadła zebrane [Some phrases collected in alphabetical order]. Previous researchers such as Wacław Berent and Andrzej Dobosz have identified the conceptual modernity and continuing relevance of Jezierski’s observations on the Polish capital, but in order to properly understand the meaning of this modernity we need to contextualize the entry. Piotrowski explores the relationship between Jezierski’s text on Warsaw and the encyclopaedia’s remaining entries, recalls Enlightenment visions of the city such as Chmielowski’s New Athens or Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyklopédie, reproduces traditions of publishing and circulation in that era and retraces elements of Jezierski’s biography. Based on this research, Piotrkowski argues that Jezierski’s text is exceptional for the epoch. Finally, Jezierski’s originality allows Piotrkowski to posit the entry on the Polish capital as the first essayistic piece of writing concerning Warsaw in Polish literature.

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