Relacje z podróży dyplomatycznych. Pomijane źródło do badań nad niemieckim obrazem Polaków w XVII wieku
Reports from diplomatic travels. An omitted source in studies on the German image of Polish society in the 17th century

Summary/Abstract: Among the various sources for the study of Polish-German relations in the 17th century, also reports from diplomatic travels deserve attention. To date, they have been mainly studied by historians who analysed the information layer pertaining to the events presented. A significant number of these texts have not yet been published. The purpose of the paper is to identify travelogue as a type of literature, which, due to its characteristics, can also be used for imagological research. The research problem is an attempt to define travelogue as a type of text, although such pieces of writing generally evade definition because of the diverse factors that influence the final shape of the work. The history of research on travelogues in Germany dates back to the 19th century, when they were mainly dealt with by bibliographers and geographers on account of the classic, „narrow“ interpretation of literature, which did not include functional texts. The research method consists in an analysis of the report written by Christoph Leopold Schaffgotsch, an imperial legate, who travelled to Warsaw and participated in the election of the king of Poland in 1699. Politics, which was both the background of events and the main motive for his travel and the writing of the report, undoubtedly left a mark on the content and the image of the Polish society conveyed by the work. Attention should also be drawn to the numerous known, albeit not yet published reports from diplomatic travels, stored e.g. in the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv in Vienna. The author makes the claim that their inclusion could introduce a new quality in the research on the German image of Poles in the 17th century.

• Details
• Contents