Swada i milczenie : zbiory oratorskie XVII-XVIII wieku - prolegomena filologiczne

Abstract

The book is the first attempt to fully look at the oratorical tradition retained in the 17th and mid 18th century manuscripts conducted on the basis of source studies covering over 140 manuscripts. What is important here is the belief that the manuscript sources that have not been systematically examined constitute the first and the richest collection of the oratorical monuments. The analysis of selected 17th and 18th century library proved the existence of a seperate type of a manuscript oratorical book, grouping the texts of one author or constituting differently ordered collections of many authors and model ones. Chapter one entitled One author collections was devoted to the presentation of manuscript collections of speeches by Andrzej Chryzostom Załuski, Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł, Franciszek Załuski, Antoni Sebastian Dembowski, Jan Dembiński, Jakub Sobieski, Jan Gniński, Rafał Leszczyński and Krzysztof Stanisław Zawisza. The very examples illustrate not only different, depending on specific circumstances, conceptions of the realization of the author’s oratorical collection (from the authograph to one author anthology), but also show wider problems. The more important ones cover questions on the relationship between a printed author’s collection and the manuscript one, the possibility of reconstructing bibliography of a given speaker, the method of combining legacy in the situation of merely dispersed fragments of orations of an assumed author’s collection. Chapter Secondarily ordered collections describes the oratorical books, most precious in view of material richness, representing different ways of further functioning of texts in the manuscript circulation. It includes practical collections arranging texts according to oratory area, connected with the court environment (e.g. the one by Radziwiłłs AHWil — 1135 2/40) or the school one (BCz 1881 I connected with the person of Jakub Hennicki, a Jesuit professor of rhetorics), as well as specialised collections, involving only political speeches (e.g. AGAD AR II b. 1) or wedding ones (BOss 4502). A vital problem for the functioning of the oratorical tradition was the movement of historical texts from the beginning of the 17th century to the category of rhetorical models (e.g. especially texts by Szczęsny Kryski), whereas the possibility of tracing his different stages and storing texts in different environments allowed for the observation of the symptoms of tradition accumulation and its continuation. A separate problem, dealt with in the chapter entitled Oratorical fragments — silvas is the functioning of the oratorical issues in the area of bigger manuscript wholes. The subject of interest were three silvas, by Adam Żychliński, Stanisław Rakowski und Wojciech Iłowski. They differ not only as to the extent to which the person of the author is revealed (the identification of the author was necessary in the last two cases), but also the practical and private aims of the manuscript book appearing in the choice of oratorical texts and ways of their recording. Silvas are at the same time the only manuscripts bringing about rare and fully private oratorical monuments. The next chapter The attempt to get closer: Andrzej Moskorzowski — a great absent one? was treated as a test for the statistical method in reference to particular problems. The hypothesis of the popularity of Moskrzowski as a speaker, resulting from the number of messages, was confronted with a detailed analysis of their nature. It led to an outline of the relationships between great oratorical collections and the evidence of their relation with the Arian environment (AHWil 1135 2/46, BOZ 823, BOss 3563, BK 1195). At the same time, the functions of Moskrzowski’s speech messages other than that (i.e. anonymous, dispersed or limited to one text of a polemic reply to the funeral speech by Jerzy Ossoliński during the funeral of Stanisław Cikowski, an Arian) led to the conclusion on limiting Moskorzowski’s oratory fame to the environment of Arians and a possible influence of religious motivation on the reception of his oratory. The last chapter under the title of Between the print and the manuscript presents printed oratorical collections, starting from the first one: Kasjan Sakowicz (1620) to The Polish speaker (Mówca polski) by Jan Pisarski (1668 v. 2 1676) from the perspective of their relationship with the manuscript tradition. It was proved (K. Sakowicz) and further documented (Antoni Wosiński, Marcin Filipowski) that not only the usage of historical speeches by the authors of popular rhetorical models, but also a specific usage of the oratorical messages belonging probably to the model collection already shaped in the manuscript tradition which partly lost its historical character (e.g. speeches by Sz. Kryski in The larder of various acts (Spiżarnia aktów rozmaitych...) by M. Filipowski). The interpretation of A Courtly orator (Orator polityczny) by Kazimierz Jan Wojsznarowicz in the context of the manuscript tradition allowed for the indentification of some sources indicated by him and presentation of the imitation methods used by him. The Polish speaker by Jan Pisarski confronted with the image of oratorical tradition of the first half of the 17th century retained in the manuscripts turned out, in accordance with the author’s announcement, the first historical anthology showing the canon of Sarmatian speakers, however, clearly excluding the infidels (e.g. an important absence of Krzysztof Radziwiłł) and restricted to the speakers of the Crown, skipping the representatives of Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, certainly using the text messages taken from the manuscript tradition. Looking at the Old-Polish oratory from the perspective of the manuscripts proved its primary character, with all its consequences for the future editiorial actions and showed a load of areas of Old-Polsih prose waiting for further studies, including the texts treated by the contemporaries as canonical and which should also regain a due place in the image of the manuscript tradition of the Baroque epoch.