Modlitwy przygodne w polskich drukach oświeceniowych

Abstract

The source materials of the remarks made in the doctoral dissertation consist of nearly 80 Polish prayer-books, which were printed as the first or next edition during the Age of Enlightenment. All the texts characterized in the thesis’ chapters derive from the Catholic prayer-books. The analogous Protestant publications were used only as a contextual comparison. Furthermore, as it was mentioned previously, all analysed prayers were published in Polish language and published in a printed form between 1740s and 1830s. The Sources taken into consideration comprises (apart from the texts of our native Enlightenment writers) the Polish translations of foreign works and 18th-centry reprints of the prayer-books from the earlier period. The selection of analysed prayers was therefore determined neither by their origin nor the time of their print. The decisive factor in this regard was the offer of that time publishing market because the catalogue of available books stemmed from the actual or foreseen (by initiators of the edition), social need for that type of religious prints designed for individual or collective use. The prayers characterized in the dissertation are occasional, that is they concern various celebrations and circumstances of human life as well as events and facts of the surrounding world. The analysis of these pieces prayers enabled to understand many interesting realities and aspects of the living space by which human is affected. The works (in the context of personal confession) express desires and fears related to family, work, illness and death as well as weather phenomena, travels and current political and social situation. The dissertation explores the applied ways of shaping religious and moral attitudes of the 18th-centry believers. It examines therefore the didactic functions of the persuasive figures of speech used in collected prayers. The pragmatic, emotional, and strictly artistic determinants as well as aspects of these pieces’ content and composition are also specified in the course of the argument. In addition, the thesis explains ways and specific features of how the sign of Enlightenment culture appeared in analyzed works..