Historia, tradycja, mit: w pamięci kulturowej szlachty Rzeczypospolitej XVI-XVIII wieku
EN[...] Cultural memory perceives history from the perspective of the present day: events from myths are vivid, but reconstructed depending on what is important or needed in the present situation. In cultural memory, facts are not important; what is fundamental is remembered history, which converts into a myth thanks to tradition. [...] The geographical frameworks of this study are marked by the boundaries of the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that, from 1569, constituted the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The sources for the analysis of the changes in noblemens myths was both the so-called high culture as well as the popular culture in the public and private space. The author examines historiographic works (chronicles and annals), armorials, works popularising the history of the Rzeczpospolita (compendia of knowledge, encyclopaedias, catalogues synthesising information about the state), belles-lettres, occasional literature and historical-genealogical records to be found in the noblemens manuscripts. By analysing works with a historical content, it is visible that they were based on the assumptions made by Jan Długosz, whose Annales marked the original time boundary for the discussed subject matter. The end of the time frame is the Rzeczpospolita’s loss of the sovereignty (1795); yet, some sources from the first half of the 19th century prove the duration of myths. Assuming such broad chronological frameworks allows the changes which took place in mythical thinking to be observed. The monograph is divided into four chapters. The first chapter addresses the mythical era: the time of the creation of two states - the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania along with the period when individual noble clans were established. The second chapter concerns the mythical space. The author analyses the political space - Sarmatia - common for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.The next sub-chapter is divided into two smaller parts. In the first part, the author refers to the sites of the “birth” of the states, to two capital cities - Gniezno and Vilnius. In the second part, the territory connected with the origins of the noble families is described, both in terms of the armorial legend and the ancestral nest. The third chapter presents a mythical hero. The first sub-chapter concerns the collective hero - a Sarmatian. The second subchapter shows the personal models for the rulers of the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as well as the founders of individual noble families. The first three chapters of the book are closely connected and complement one another. Moreover, their construction is similar. Each chapter first presents the national myth and goes on to describe the myths of noble families. Each chapter follows chronological order (the i6th-17th and 18th centuries). The author attempts to analyse sources from the so- called high culture as well as popular culture ranging from the public to the private space. Such an analysis allows the author not only to describe modifications in subsequent records, but also to track the functional changes of the myths. The fourth chapter tells the story of the Gliniany rokosz that is supposed to have taken place during the reign of Louis I of Hungary, and analyses the functioning of the myth in the noblemens consciousness from the 17th century to the first half of the 19th century. The author also presents the analysis of the rokosz myth following the previously established category (time - space - hero). Thanks to the research, some foundational myths have been reconstructed. The first of them is the myth of Lech, connected with the mythical time of the Polish Kingdom, defining the golden age of the state as harmonious, secure, full of military victories and freedom brought to the Polish lands by Lech.Secondly comes the myth of Palemon, which refers to the mythical time of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and is associated with the Genesis motif of the creation of the state in connection with the arrival of Palemon, a Roman, in Lithuania. The Sarmatian myth also exists, connected both with the mythical space of Sarmatia and the mythical hero - a Sarmatian - which involves the inhabitants of the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Another category is represented by the myths of noble families, in which time, space and hero are closely connected. The myths legitimised the antiquity of noblemen (from the ancient, biblical time down to the Middle Ages) confirming their ownership of the land and defining them as part of the great European noble family thanks to armorial legends. [...] The myths of individual noble families constituted national myths on a smaller scale. Mythical rulers of the Polish Kingdom and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania became models to be copied by the heroes of the noble families - the winners of the coats of arms. [...] The noble [szlachta] mythology of the 16th-18th centuries constitutes the creation of the vision of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a free nation of noblemen. The myths were to sanction all the privileges the szlachta enjoyed, which took place thanks to a specially created tradition, which was considered to be worth handing down to future generations. However, due to the changeability of needs, the myths had to be universal to be able to undergo certain modifications and to continue playing their roles. We may distinguish the myth about the freedom of the nation of noblemen, the myth of equality, the myth of unity, the myth of chosen people. It is there that most of the values and features characterising the szlachta culture in the times of Sarmatia, Lech, Palemon and the Gliniany rokosz are included.
