Early modern conceptualizations of Medieval history and their impact on residential architecture in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
ENOne of the key foundations of Sarmatism (a class discourse which constructed the identity of the Polish-Lithuanian elites as descendants of the ancient tribe of Sarmatians)1 was the cult of the past – the past of the family and the past of the nation understood as the nobility (szlachta), the only class with civic rights. The development of this specific attitude hinged on the role of medieval history as the most immediate source of prestige and legitimacy.2 Unlike antiquity, which in the territories of the Commonwealth produced very little material remains, the Middle Ages were a much more tangible era to the understanding of the early modern Poles, especially through evocative medieval buildings. Yet, as I will demonstrate below, while the Middle Ages did not function in early modern Polish historiography as a distinct period,3 the architecture of the Commonwealth was much more susceptible to medieval building traditions than evinced by textual sources. To address this complex intermeshing of discourses which developed around the question of the medieval past in early modern Poland (with a particular focus on residential architecture), my argument will be divided into three parts – the attitudes to the period we call the ‘Middle Ages’, the attitudes to medieval architecture, and the impact of both on early modern Polish residences.
