Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk

(Aleksander Minor’s “The Description of Witów" – on ‘coding the world’ in Baroque literature)

Year of publication: 2015
Page range: 10 (95-104)
Keywords: silva rerum, edition, Aleksander Minor, nobleman poetry, rhetoric
Author: Agnieszka Łapajska (The University of Silesia)

Abstract

This paper analyses previously unknown poem, published by Agnieszka Niewiadomska in the “Melusina" (2015, no. 1), from a handwritten silva rerum by Aleksander Minor – cupbearer (cześnik) of Chełm and the author of various texts, mostly occasional texts. “The Description of Witów" (Opisanie Witowa) is a panegyric piece, praising the former mansion in Witów (Lesser Poland region). The paper attempts to establish the historical, cultural, and literary (especially inthe rhetorical tradition and nobleman poetry topics aspects) contexts of the poem. The juxtaposition of literary conventions with reality known from archives and on-site research allows to post a question concerning the methods and capabilities of recording reality in literature of the second half of the 17th century. The discovery of Minor’s poem is also a contribution to reflecton the legitimacy of researching on non-remarkable texts, which value for literary history is based not only on the quality of literary features.

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