Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk

(Mediterranean Hospitality in the Anonymous Polish Diary from the Year 1595)

Year of publication: 2016
Page range: 18 (5-22)
Keywords: travel diaries, hospitality, hospitalitas, national stereotypes
Author: Dawid Barbarzak (Adama Mickiewicz University)

Abstract

The paper attempts to identify the concept of hospitality from the point of view of an anonymous 16-century Polish traveller and author of the report from a trip to southern Italy, Spain, and Malta (“Diariusz peregrynacji włoskiej, hiszpańskiej, portugalskiej", 1595). The writer appreciates the Spanish hospitality while treating other Mediterranean nations, e.g. Italians, Turks or Jews – with reserve. The aim of the paper is to analyse the diary and to find out if the author’s opinion is really based on his experience or on some kind of national stereotypes. Moreover, the author of the paper tries to interpret the virtue of hospitality in light of religious duties, such as mercy for the poor or strangers, and to locate the author’s worldview in the culture of Christian Europe.

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