Pride and prejudice. Proto-racism in Walerian Nekanda Trepka's 'Liber generationis plebeanorum' (c. 1624-1640)

• Published in: The Seventeenth century Vol. 38; no. 2; pp. 245 - 261
• Main Author: Arendt, Ada
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Durham Routledge 04.03.2023; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: 17th century; class racism; Nobility; Proto-racism; Racism; social mobility; Status; the curse of Ham; Trepka, Walerian Nekanda; usurpation of nobility; Poland
• ISSN: 0268-117X; 2050-4616
• DOI: 10.1080/0268117X.2022.2131612

The paper proposes to re-examine Liber generationis plebeanorum (c. 1624-1640), an early modern Polish manuscript devoted to denouncing people from lower social orders successfully passing as noblemen, as an expression of proto-racism, rooted in the biblical legend of the curse of Ham. Based on an observation that in the premodern era the notion of race connotated family lineage and defined one's social location, Trepka's work is viewed here as an expression of class resentment and fear of infiltration that racialises social segregation in order to petrify the dominating position of the nobility. In the closing part of the paper, I draw a brief comparison of the manuscript with the Spanish libros verdes and consider the long-standing Polish tradition of testing each other's nobility, which could be described as a kind of social drama.