Sarmaci i Popianie. Dziedzictwo średniowiecznego obrazu świata jako element kontekstu kulturowego piśmiennictwa staropolskiego

• Published in: Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia litteraria Polonica Vol. 53; no. 2; pp. 13 - 46
• Main Author: Krawiec, Adam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Polish
• Published: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego 2019; Lodz University Press
• Subjects: Studies of Literature; Theory of Literature; imaginative geography; oldPolish writings; history of the geographical imaginations; medieval writings
• ISSN: 1505-9057

The paper deals with a question of the medieval influences on the old-Polish imagination world considered as geographical space. The paper is considered as preliminary remarks, showing the main areas of the elements’ presence which belong to the medieval intellectual heritage in the texts of old-Polish authors. The presence of these elements in particular works and/or genres should be subject of further investigations in the future. It was pointed out, that many imaginations of Greek/Roman ancient origin, present in the old-Polish period, were in fact common for the medieval and early modern imaginative geographies. To the most important post-medieval features of the old-Polish imaginative geography belonged: a general vision of the physical world’s structure, the idea of the tripartite habitable world, use of the ancient geonyms while describing the contemporary world (especially the name of Sarmatia), particular imaginations about exotic countries and people, including their marvels, so-called monstrous races, and the kingdom of Prester John.