At the moment, the majority of papers concerning women’s writing oscillates between cultural studies and literary studies, or history studies and literary studies. Such a view on women’s creative output and, in more general terms, women’s presence in culture, seems to bring the best results. Due to academic development in recent decades and the so-called “return of the subject” in philosophical, social, historical and literary studies, these disciplines gained a perspective that turns to womanly experiences, and interprets them with specific methodologies, thereby rendering them valid objects of study and representative voices of a given epoch.
In studies on early modern women’s literature, we should create a space for dialogue between philological studies, social history, the history of culture and gender studies. Only such an attitude makes it possible to avoid misunderstandings inscribed in the studies on early modern culture carried out with the application of modern and post-modern analytical categories, including the category of gender. At the same time, we should bear in mind that gender always remains a category that is useful in historico-literary analyses, if it keeps its critical relation to binary categories “woman”/“man” and “femininity”/“masculinity”, as well as to its own function consisting of forming social dynamics based on the sexual difference. Thus understood dialogical perspective allows going beyond the programmatic and methodological frames of feminist studies, in which a “woman” and a “man” are presented as permanent and closed categories that can only be used to describe various social roles, but do not lead to any critical interpretation of these roles.

“Strzały serdeczne z Pisma świętego i ojców świętych zrobione, a od dusze nabożnej ku niebu wypuszczone”. A 17th century adaptation of Herman Hugon’s Pia desideria from a manuscript kept in The Immaculate Conception of Holy Mary Convent of Discalced Carmelite Sisters in Lublin.

Researching the literary output of Polish early modern convents is problematic because what remains of it is dispersed, and the literary culture and reading preferences of 17th Polish nuns have not yet been comprehensively studied. A to-date unknown translation of a fragment of Herman Hugo’s Pia desideria, found in manuscript No. 246 in the Archives of the Discalced Carmelites in Cracow, entitled Strza­ły serdeczne z Pisma świętego i ojców świętych zrobione, a od dusze nabożnej ku niebu wypuszczone, serves as an example here. The manuscript is currently lost. The handwriting indicates the feminine hand of a Discalced Carmelite Sister, Jagnieszka Konstancja od Pana Jezusa Baranka, Iżycka, related to the Immaculate Conception of Holy Mary Convent of Discalced Carmelite Sisters in Lublin, who belonged to the intellectual elite of the Lublin nunnery. Iżycka was a daughter of a Lublin judge, Daniel. She was born on October 25th 1636, took the veil in Lublin in 1653, and died in Poznań on May 27th 1723.
The manuscript was probably written on the turn of the 1650s and 1660s, but certainly before 1665. It is known that in order to answer the Carmelite Sisters’ needs, efforts were undertaken to adapt Herman Hugo’s Pia desideria. This is evident from other Lublin relics. This prayer book was a sort of silva rerum (Pl. sylwa) and included various texts, mostly ascetic, but also a few letters of the sisters, translations of texts written by Saint Teresa of Ávila or Saint John of the Cross. Until now, its value for scholars studying the Carmelites was mainly related to the writings penned by charismatic personages of the convent that comprise: Stefan of Saint Teresa (Hieronim Kucharski), Anna of Jesus (Stobieńska), and Teresa Barbara of Eucharist (z Kretkowskich Zadzikowa). A fragment depicting the nuns’ knowledge of and interest in the famous Jesuit work was until recently unnoticed in the manuscript.
The manuscript was a kind of private prayer book of a Lublin Carmelite Sister. It belonged to the type of small, personal prayer related notes, very characteristic of Carmelite nuns who solicitously filled them with texts and drawings. On page 509 begins a section entitled: Strzały serdeczne z Pisma świętego i ojców świętych zrobione, a od dusze nabożnej ku niebu wypuszczone (Heart-born arrows made from the Holy Script and Church Fathers, and by a pious soul shot at heaven). It is an adaptation of Herman Hugo’s Pia desideria. It contains a free translation of the main title, the titles of individual books, translations of biblical inscriptions and patristic fragments (one for each emblem).
Book one: Wzdychanie dusze pokutującej (The yearning of a soul doing its penance) contains fifteen prose texts that include a biblical motto and a patristic passage. The same number of texts is to be found in book two: Pragnienia dusze świętej (The desires of a saintly soul), and in book three: Wzdychania dusze miełującej Pana Boga (Yearnings of a soul that loves the Lord). The Lublin adaptations of Herman Hugo’s work did not exhaust the sisters’ interest in the Jesuit collection. Printed copies of A.T. Lacki’s Pia desideria (Pobożne pragnienia, Cracow, 1673) preserved in the library of the Cracow convent of Discalced Carmelite Sisters on ul. Kopernika, serves as evidence for this hypothesis.

Unknown panegyric verses in honourof Elżbieta z Branickich Spieżyna and her closest relatives

The aim of this paper is to present a critical edition of two, to-date unknown eulogies written to honour Elżbieta z Branickich Sapieżyna and members of her closest family: her son Kazimierz Nestor Sapieha, a general in the Lithuanian army, and her brother Franciszek Ksawery Branicki, the Great Crown Hetman. The two texts were edited according to rules based on solutions applied in the anthology: Wiersze imieninowe poetów z drugiej połowy XVIII wieku (introduction, selection of texts and ed. by B. Wolska, B. Mazurkowa, T. Chachulski, Warsaw 2011). The poems published here are prefaced with an introduction briefly sketching the subject scope of literary research on Elżbieta’s portraits (both pamphlet and laudatory ones). The circumstances in which they were written, chief eulogic motives included, and the genre shape of the presented eulogies are discussed. They are also provided with a commentary that explains the meaning of selected words and phrases, and provides information on the key contexts: political, biographical, mythological and biblical.
The first text is an anonymous gift verse entitled: Do Jaśnie Oświeconej księżnej Jejmości Elżbiety z Branickich Sapieżyny, wojewodzicowej mścisławskiej, w dzień imienin 19 Novembris 1784 w Prenach (To her brightly enlightened grace, Elżbieta z Branickich Sapieżyna, wife of the Mścisław Voivode, on her namesday (November 19th 1784) in Preny). The only known copy of the print is kept in the collection of the National Library in Poland under the reference number XVIII 2.7409. The eulogy was written for Elżbieta’s first stay in that Lithuanian town in mid-November 1784. This laudatory composition presents her as a remarkable personage delighting the inhabitants of Preny as well as a model patriot who excellently prepared her son for the service for the country. It contains frequent references to the custom of dedicating poetic gifts called bouquets (Pl. bukiet), a popular act in the occasional poetry of the second half of the 18th century. The text also bears signs of high occasional ode poetics.
The other work is a collection of four poems authored by Wojciech Zacharkiewicz, a little known publicist and poet, active between 1788 and 1793. The only known copy of the print is kept in the collection of the University of Warsaw Library under reference number 4.20.1.557. The elaborate title indicates that the cycle is a Gift from the citizens’ hearts... dedicated to the Sapieha family on the occasion of Franciszek Ksawery Branicki’s arrival at a Sejm meeting in Warsaw (December 17th 1788) and the election of Kazimierz Nestor Sapieha to the post of Marshal of the Sejm Confederation (October 7th 1788). Each of the poems in the collection is directed at a different person and presents their profile. In the first piece, the poet addressed the hetman and presented a portrait of an excellent commander; in the second, he emphasized the patriotic and citizenly comportment of the voivode’s wife; and in the third, he introduced the newly elected marshal as an unparalleled orator. The fourth poem supplements the whole with assertions of everlasting fame of the enlisted virtues and achievements of the notables.
The air of general reverence created here; the instrumental reference to civic and patriotic issues; and the praise of harmful political actions of magnates, bestow a distinct imprint of panegyrism on both texts discussed.

Modlitwa o zachowanie czystości, from the second half of the 18th century

The paper, preceded by a brief introduction, contains an edition of an anonymous print entitled Modlitwa o zachowanie czystości (A prayer for the preservation of purity). It was conventionally dated to the second half of the 18th century. The introduction depicts the socio-moral and religious context of the prayer and argues that the genesis of the text is strongly connected with the described circumstances. The author of the text also paid attention to the genre pattern of the prayer and compared it with similar writings occurring in contemporary prayer books.

The volume includes: the text of the title prayer, enumerated admonitions regarding benefits of chastity and the ways of its preservation, as well as dangers that a virtuous lady should avoid. Introductory remarks, explanations and comments, which were added to the texts of an unknown author, helped to fully understand the old print. They also describe the structure and purpose of the collection, and discuss its elements, which are characteristic of catechism, parenesis, and the examination of conscience.

The Prayer for the preservation of purity occupies a significant place among enlightenment prayer prints. In fact, it is quite an extensive collection of persuasive texts entirely dedicated to one particular virtue. Its form, corresponding to the prayer genre, was designed to strengthen the importance of the textual message included in this print and to give the texts catechetical and educational meaning. The collection was not published in self-editing form, nor was it added to any prayer book at that time. It may be assumed that chastity, as a virtue, was not so important and not promoted, for example, in young aristocratic and noblewoman’s education.