PHRASEBOOKS AS A SOURCE OF DATA ON THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF BURGHERS IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD (Pomoce do konwersacji jako zrodlo poznania zycia codziennego mieszczanstwa w dobie wczesnonowozytnej)

• Authors: Fejtova Olga
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The author compares two early-modern phrasebooks: a German - Czech one and a German - Polish one. The first one was written by Ondrej Klatovski, a Czech humanist and pedagogue, a councillor and mayor of Prague. His book was first printed in 1540 and until the mid 17th c. was reedited 13 times. The other book was written by Nicolaus Volckmar, a language teacher from Gdansk (Danzig). His Viertzig Dialogi [Forty dialogues], written at the turn of the 17th c., was published in 1612 and was reissued at least 22 times until the mid 18th c. Klatovski's phrasebook was addressed to young Czech burghers - artisans and merchants - for whom the knowledge of German was indispensable or highly helpful for professional reasons. Volckmar wrote his dialogues for the young burghers of Gdansk, the largest port in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The native language of his readers was German but the knowledge of Polish was indispensable for merchants and artisans as well as the city councillors. Volckmar's publication was also popular in some other towns of Royal Prussia, in Ducal Prussia and in Silesia; it was reprinted in Torun (Thorn), Królewiec (Konigsberg) and Wroclaw (Breslau), which was motivated by the trade links between those areas and Gdansk. The content of the dialogues in the two books reflects the social consciousness of burghers in the great cities of Central Europe (Prague, Gdansk), both through the choice of topics and through the inclusion of everyday realities. Both phrasebooks include such topics as: the school education of young burghers, travelling as an aspect of education and trade. The last issue is more widely treated by Klatovski, who mentions business trips to such centres as Vienna or Nuremberg. In this respect his phrasebook resembles contemporary guidebooks. The formula of Volckmar's work is wider, closer to traditional humanist dialogues which present human life from birth to death, although the book contains numerous references to the realities of Gdansk.

Keywords

EN

BURGHERS; EVERYDAY LIFE; PHRASEBOOKS

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 57
• Issue: 3-4
• Pages: 387-398
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Fejtova Olga

• Olga Fejtova, Archiv hl. mesta Prahy, Archivni 6, 149 00 Praha 4, Czech Republic

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

11PLAAAA092845