This study is based on an analysis of Moravian Calvinist Jan Opsimathes’s book of friends (cca. 1568–after 1620), housed today at the British Library in London at the shelf mark Eg. 1220. The album contains roughly 590 entries spanning the years 1598–1620 and represents a valuable source for the study of the contacts between the Czech Lands and intellectual and political Calvinism across Europe. At the core of the study is an analysis of the album’s entries authored by individuals originating from Greater Poland, Lesser Poland, Lithuania, Livonia and other lands falling within the Polish king’s sphere of influence. The author was able to find a total of 21 such individuals. They encountered Opsimathes at Swiss, Dutch and German academies and universities, during his travels in France and, exceptionally, in Prague and Moravia. Although most of them were of noble origins, they differed considerably with regard to aristocratic descent, economic status, ranks attained and political sway. At one end was a group of lesser nobles and intellectuals; in the middle a group of relatively wealthy regional aristocrats; and at the other end a group of Polish, Lithuanian and Livonian notables (Andrzej and Rafał Leszczyński, Jan Radzimiński, Mikołaj Abramowicz and Magnus Ernest Denhoff ). Their common unifying trait was their close adhesion to the Calvinist confession and, in certain instances, the Polish branch of the Unity of the Brethren. The study also offers new information on the life of Jan Opsimathes based on freshly unearthed sources.
Artykuł jest próbą systematyzacji oraz interpretacji motywów o charakterze iluzjonistycznym - od pojedynczych obiektów ukazanych jako leżące na stronie, poprzez zabiegi zmieniające wygląd strony, jak np. zagięte rogi kart, aż po martwe natury - stanowiących elementy wpisów sztambuchowych w jednej kolekcji. Na przykładach wskazany został ich związek z częścią tekstową. Mogły one ilustrować treść wpisu, ale też rozwijać ją i uzupełniać. Zwłaszcza kompozycje typu quodlibet kryć mogły aluzje do osoby właściciela albumu i wspólnych wspomnień, stanowiąc wizualny odpowiednik „memorabiliów”. Badane motywy ukazane zostały jako nie zawsze spełniające wszystkie kryteria trompe l’œil, ale niewątpliwie aspirujące do iluzjonizmu, a dodatkowo dobrze wypełniające łączone z twórczością sztambuchową zadania.
EN
The article is an attempt at systemizing and interpreting trompe l'œil motifs and devices – from single objects shown as if resting on a page, through those altering the appearance of the page, such as folded page corners, up to still lifes – that constitute elements of book-of-friendship entries in one particular collection. Examples are used to show their relations with the entry text: illusionistic elements could illustrate, but also extend or complement it. It was particularly the quodlibet-type compositions that could allude to the book’s owner and the shared memories, forming as if a visual counterpart of ‘memorabilia’. The researched motifs do not always comply with all the criteria of trompe l’œil; they do, however, aspire to being illusionistic, additionally fulfilling well the tasks that are associated with books of friendship.
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