From East to West. Women journeys in Early Modern Period to Italy (XVI-XVIII centuries)
Edited by Jarosław Pietrzak
Patrik Pastrnak
Palacky University of Olomouc (Czech Republic)
THE RETURN JOURNEYS OF THE QUEEN-WIDOWS: AN UPSIDE-DOWN RITUAL OR IRRELEVANT PAGEANTRY?
ABSTRACT. In medieval and early modern Europe, interdynastic princely unions caused an unprecedented movement of royal figures. Princely brides travelled across the continent, accompanied by massive retinues in a choreographically staged cycle of ceremonies. However, these princely women sometimes ventured back to their natal courts. While there have been some excellent studies, looking into particular cases, a comparative approach might bring a deeper understanding of this travel. This paper examines the return journeys of three queens from Central Europe to Italy, particularly Beatrice of Aragon (1500/01), Bona Sforza (1556), and Maria of Spain (1581). Th is study reveals differences and similarities between these transfers and other types of princely mobility. Like bridal transfers, these journeys were important for social networking and entailed a similar level of festival splendour but this was closely connected to the queen’s social and political capital. On the other hand, they lacked a strong ritual layer and differed in the use of emotions. Most importantly, the main difference is the very reason they took place: these three return journeys were a direct consequence of queens’ wills and thus a testimony of their agency and power.
KEYWORDS: Female travel, Elite lifestyle, Space of encounter, Networking, Travel writing.
Alina Kaltachenka
Republican Institute of Higher Education, Minsk (Belarus)
ABSTRACT. The early modern period was a time when women’s travels began to develop in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, a process that became particularly evident in the 18th century. Unlike men’s, women’s travels were almost always family-related. Women travelled extensively within the state for personal and domestic purposes, visiting the court and important state events. And they began to travel abroad more and more actively. Among European countries, Italy and France were of particular interest, some ladies went as far as England and Spain, the German lands were visited because of their interest and geographical location. Women travelled to Europe for medical treatment and took their children there (Anna née Kettler Radziwiłł, Lukrecja Maria née de Strozzi Radziwiłł), travelled abroad to meet their close relatives (Teofila Konstancja née Radziwiłł Morawska), went on Grand Tour with their husbands and adult children (Katarzyna née Sosnowska Plater), went on the wedding journey (Anna Paulina née Sapieha Jabłonowska, Izabela née Flemming Czartoryska) or went on diplomatic trips with their husbands (Katarzyna née Sobieska Radziwiłł), made pilgrimages (Konstancja Kolumba née Denhoff Sangushko).
KEYWORDS: Women’s travels, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Travel destinations, Pilgrimages, Grand Tour.
Jarosław Pietrzak
Pedagogical University n Krakow (Poland)
MARIA KAZIMIERA D’ARQUIEN SOBIESKA AND HER ITALIAN TRAVELS FROM 1699 TO 1714
ABSTRACT. Main goal of paper is to present all journays of Marie Kazimiera d’Arquien Sobieska, Polish queen and widow aft er king Jan III. Th e Queen’s subsequent expeditions were looked at, starting with her departure from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to Italy in 1698 and her residence in Rome until she made her last journay of her life to France and settled in Blois in 1714. Th e attention has been put to the Queen’s ceremonial journey to Rome in late 1698 and early 1699, then show her exploration of Italy, starting with getting to know the closer area around the Eternal City. The first destination were papalces, villas and gardens in Frascati, Tivoli, Nettuno, Palo, Bracciano and Viterbo. In 1704, with the Pope’s gave permission to Queen for traveling once more to Loreto and Venice. Maria Kazimiera d’Arquien Sobieska visited Naples and Bari in 1707. Each of these trips was of a different nature. From a typically leisurely and cognitive focus, the trips began to take on the character of pilgrimages and even political missions.
KEYWORDS: Queen, Widow, Maria Kazimiera Sobieska, Italian travels, Pilgrimage.
Gaetano Platania
Istituto Nazionale di Studi Romani, Rome (italy)
LA FUGA DA INNSBRUCK A ROMA DI MARIA KLEMENTYNA SOBIESKA STUART
ABSTRACT. The Article focuses on the journey undertaken by Maria Klementyna Sobieska between 1718 and 17919 to marry James Stuart, the “pretender” to the English throne. The idea of marriage, born to revive the fortunes of both families, however, immediately created political problems at an international level, putting the delicate European geopolitical balance at risk. Having left Olawa, the young woman was arrested by order of Emperor Charles VI of Habsburg and detained in Innsbruck: a decision taken to comply with the wishes of Ludwig of Hanover, sovereign of England and enemy of James. The Article analyzes the very young Sobieska’s escape from Innsbruck to Italy. At the centre, we find all the tenacity of this very young girl who, having escaped from the city on a winter night, set out on the road towards Italy accompanied by her mother, Hedwig Elisabeth Amalia von Pfalz-Neuburg is escorted by a group of men led by the knight Charles. Once she arrived in Bologna, she would marry James Stuart by proxy. Th ese events’ stories are addressed through manuscript and printed sources, mainly Roman and pontifical.
KEYWORDS: Maria Klementyna Sobieska, James Stuart, Travel, Innsbruck, Rome.
Francesca Ceci
Musei Capitolini, Rome (Italy)
MEMORIE DEI VIAGGI DI MARIA CLEMENTINA SOBIESKA STUART DA INNSBRUCK AL LAZIO SETTENTRIONALE
ABSTRACT. The circumstances that led the Polish princess Maria Clementina Sobieska to marry the exiled pretender to the English throne, James III Stuart, ended with her marriage in Montefiascone (Viterbo) on 1 September 1719. After the wedding, the newlyweds stayed in Montefiascone, visiting Viterbo, Capodimonte and Bisentina Island; later, once they had established their residence in Rome, they returned to the area occasionally. The article aims to focus on the evidence of the presence of the couple in the Viterbese and Orvieto area, guests of local notables and families connected to the Stuart court in Rome and the Papacy.
KEYWORDS: Maria Clementina Sobieska, James III Stuart, Wedding Stuart-Sobieski, Travels, Viterbo.
Małgorzata Ewa Kowalczyk – University of Wrocław (Poland)
Dorota Żołądź-Strzelczyk – Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland)
TRAVELS OF POLISH ARISTOCRATIC WOMEN IN THE VENETO REGION IN THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
ABSTRACT. The heyday of the Polish Enlightenment brought women from the circles of the magnates and wealthy nobility considerable emancipation in matters of travel. Educated noblewomen wanted to go beyond traditional social functions and realise themselves in the public sphere. Th ey began to manage estates and manage family interests, followed the press and literature, established social salons, became involved in political and diplomatic life, mentored artists and scientists, created collections, founded churches, built mansions and increasingly travelled the world. During the Enlightenment, one of the most popular destinations for foreign travel was Italy, one of their destinations being the Veneto. Th is article analyses the records of journeys to this region by three Polish aristocrats: Anna Paulina née Sapieha Jabłonowska, Teofila Konstancja née Radziwiłł Morawska, and Katarzyna née Sosnowski Platerowa. Their accounts show not only what they saw there, but also how they recounted the observations. It can be seen that they were excellent observers, formed independent judgements. In the pages of their accounts, one can find descriptions of daily life on the road, social life, customs and mentality of the inhabitants of the Veneto region, their entertainments, homes or cuisine.
KEYWORDS: Women’s travels, Veneto, XVIII century, Travel accounts, Travel descriptions.
Katarzyna Jagiełło-Jakubaszek
Independent Scholar (Poland)
ABSTRACT. In May 1773, Teofila Morawska née Radziwiłł, thirty-six-year-old, married, mother of three children, set off on her European journey. She travelled in companion of her husband’s sister. Over ten years later, in 1785, being around the same age Katarzyna Plater née Sosnowska embarked for a long journey to Italy. She was accompanied by her adolescent daughter and husband on the tour. Both women recorded extensive observations in the travel journals. In my paper I draw attention to the cultural and social landscape of Italy in the second half of the eighteenth century revealed by both women in their travel accounts. I explore the way they experienced Italy in the golden age of the Grand Tour.
KEYWORDS: Teofila Morawska née Radziwiłł, Katarzyna Plater née Sosnowska, Polish women travellers, Polish Grand Tour, social networks.
Agata Piotrowska
University of St Andrews (Scotland)
ABSTRACT. This article explores Italy of the first two decades of the 1800s as described by two countesses from the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: Anna Potocka [1779–1867] and Waleria Tarnowska [1782–1849]. Its main focus is on the role the origins of these two women, representative for a larger number of Polish-Lithuanian elite female travellers, had on their experience of Italian culture and society, in which they acted as both members and external observers. Places such as Rome or Naples are analysed as spaces of encounter of Polish-Lithuanian society abroad, as well as international elites of the time of the Partitions of the Commonwealth and the Napoleonic Wars. Further stress is put on similarities and differences between the lifestyles, education and social norms of the Polish-Lithuanian women and the foreign societies, which become apparent based on commentaries and comparisons included in the travelogues analysed. The article concludes with a brief overview of some aspects of the afterlife of these two women’s journeys, namely networks and connections of importance which they formed while in Italy.
KEYWORDS: Travel writing, Women’s history, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Transnational connections, art collecting.
Matteo Sanfilippo
University of Tuscia (Italy)
UKRAINIANS IN CANADA: MIGRATION AND HISTORY
ABSTRACT. Two books published in Canada reflect on the experience of Ukrainian immigrants in this nation and on their European roots. The analysis of these two books must, however, be accompanied by the reconstruction of the Ukrainian Canadian experience, which started at the end of the nineteenth century and is marked by several waves of migration. In the end, the reconstruction of these events and the discussion of the two books allow us to outline an overall picture of the “Ukrainianness” that developed on the other side of the ocean
KEYWORDS: Ukraine, Canada, Migration, Ukrainians in Canada, Ukrainian-Canadian historiography.
Susanna Piselli
University of Tuscia (Italy)
I COLLEGI PER STRANIERI a/e ROMA NELL’ETÀ MODERNA, vol. I: CINQUE-SETTECENTO
Series: Studi di Storia delle Istituzioni Ecclesiastiche 10. Viterbo, Sette Città, 2023, pp. 201. Edited by Alessandro Boccolini, Matteo Sanfilippo and Péter Tusor.