| Abstrakt: |
In the seventeenth century, the Dutch Republic formed a popular destination on Polish educational tours through Europe. This article examines which travel guides and other printed media in particular steered the gazes and quills of Polish noblemen who journeyed through the Dutch Republic, and how these Poles used such publications to reflect on their own experiences. Analysing several travelogues and a collection of travel poems, it argues that Poles made use of various locally printed sources to determine their itineraries, define their experiences and add visual elements to their travelogues. The Itinerarium Frisio-Hollandicum by Gotfridus Hegenitius, a Latin travel guide first published in Leiden in 1630, was evidently popular, enabling the transfer of Dutch narratives to Polish sources. In addition, Polish itinerants instrumentalised ephemeral inventories of Leiden's curiosities, as well as loose prints. In effect, locally printed material conditioned how Poles gave substance to their travels in the Dutch Republic, each of them following their own designs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
