Śladami zapisów kaznodziei wojskowego z 1623 roku, czyli jak Dembołęcki pisał swoje Przewagi

Abstract   

The sketch is a synthetic desrcription of Wojciech Dmebołęcki’s way of writing his book entitled The ascendancy of Polish elears formerly called lisovchicks [Przewagi elearów polskich, co ich niegdy lisowczykami zwano]. This text printed in Poznań (1623) text brings a fresh relation on the mercenary troops’ military adventures during the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War (1619­-1622) including the Battle of Khotyn (1621). The story’s form does not seem to be common memoirs, it is rather a mixture of various narration types. In some parts chaplain’s personal recollections may be noticed, especially within chapters presenting Sunday sermons preached by the Franciscan to his soldiers (some of them highlighted extraordinary connections of God with gloryfied in that manner lisovchicks who, additionally, were the Maccabees of New Testament – as the eulogist states). Initial sentences contain information that the monk lost his diary written in statu nascendi, therefore it is obvious The ascendancy appears as a reconstruction of non­existing then papers. However, some documents certainly preserved in Dembołęcki’s luggage because they were cited in the book from 1623 – authentic letters addressed to the headquarters of the regiment and its laws. High frequency of gospel quotations or their explanations lead to a conclusion that there must have been some notes on Dembołęcki’s desk used before in his preaching activity. Besides, the author was an eyewitness of more events pictured in his book and clearly distinguishes what he saw on his own and what he did not see at all but repeated following some heard accounts. Moreover, in a poem ending the entire book he confesses that some sections were being printed and at the same time the others were be­ing written. It took place in a Poznań guesthouse. These arguments should have been an excuse for numerous errors noticed yet in a typographic workshop (of Jan Wolrab). All those circumstances or other details (found in the report in question) reveal the truth on Dembołęcki’s way of working on his first ever book. It was created in a hurry because the relation had an important aim: to rebuild good reputation of disgraced lisovchicks. Significantly, the author apparently stole some copies of the whole edition and the abovementioned typographer was imprisoned for printing the title without episcopal approval required at the time. There is no doubt the book was extremely needed and reached the readers despite serious difficulties.