Le lettere di Tomasz Kajetan Węgierski scritte durante il viaggio del 1779 attraverso il Veneto

In the rich prose of Tomasz Kajetan Węgierski (1755-1787), a talented poet and satirist, a special place is occupied by a French-language diary. This diary was in the form of letters written during a journey around Italy in 1779. His recipient was a certain Julia, a friend and lover of the poet living in Paris. His letters survived in the Manuscript Section of the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow, though, unfortunately, as an incomplete copy only: just seven letters, written in November and December from Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and Venice, have been preserved entirely. We also have the beginning of an eighth letter, written from Venice. Furthermore, we have the poet’s comments on several missing letters, four of which refer to the city on the lagoon and one to Ferrara. There is also a fragment of a letter from Rome devoted to the catacombs. From its content, we learn that the poet intended to return to the city of St. Mark to see the wedding ceremony of the Venetian Republic with the sea. The aim of this article is to present the motivations that prompted the poet to leave the PolishLithuanian Commonwealth, as well as to analyse his impressions from his trip around Veneto. It is worth noting that this region was only a stage, though a very important one, on the poet’s route leading to the capital of the Papal States. This Italian region fascinated, surprised, and shocked the Pole, and in his notes, which are full of anecdotes and jokes, we find extensive descriptions of the history and culture of Verona, Vicenza, Padua, and Venice. Also included are more-detailed characteristics of the inhabitants and their customs, as well as all kinds of information about everyday life on the road. Węgierski’s narrative, though different in many respects from the travel descriptions of his predecessors, is quite typical of the century in which he lived.