Stanisław Roszak

Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń

Between Official Statement and Personal Confession. Correspondence of the Załuski Family in the 18th Century 

In the early modern era, the letter was the primary form of social contact. The two brothers Andrzej Stanisław, Chancellor of the Crown, and Józef Andrzej, Referendary of the Crown, exchanged correspondence for over 30 years. Both belonged not only to the political elite, but also to the intellectual elite, which is why their letters are dominated by public, political matters. Private statements, personal confessions appear in letters to other family members – three sisters and two brothers. Emotions and concern appear in relation to brother Jacob. He was the only one of the brothers who had not made a clerical career, and so he was associated with hopes for a secular career, for marriage and, above all, for the extension of the Załuski family. In the correspondence, two moments of intensified personal statements can be discerned. The first is related to family matters – the problem of children’s education, meetings, important events in the lives of brothers and sisters. The second is related to illness and fatigue. This is when confessions about the passing of life, the sorrows and joys of life appear in the letters.