Staropolskie teksty literackie jako źródła do dziejów epidemii (rekonesans)

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of several selected sources from old Polish literature. Literature identifies three areas of the former, which the creator undertook about the plague. The material is divided according to the criterion of literary genres: 1) selection of occasional sermons, which have been useful during the plague, 2) religious songs during the times of the plague, 3) secular songs on the epidemic (e.g. poetry, treaty). In the case of literary texts, whose authors put the plague in the centre of their interests, we are dealing with social anxiety documentation and excitation piety. The largest of these was the fear of sudden death, which resulted in the prospect of condemnation. A sudden, unexpected death of is interpreted by the religious authorities as eternal death. Devotional texts – the theme of approaching plague – were a kind of warning to the sinful community. Accompanied by the obsession with death a man who feared the epidemic found confirmation in literature. It can be concluded that the subject understood aesthetisation as sublimation through high style and speech, as well as ancient and biblical Topik, and through that he tried to both tame the personified plague and highlight its importance to the average Christian.