Encounters in the Habsburg Lands

Eighteenth-Century Polish Travel Accounts of Hungary by Ignacy Zawisza (1715) and Józef Aleksander Jabłonowski (1762)

Abstract

This article examines two eighteenth-century Polish travel accounts describing journeys through the Habsburg-ruled Kingdom of Hungary: the military account by Ignacy Zawisza from 1715 and the unpublished manuscript by Józef Aleksander Jabłonowski from 1762. The aim of the article is to highlight how Polish travellers perceived space, society, and history in the region, depending on the context of their journey as well as their social position and intellectual ambitions. The primary sources are two travel narratives – Zawisza’s printed and concise account, based on his military campaign experience, and Jabłonowski’s much more extensive manuscript, combining topographical observations with historical, genealogical, and heraldic reflections. The article also draws on relevant scholarship on eighteenth-century travel culture, Polish-Hungarian relations, and the representation of early modern elites. Both narratives are analysed comparatively, using a cultural perspective that makes it possible to reveal the cognitive, representational, and identity-building functions of travel writing in eighteenth-century noble culture. Special attention is paid to narrative construction and to the tension between factual description and the symbolic dimension of the travel accounts. The article argues that travel through Hungary served not only practical and cognitive purposes for the Polish nobility, but also played a role in self-representation and the shaping of identity. While Zawisza’s account aimed to document participation in a Habsburg-led military campaign, Jabłonowski’s manuscript was a conscious attempt at self-fashioning and presenting himself as a member of European intellectual networks. The article thus demonstrates how travel could serve as a medium for asserting status and participating in the transnational culture of early modern Europe.