DOI Artikel:
Małkiewicz, Adam: Teoria architektury w nowożytnym piśmiennictwie polskim
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26754#0133
THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE IN POLISH WRITINGS
FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
TILL 1812
Summary
Modern Polish writtings on architecture have already several times been
synthetically studied (e.g. by F. Kucharzewski — 1911, A. Lauterbach — 1929, M. Pi-
wocka — 1952, Z. Mieszkowski — 1970). Unlike these earlieT works, which either
contain only short outlines of particular treatises or are written maimly from the
aspect of the history of technology, the present study is confined to the theoretical
and aesthetic problems referred to in this literature. Two ąuestions emerge: the
comprehension of architecture and the understanding of the essence of beauty in
architecture.
Covered in this study are prints and manuscripts beginning from the first
references to architecture in Polish mid-16th century literature and ending with
the treatise by Sebastian Sierakowski from 1812 entitled Architektura ohejmująca
wszelki gatunek murowania i budowania (Architecture Embracing All Kinds of
Blicklaying and Building), which is the last Polish work in the spirit of Vitruvian
treatises encompassing the whole of arch-itectural science. At first, only incidental
rema-rtks on architecture are to be found in travel books, economic writings, and
moralizing literature. Specialiized treatises did not appear in Poland before the latter
half of the 17th century; the earliest known is Krótka nauka budownicza dworów,
pałaców, zamków podług nieba i zwyczaju polskiego (Short Instruction in the Build-
ing of Manor-Houses, Palaces, Castles According to the Polish Sky and Custom),
dated 1659, which is ascribed to the magnate Łukasz Opaliński. Suth treatises were
not intended for connoisseurs. As a rule, they were school-books designed first for
Jesuit (B. N. Wąsowski — 1678, W. Tylkowski — 1680, K. Zdzański — 1749, J. Ro-
galiński — 1764) and later on for secular schools (W. Sierakowski — 1796, S. Sie-
rakowski — 1812). Opaliński’s treatise was a guide to building intended for investors.
About the middle of the 18th century there appeared popular and encyclopaedic
publications addressed to the reader at large, which also included short treatises
on architecture (W. Bystrzonowski — 1743, B. Chmielowski — 1745—1754). It was
to the didactic activity of the Jesuit Bystrzonowski that Injormacja architektonicz-
na (Architectural Information) owed its exdstence. Besides, the syllabuses and
synopses of lectures as well as students’ notes, dating from the turn of the 18th
and 19th centuries and for the most part connected with Vilna University, bear upon
teaching methods. It was only after 1800 tha.t speaialist treatises concerned with
selected theoretical, aestetic or historical problems bega-n to appear (M. Szulc —
1801, C. P. Aigner — 1808 and 1812).
Chapter I of the present study is devoted to a chronological discussion and
preliminary characterisation of particular Polish writings on architecture. In Chapter
II, changes in the comcept of architecture as reflected in modern Polish literature
are presented against the background of the evolution that took place in the views
of society. The authors of the first treatises ranked it among the sciences in opposi-
tion to the mediaeval concept of architecture as a craft, long obtaining in Poland.
In the latter half of the 18th century there appeared the idea of fine arts including
architecture, and the early 19th century witnessed the first signs of its beimg
coneeived as a branch of engdneering. Thds was accompanied by changes in the
understanding of the rołe of Revelation in the origins of architecture and of the
125
FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
TILL 1812
Summary
Modern Polish writtings on architecture have already several times been
synthetically studied (e.g. by F. Kucharzewski — 1911, A. Lauterbach — 1929, M. Pi-
wocka — 1952, Z. Mieszkowski — 1970). Unlike these earlieT works, which either
contain only short outlines of particular treatises or are written maimly from the
aspect of the history of technology, the present study is confined to the theoretical
and aesthetic problems referred to in this literature. Two ąuestions emerge: the
comprehension of architecture and the understanding of the essence of beauty in
architecture.
Covered in this study are prints and manuscripts beginning from the first
references to architecture in Polish mid-16th century literature and ending with
the treatise by Sebastian Sierakowski from 1812 entitled Architektura ohejmująca
wszelki gatunek murowania i budowania (Architecture Embracing All Kinds of
Blicklaying and Building), which is the last Polish work in the spirit of Vitruvian
treatises encompassing the whole of arch-itectural science. At first, only incidental
rema-rtks on architecture are to be found in travel books, economic writings, and
moralizing literature. Specialiized treatises did not appear in Poland before the latter
half of the 17th century; the earliest known is Krótka nauka budownicza dworów,
pałaców, zamków podług nieba i zwyczaju polskiego (Short Instruction in the Build-
ing of Manor-Houses, Palaces, Castles According to the Polish Sky and Custom),
dated 1659, which is ascribed to the magnate Łukasz Opaliński. Suth treatises were
not intended for connoisseurs. As a rule, they were school-books designed first for
Jesuit (B. N. Wąsowski — 1678, W. Tylkowski — 1680, K. Zdzański — 1749, J. Ro-
galiński — 1764) and later on for secular schools (W. Sierakowski — 1796, S. Sie-
rakowski — 1812). Opaliński’s treatise was a guide to building intended for investors.
About the middle of the 18th century there appeared popular and encyclopaedic
publications addressed to the reader at large, which also included short treatises
on architecture (W. Bystrzonowski — 1743, B. Chmielowski — 1745—1754). It was
to the didactic activity of the Jesuit Bystrzonowski that Injormacja architektonicz-
na (Architectural Information) owed its exdstence. Besides, the syllabuses and
synopses of lectures as well as students’ notes, dating from the turn of the 18th
and 19th centuries and for the most part connected with Vilna University, bear upon
teaching methods. It was only after 1800 tha.t speaialist treatises concerned with
selected theoretical, aestetic or historical problems bega-n to appear (M. Szulc —
1801, C. P. Aigner — 1808 and 1812).
Chapter I of the present study is devoted to a chronological discussion and
preliminary characterisation of particular Polish writings on architecture. In Chapter
II, changes in the comcept of architecture as reflected in modern Polish literature
are presented against the background of the evolution that took place in the views
of society. The authors of the first treatises ranked it among the sciences in opposi-
tion to the mediaeval concept of architecture as a craft, long obtaining in Poland.
In the latter half of the 18th century there appeared the idea of fine arts including
architecture, and the early 19th century witnessed the first signs of its beimg
coneeived as a branch of engdneering. Thds was accompanied by changes in the
understanding of the rołe of Revelation in the origins of architecture and of the
125