Karkonosze i ich mieszkańcy w świetle wybranych osiemnastowiecznych relacji z podróży

Abstract

The Karkonosze Mountains and their inhabitants in the light of selected 18th-century travel accounts

The present sketch deals with the image of the inhabitants of the Silesian and Czech Karkonosze Mountains to be found in works by 18th-century travel writers and geographers of the Enlightenment era representing both the Prussian J.C.F. GutsMuths, J.H.F. Ulrich, J.E. Troschel and E.F. Buquoi and pro-Habsburg point of view F. Fuß. Notwithstanding the affiliation to this or that political and, consequently, confessional group, in their works all authors clearly drew on the models provided by Swiss scholars and writers, primarily A. von Haller as well as J.J. Scheuchzer, which can be seen in implicit and explicit references included in the analysed texts. When analysing the various works, the author tries to demonstrate the presence of these references with regard to the ways of presenting people living in the mountains, their condition, work and customs, which, according to the present author, quite closely follows the models found primarily in A. von Haller’s poem The Alps.