Silva Rerum | 17.07.2020 9th July 1690 witnessed the official installation of the apostolic nuncio Andrea Santacroce (1655-1712) and the nuncio’s first audience with King Jan III Sobieski. Santacroce came to Warsaw at the end of June that year. In his retinue was Giovan Battista Fagiuoli (1660-1742), a Florentine who played the role of a secretary, while also making notes about whatever was of interest to him. He made these records in a private diary. Fagiuoli’s relation enables the reconstruction of a chain of daily events occurring during the nuncio’s stay in Warsaw in the 17th century. This relation can be viewed as truly unique for its style. A witty satirical poet, Fagiuoli became an acclaimed comic playwright after his return to Florence. He was a prolific author, as he published several volumes of comedies and satirical poems. His literary talent paved his way to Arcadia, one of the most renowned and appreciated literary academies, founded in 1690, which operates to the present day. As the nuncio’s secretary, he almost always accompanied his superior while participating in all the significant visits that Santacroce paid in the Commonwealth. His relation, however, differs considerably from the impressions written by the nuncio, the latter stored in the Archivo di Stato in Rome. Indeed, one can speak about two parallel, but far from equivalent, views on the Commonwealth: the perspective provided by a high-born Roman, a representative of the clergy, and an envoy of the pope; and the view offered by an impecunious layman aspiring to nobility and a satirical poet from the city of Florence. The former maintained a style marked by elegance, dignity and gravity, as befitted his mission, even when putting pen to paper to make notes in his private journal; the latter expressed interest in people and wrote volubly, and with humour, about their day-to-day lives.
To either of them the trip to the Commonwealth posed a challenge. Nonetheless, their objectives differed. While the nuncio explained in his so far unpublished journal that he had been sent to a country sitting on the boundaries of Europe in order to serve the Holy See, Fagiuoli had agreed to go on that trip on a voluntary basis in order to earn a living, and also to get to know the country “of the fearless Sarmatian, which borders the devil from the depths”, as he put it in one of his sonnets in Rime piacevoli. In contrast to a typical traveller’s diary, put together mainly for satisfying the curiosity of the readership or for making a report on a diplomatic mission, either of these two documents is a daily travelogue, where the point of gravity rests on the author describing the events that he experienced, and on the persons that he met. In which aspects do their first impressions of the Commonwealth differ? What attracts the attention of these travellers? How do they describe the court and their meeting with the royal family?
A significant difference can already be seen in the fact that the nuncio remains silent about the hardships of their journey, while Fagiuoli makes these hardships the object of his grumbling. Like a hero from an adventure novel, Fagiuoli forces his way through treacherous places in the Alps, where one could easily break his neck. Meanwhile, the nuncio merely concludes that the stage of their journey from Vienna to Warsaw had been the worst imaginable, and that those who are used to Italian delicacies and to resting their heads on feather pillows will fail to understand this. Nevertheless, one must observe that while travelling conditions in the old Poland must have been difficult, the nuncio was entitled to the most comfortable place in the procession, whereas Fagiuoli had the honourable roofless place on the coach, and would often have to travel in the pouring rain, ‘half-conscious and soaked to the skin’.
They reached Warsaw on 24th June. The audience with the king took place on 9th July 1690, following the official installation of the nuncio, described vividly by Fagiuoli. The greeting of the pope’s envoy made a great impression on the poet. First, the Secretary of the Crown, Stanislaw Antoni Szczuka, came in a regal carriage in order to receive the nuncio, along with ‘many Prelates and Voivodes’, who created a retinue composed of six-horse vehicles. Fagiuoli relates that the road to the Kazimierz Palace, where members of the royal family awaited them, was lined ‘in a well-ordered fashion’ with the army and the royal guard, whose liveries and uniforms, accompanied by fluttering banners, and also by music played on various instruments, made a truly magnificent sight. When they reached the Palace, the first audience with the King took place, held in the presence of the Chancellor of the Crown, Jerzy Albrecht Denhoff, and also bishops, diplomats, voivodes, and nobility. Monsignore came into the chamber, and the King, bareheaded, took ‘at least four steps’ to welcome the nuncio. The nuncio’s secretary explains that the King’s headgear, together with his sabre, rested on a small table. Subsequently, the nuncio visited the Queen. He ‘found her encircled by a large group of ladies and voivodes’ wives’. Afterwards, the nuncio called on the King’s son Jakub, and then also on Kunegunda, the King’s daughter. Lastly, the nuncio and his secretary went to pay their respects to the King’s sons, Aleksander and Konstantyn. Fagiuoli created interesting profiles of the members of the royal family. He described the King as an erudite person and a geographer, and also as a ‘friend of money’, and a man whose greatness is proportionate with his height, and who used to be named ‘a handsome Pole’ when he was young. Maria Kazimiera was characterised as ‘having retained beauty and vibrancy’. Of all the children, Aleksander and Kunegunda made the best impression on the comic playwright. He considered Aleksander as ‘vigorous and endowed with a sense of humour’. He viewed Kunegunda as having ‘a proud look’ and ‘the knowledge of two languages: Latin and French’. Jakub, by contrast, was depicted as ‘rather short, dark-haired, very slim, his voice resembling that of a woman, and his face similar to that of a person suffering from tuberculosis. Fagiuoli added that the King’s son was not loved by the Poles. Konstantyn, in turn, was described as ‘not as handsome or witty’ as his elder brother Aleksander.
In his version of events, the nuncio Santacroce concentrated almost all his attention on his feeling of being underestimated during the audience with the King. It was true that he had been received with kindness expressed in words, and that he had been glad to see a portrait of the pope, which hanged in the chamber, as that reflected the host’s loyalty to the Apostolic See, but the fact remained that while receiving Monsignore, the King was bareheaded, which pressed the nuncio to act in kind. Santacroce was surprised, but he did not want to make any remarks during his first visit, as these might have been viewed as ‘bringing chrysanthemums to the wedding’. However, after yet another gaffe, this time made by the King’s son Jakub, who failed to walk Monsignore to the door sufficiently far, the nuncio lost his patience, and the sequence had to be repeated, as in a theatre production. The second time, Jakub was excessively kind, and thus had almost made one more gaffe. As Fagiuoli put it, ‘the nuncio paid another visit, during which the King’s son came for his guest to as far as the antechamber, and I should think that he would have walked him back to as far as the coach, thus making the nuncio court Jakub like a lady of the evening would do, trying to convince him to stay at the door of the room, so that this new treatment would not change into derision’. Ceremonial was important, as the rules of conduct highlighted the rank of the guests, and the pope’s envoy was not an ordinary deputy. He exercised spiritual authority in the country to which he had been sent. Hence, the nuncio added in his diary that he had expressed a wish that the rules governing the treatment of the apostolic nuncio be written, but whether or not such rules would be observed was ‘not certain’. All in all, the Italian visitors received an explanation that the King was not in the habit of wearing headgear in the summer, and that the King’s son Jakub still lacks experience in welcoming such visitors. Notably, the Florentine’s interpretation of the misunderstanding caused by the King’s son’s behaviour was entirely different, as he attributed his behaviour to cultural differences: ‘in Poland, they do not care so much about being precise in measuring steps as they do in Rome, where span-by-span measurements are taken to gain some space’. Needless to say, also in this case, the rank of the traveller and the objective of his visit are factors which are viewed as decisive for interpreting facts: the words of the nuncio refer to himself as the pope’s envoy, who must look after the interests of the Holy See. The nuncio reveals in his diary that he blushes at the thought that, young as he is, he should make such remarks and admonish others, while he himself so often stands in need of being corrected. However, as he sums up, ‘At times, God chooses to demonstrate his Divine Providence through the weakest’. It comes as no wonder that the secretary Fagiuoli looked at the same events from a different perspective. His supporting role enabled him to focus on details, which the nuncio chose to omit. As a matter of fact, Fagiuoli’s relation, translated by Małgorzata Trzeciak and published by Museum of King Jan III’s Palace at Wilanów (2017), reveals details illustrating the way of life in Warsaw at the close of the 17th century, from descriptions of the reception of guests at the Palace to public executions on the outskirts of the capital.
The author expresses her gratitude to British Academy for enabling her to run her archival research in the remit of Newton International Fellowship [170169]. For further details on Santacroce’s and Fagiuoli’s stay in Poland, visit: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00751634.2020.1771912.
Translated by Piotr Nagórka