Dariusz Chemperek

Vilnius – Thessaloniki – Ruse. Three Multicultural Cities and Autobiographical Places in Baroque Ego-documents

The presentation is based on two memoirs: Treasury of Memories by Maciej Vorbeck-Lettow (mid-17th century), An echo to the world of my turbulent travels and life by Regina Salomea Rusiecka-Pilsztynowa (mid-18th century) and the Travel Diary of Filip Orlik (first half of the 18th century). The “protagonists” are three cities considered by Baroque memoirists to be multicultural: Vilnius in Lithuania (Vorbeck-Lettow), Thessaloniki in Greece (Orlik), and Ruse in Bulgaria (Pilsztynowa), the last two located within the borders of the Ottoman Empire. It has two goals. Firstly, to highlight the similarities and differences in the approach to multiculturalism and the aspect of privacy in the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and in the cities of the Ottoman Empire. These relate to ethnic, religious and social issues, manifesting themselves both in daily life and in relations with the ruling elite. What links these three cities – so different geographically and culturally, yet similar in terms of size and economic significance – is the fact that Baroque memoirists turned them into ‘autobiographical places’. This concept, derived from contemporary geopoetics (K. White, Y.-F. Tuan, M. Czermińska), can be applied to the aforementioned Baroque ego-documents. Vilnius, Thessaloniki and Ruse are individualised by the memoirists in various ways. For Lettow, Vilnius is a place of identity and approval, though at the same time, the identification of Vilnius burghers with Lettow goes, in the memoirist’s view, too far (restriction of freedom). For the travellers – Orlik and Pilsztynowa – Thessaloniki and Ruse become established autobiographical places, where they find acceptance for their foreignness and successfully acclimatise to the unfamiliar surroundings of these oriental cities. They imbue them with emotion and enrich their existing symbolism with their own personal tone.