Chorografie w literaturze dawnej Polski. Wprowadzenie

The paper analyses chorographic tropes in Polish writings. Chorography appeared already in antiquity as the art of describing (in more or less detail) historic and geographic lands, geographic phenomena, tourist attractions and landmarks known to the author (though not always from personal experience). It mostly included the descriptions of: the location and components of a given area, hydrology, major cities, life and customs of residents, sometimes also political system and natural resources. In Polish literature chorography had never featured as a separate literary genre. It was usually a part of introductions to historical works, as in the 12th-c. chronicle by Gallus Anonymus. Some of the publications were extremely popular, like the geographical work of Maciej of Miechów, a bestseller of Renaissance European literature, or chorography by Jan Długosz, which was a model of informative description of Poland until the 19th c., or the guide to the Holy Land by Anzelm Polak used until the early 20th c. Chorography developed in two ways. One was descriptions of particular countries, regions and places. In that form very conventionalized chorographic tropes enter geographic and functional texts, and can still be found in tourist guides. The other path is the hybrid generic structure, which stems from travelling reports, usually in the form of a diary. Chorography and chorographic tropes have not been given much space in Polish academic thought to date.