October 3^rd, at 6:30 p.m.

Polish soldiers in Rome and Latium in spring and summer of 1789

The lecture of prof. Krzysztof ŻABOKLICKI (University of Warsaw)

 SUMMARY:

The Polish Legions, under General Dąbrowski, entered Rome on 3 May 1798, on the seventh anniversary of the enactment of the first Polish constitution, known as the 3 May Constitution. At that time the pope had fled and Rome was occupied by French troops. It had become the capital of the short-lived Roman Republic, one of the sister republics of republican France, and was governed by local Jacobins supported by the French. The Polish soldiers, most of whom were devout Catholics of peasant stock, were initially welcomed by a populace rather hostile towards the French, whom they considered godless and despotic. Towards the end of that July a violent uprising against the Republicans broke out in the southern part of Lazio, officially named Département Circeo by the new authorities, on the border with the Kingdom of Naples. French and Polish troops were dispatched from the capital to put down the revolt, and several bloody battles were waged, among them at Ferentino and Frosinone. The insurgents did not hold out for long, and on 10 August victory was celebrated in Rome. Polish garrisons remained in the subdued region until the end of November, i.e. until the invasion of the Neapolitan army.

Krzysztof ŻABOKLICKI, professor emeritus since 2004. He began his university career in 1964 when he took up the position of academic teacher of Italian literature at Warsaw University; in 1988, on being awarded the degree of ordinary professor, he became the head of the Italian department there. In the years 1991–2004 he was director of the Polish Academy of Sciences Research Center in Rome. Author of numerous translations from Italian, including texts by Machiavelli, Umberto Eco, Primo Levi and Andrea Camilleri. He has also written numerous monographs, in Polish and Italian, on subjects including Boccaccio, Goldoni, and Verga, and his published contributions to collected works and periodicals are legion. He is also the author of the Polish history of Italian literature Historia literatury włoskiej (PWN, Warszawa, 2008). In the period 1997–2001 he was the chairman of the Italian association of foreign institutes of archaeology, history, and art history, based in Rome (Unione Internazionale degli Istituti di Archeologia, Storia e Storia dell’Arte in Roma). He is a foreign member of the Venetian institute Ateneo Veneto. He has been awarded the distinction Commendatore dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana for his services in the field of academic and cultural Polish-Italian contacts.

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