Nie tylko pochwała rodu – o znaczeniu ramy wydawniczej "Komedyj i tragedyj" Franciszki Urszuli Radziwiłłowej w upamiętnieniu pierwszej polskiej dramatopisarki

Abstract

The article is an analysis of the function of elements of front matter and end matter in the collection of sixteen plays by Franciszka Urszula Radziwiłłowa. The collection was published shortly after the death of the author, thanks to the efforts of her assistant, Jakub Fryczyński, who actively supported the Princess at Nesvizh in her theatrical undertakings for many years. Published in 1754 and dedicated to the aristocrat’s daughters, the tome was the second consecutive initiative aiming at sharing Radziwiłłowa’s literary work with a wider audience. The first attempt was undertaken still in the author’s lifetime, and abandoned for reasons unknown to us today. An analysis of the dedication and foreword for the reader allows one to characterise the role of these elements in a publishing undertaking which was unusual for its time, depicting a member of a great aristocratic family not as a wife, mother, or respected matron, but as a learned woman, a bibliophile and, most of all, a writer.