Heraldyczne inspiracje w oratorstwie sejmikowym

Abstract

In Old Polish parliamentary culture, oratory has always been identified with a ceremonial act, belonging to the ceremonial. However, the procedure of sejmic debates and their rather turbulent nature were not conducive to framing them as a directed spectacle of a celebration of power. Rather than a semiotic spectacle, the participants in the deliberations were immersed in living heraldry – the natural entourage of their everyday life, visible in their clothes, architecture, everyday objects, signs of power and military flags. The intellectual level of the deliberators was not conducive to the use of an ornate style by the sejm speakers, so heraldic inventions were rarely resorted to, the narrative was built around the popular slogans of freedom and equality of the nobility. What was important was a simple message and the achievement of current political goals. A retrospection of the circumstances of the deliberations, the participants and their intentions allows us to draw the conclusion that references to the rich symbolism of coats of arms did not play an important role in the symbolic communication of the country’s sejmiks. This arouses some surprise when we compare how important a point of reference was the heraldic communication of other public-private, secular and religious ceremonies in the modern era. All these circumstances allow us to put forward the thesis of the absence of ceremonial – a spectacle in the sejmik deliberations, and define the occurrence of certain ceremonial events as belonging to the custom or ritual of the agenda and the parliamentary culture so formed at the time. [Translated by Stefan Kubiak]