On 11 March 2026, the inaugural event of the new lecture series Polacchi a Roma: itinerari culturali e politici nel Seicento took place online under the auspices of the Istituto Nazionale di Studi Romani. The programme focused on the Roman journey of Jakub Sobieski (1592–1646) and its cultural and political dimensions. The lecture was delivered by Alessandro Boccolini, Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Tuscia (Università della Tuscia), a recognised specialist in relations between seventeenth-century Poland and the Holy See. He is a member of CESPoM (Centro Studi sull’Età dei Sobieski e della Polonia Moderna) and CIRVI (Centro Interuniversitario di Ricerche sul Viaggio in Italia), and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Eastern European History Review.
In his introductory remarks, Professor Boccolini emphasised that the Italian peregrinations undertaken by the Polish nobility in the seventeenth century represented a distinctive East-Central European adaptation of the aristocratic Grand Tour tradition that flourished across Europe. During his youthful travels between 1607 and 1613, Jakub Sobieski visited Italy, Spain, and France, pursuing studies aimed at acquiring theological, historical, and artistic knowledge. Sobieski recorded his stay in Rome in a detailed travel diary, which constitutes a unique source for understanding the Eternal City within the intellectual and religious milieu of the early Baroque period.
Particular attention was devoted to the political dimensions of such journeys. During the first half of the seventeenth century, the Roman visits of Polish noblemen and envoys could often be interpreted as missions of obedientia, serving as public demonstrations of fidelity and loyalty to the Holy See. Boccolini pointed out that this function was especially significant in the relationship between Catholic Poland and the papacy, and that similar ceremonial gestures accompanied the triumphal entries into Rome of Jerzy Ossoliński and Michał Radziwiłł.
In the concluding section of the lecture, Boccolini evaluated Sobieski’s travel diary not merely as a personal reflection but also as a diplomatic and cultural document. The text, in which Roman experiences emerge through the interweaving of knowledge, faith, and representation, provides an excellent illustration of how pilgrimage to Rome became an integral component of both the identity formation and the political experience of the Polish nobility.
The forthcoming lectures in the Polacchi a Roma series will present further examples of the Italian presence of seventeenth-century Polish diplomats and travellers, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of the connections between Central Europe and Rome.
The lecture was followed on behalf of the Fraknói Research Group by Katalin Nagy, Vatican Archives Research Resident and staff member of the Collegium Professorum Hungarorum.
