View source for Jan Potocki

{{short description|Polish nobleman, writer (creating in French), traveler, politician and historian}}
{{Infobox person
| name          = Jan Potocki
| image         = Jan Potocki.PNG
| imagesize     = 230px
| caption       = Jan Potocki by [[Alexander Varnek]]
| birth_date    = {{birth date|df=y|1761|3|8}}
| birth_place   = Pików, [[Podolia]], [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]]
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1815|12|23|1761|3|8|df=y}}
| death_place   = Uladivka, [[Vinnytsia]], [[Russian Empire]]
| occupation    = {{hlist|Novelist|ethnologist|politician}}
| nationality   = [[Polish people|Polish]]
| era           = [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]]; [[Romanticism]]
| known_for     = ''[[The Manuscript Found in Saragossa]]'' (1805)
| spouse        = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Julia Lubomirska]]|1783|1794|end=d.}}
* {{marriage|[[Konstancja Potocka]]|1799}}
}}
| children      = five
| father        = [[Stanisław Potocki (1734–1802)|Józef Potocki]]
| mother        = [[Anna Teresa Ossolińska]]
| signature     = 
| signature_alt =
}}

'''Count Jan Potocki''' ({{IPA|pl|ˈjan pɔˈtɔt͡skʲi}}; 8 March 1761 – 23 December 1815) was a Polish nobleman, [[ethnology|ethnologist]], [[linguistics|linguist]], traveller and author of the [[Enlightenment in Poland|Enlightenment period]], whose life and exploits made him a celebrated figure in [[Poland]]. He is known chiefly for his [[Picaresque novel|picaresque]] novel, ''[[The Manuscript Found in Saragossa]]''.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2025-05-18 |author=Konrad Walewski; John Clute |date=2023 |title=SFE: Potocki, Jan |url=https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/potocki_jan |website=sf-encyclopedia.com}}<!-- auto-translated from Polish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>

Born into affluent Polish nobility, Potocki lived abroad from an early age and was primarily educated in [[Switzerland]]. He frequently visited the salons of [[Paris]] and toured Europe before temporarily returning to [[Poland]] in 1778. As a soldier, he fought in [[Austrian Empire|Austrian]] ranks in the [[War of the Bavarian Succession]], and in 1789 was appointed a [[Military engineering|military engineer]] in the Polish army. During his extensive voyages he actively documented prevailing customs, ongoing wars, revolutions and national awakenings, which made him a pioneer of [[travel literature]]. Fascinated by the [[occult]], Potocki studied ancient cultures, rituals and secret societies. Simultaneously, he was a member of parliament and took part in the [[Great Sejm]] shortly before the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] ceased to exist.

In spite of his literary career, Potocki became burdened by mental illness and [[Depression (mood)|melancholy]]. He committed suicide by gunshot in 1815; however, the circumstances of his death remain controversial to this day.

==Life==
Jan Potocki was born into the [[Potocki family|Potocki aristocratic family]], that owned vast estates across Poland. He was educated in [[Geneva]] and [[Lausanne]], served twice in the [[Polish Army]] as a captain of engineers, and spent some time on a galley as novice to the [[Knights Hospitaller|Knights of Malta]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Lachman |first=Gary |date=2014 |title=Revolutionaries of the Soul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AmBbBgAAQBAJ |publisher=Questbooks |page=35 |isbn=9780835631815}}</ref> His colorful life took him across [[Europe]], [[Asia]] and [[North Africa]], where he embroiled himself in political intrigues, flirted with [[secret society|secret societies]] and contributed to the birth of [[ethnology]] – he was one of the first to study the precursors of the [[Slavic peoples]] from a [[linguistics|linguistic]] and historical standpoint.<ref name="forteantimes.com">{{cite web|url=http://forteantimes.com/articles/140_potocki.shtml |title=The Mystical Count Potocki. ''Fortean Times.'' |access-date=2008-08-14 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020811153132/http://forteantimes.com/articles/140_potocki.shtml |archive-date=August 11, 2002 }} Retrieved September 22, 2011.</ref>

In 1790 he became the first person in [[Poland]] to fly in a [[hot air balloon]] when he made an ascent over [[Warsaw]] with the aeronaut [[Jean-Pierre Blanchard]], an exploit that earned him great public acclaim.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lachman|2014|p=37}}</ref> He spent some time in France, and upon his return to Poland, he became a known publicist, publishing newspapers and pamphlets, in which he argued for various reforms.<ref name=Bauer>{{cite book|author=Krzysztof Bauer|title=Uchwalenie i obrona Konstytucji 3 Maja|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WLNGAAAAIAAJ|access-date=2 January 2012|year=1991|publisher=Wydawnictwa Szkolne i Pedagogiczne|isbn=978-83-02-04615-5|page=38}}</ref> He also established in 1788 in Warsaw a publishing house named ''Drukarnia Wolna'' (Free Press)  as well as the city's first free reading room. His relation with [[Stanislaus Augustus]] was thorny, as Potocki, while often supportive of the king, on occasion did not shy from his critique.<ref name=Bauer/> He was also highly critical of the Russian ambassador, [[Otto Magnus von Stackelberg (ambassador)|Otto Magnus von Stackelberg]].<ref name=Bauer/>

Potocki's wealth enabled him to travel extensively about Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia, visiting Italy, [[Sicily]], [[Malta]], the [[Netherlands]], [[Germany]], [[France]], [[England]], [[Russia]], [[Turkey]], [[Dalmatia]], the [[Balkans]], the [[Caucasus]], [[Spain]], [[Tunisia]], [[Morocco]], [[Egypt]], and even [[Mongolia]]. He was also one of the first [[travel writer]]s of the modern era, penning lively accounts of many of his journeys, during which he also undertook extensive historical, linguistic, and ethnographic studies.<ref name="forteantimes.com" />

Potocki married twice and had five children. His first marriage ended in divorce, and both marriages were the subject of scandalous rumors. In 1812, disillusioned and in poor health, he retired to his estate at Uładówka (now Uladivka) near [[Vinnytsia]] in present-day Ukraine, suffering from "[[melancholia]]" (which today would probably be diagnosed as [[Clinical depression|depression]]), and during the last few years of his life he completed his novel.<ref name="forteantimes.com" />

==''The Manuscript Found in Saragossa''==
{{Main article|The Manuscript Found in Saragossa}}
[[File:Jan Potocki.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Jan Potocki, by [[Anton Graff]], 1785]]
Potocki's most famous work, originally written in [[French language|French]], is ''[[The Manuscript Found in Saragossa]]'' (''Manuscrit trouvé à Saragosse'').<ref name="ukfsn.org">[http://www.acampbell.ukfsn.org/bookreviews/r/potocki.html Count Jan Potocki: ''The Saragossa Manuscript.''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930110714/http://www.acampbell.ukfsn.org/bookreviews/r/potocki.html |date=2011-09-30 }} Book review by Anthony Campbell (2001). Retrieved September 22, 2011.</ref> It is a [[frame tale]]. On account of its rich, interlocking structure, and telescoping story sequences, the novel has drawn comparisons to such celebrated works as the ''[[Decameron]]'' and the ''[[Arabian Nights]]''.<ref name="ukfsn.org" />

The book's title is explained in the foreword, which is narrated by an unnamed French officer who describes his fortuitous discovery of an intriguing Spanish manuscript during the sack of [[Zaragoza]] in 1809, in the course of the [[Napoleonic Wars]].<ref name="Lachman 2014 39">{{Harvnb|Lachman|2014|p=39}}</ref> Soon after, the French officer is captured by the Spanish and stripped of his possessions; but a Spanish officer recognizes the manuscript's importance, and during the French officer's captivity the Spaniard translates it for him into French.

The manuscript has been written by a young officer of the [[Walloons|Walloon]] Guard, Alphonse van Worden. In 1739, while ''en route'' to Madrid to serve with the Spanish Army, he is diverted into Spain's rugged [[Sierra Morena]] region.<ref>{{Harvnb|Lachman|2014|p=40}}</ref> There, over a period of sixty-six days, he encounters a varied group of characters, including Muslim princesses, [[Romani people|Gypsies]], outlaws, and [[kabbalist]]s, who tell him an intertwining series of bizarre, amusing, and fantastic tales which he records in his diary.

The sixty-six stories cover a wide range of themes, subjects, and styles, including [[Gothic novel|gothic]] horror, [[Picaresque novel|picaresque]] adventures, and comic, [[erotic]], and [[moral]] tales. The stories reflect Potocki's interest in [[secret society|secret societies]], the [[supernatural]], and [[Orientalism|oriental]] cultures, and they are illustrated with his detailed observations of 18th-century European manners and customs, particularly those of upper-class Spanish society.

[[File:Jan Potocki - Rękopis znaleziony w Saragossie, 1847.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Title page of ''[[The Manuscript Found in Saragossa]]'', first Polish edition, 1847]]

Many of the locations described in the tales are real places and regions which Potocki would have visited during his travels, while others are fictionalized accounts of actual places.

While there is still some dispute about the novel's authorship, it is now generally accepted to have indeed been written by Potocki. He began writing it in the 1790s and completed it in 1814, a year before his death, though the novel's structure is thought to have been fully mapped out by 1805.

The novel was never published in its entirety during Potocki's lifetime. A proof edition of the first ten "days" was circulated in [[Saint Petersburg]] in 1805, and a second extract was published in Paris in 1813, almost certainly with Potocki's permission. A third publication, combining both earlier extracts, was issued in 1814, but it appears that at the time of his death Potocki had not yet decided on the novel's final form.

Potocki composed the book entirely in the French language. Sections of the original manuscripts were later lost, but have survived in a [[Polish language|Polish]] translation that was made in 1847 by [[Edmund Chojecki]] from a complete French copy, now lost.<ref name="Lachman 2014 39"/>

The most recent and complete French-language version, edited by François Rosset and Dominique Triaire, was published in 2006 in [[Leuven]], Belgium, as part of a critical scholarly edition of the complete works of Potocki. Unlike Radrizzani's 1989 edition of the ''Manuscript Found in Saragossa'', Rosset and Triaire's edition has been based solely on Potocki's French-language manuscripts found in several libraries in France, Poland (in particular, previously unknown autograph pieces that they discovered in [[Poznań]]), Spain, and Russia, as well as in the private collection of Potocki's heirs. They identified two versions of the novel: one unfinished, of 1804, published in 1805, and the full version of 1810, which appears to have been completely reconceived in comparison to the 1804 version. Whereas the first version has a lighter, more sceptical tone, the second one tends towards a darker, more religious mood. In view of the differences between the two versions, the 1804 and 1810 versions have been published as two separate books; paperback editions were issued in early 2008 by [[Groupe Flammarion|Flammarion]].

The first English-language edition, published in 1995, was a translation of Radrizzani's edition by Oxford scholar Ian MacLean. Potocki's novel became more widely known thanks to the stylish black-and-white [[The Saragossa Manuscript (film)|1965 film adaptation]] directed by renowned filmmaker [[Wojciech Has]] and starring [[Zbigniew Cybulski]] as Alphonse van Worden.<ref>Kalinowska, Izabela. “[https://usmai-umcp.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/openurl?institution=01USMAI_UMCP&vid=01USMAI_UMCP:UMCP&volume=4&date=20130401&aulast=Kalinowska,%20Izabela&pages=47-62&issn=2040350X&issue=1&isbn=&genre=article&spage=47&title=Studies%20in%20Eastern%20European%20Cinema&atitle=From%20Orientalism%20to%20surrealism:%20Wojciech%20Jerzy%20Has%20interprets%20Jan%20Potocki.&sid=EBSCO:Film%20%26%20Television%20Literature%20Index%20with%20Full%20Text From Orientalism to Surrealism: Wojciech Jerzy Has Interprets Jan Potocki.]” ''Studies in Eastern European cinema.'' 4.1 (2013): 47–62. Print.</ref>

== Travel memoirs ==
* ''Histoire Primitive des Peuples de la Russie avec une Exposition complete de Toutes les Nations, locales, nationales et traditionelles, necessaires a l'intelligence du quatrieme livre d'Herodote'' (St. Petersbourg: Imprime a l'Academie Imperiale des Sciences, 1802)
* ''Histoire anciènne des provinces de l'Empire de Russie'' (St. Petersburg, 1804)<ref>{{Cite web |title='Histoire ancienne des provinces de l'empire de Russie : pour servir de suite à l'histoire primitive des peuples de la Russie. 3. Histoire ancienne du gouvernement de Wolhynie. - 1805. - 15 S.' - Details {{!}} MDZ |url=https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/details/bsb10691510 |access-date=2024-11-26 |website=www.digitale-sammlungen.de}}</ref>
* ''Voyage dans les steppes d'Astrakhan et du Caucase'' (Paris, 1829).
* ''Voyage en Turquie et en Egypte'' (1788; Polish translation by [[Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz]], ''Podróz do Turek i Egiptu'', 1789).
* ''Voyage dans l'Empire de Maroc'' (1792)
* ''Voyage Dans Quelques Parties De La Basse-Saxe'' (1795)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Potocki |first=Jan (1761-1815) |date=1795 |title=Voyage Dans Quelques Parties De La Basse-Saxe Pour La Recherche Des Antiquités Slaves Ou Vendes : Fait En 1794 |url=https://www.jbc.bj.uj.edu.pl/dlibra/publication/398490/edition/479149 |journal=Biblioteka Jagiellońska, BJ St. Dr. 920040 II}}</ref>
* ''Voyage en Hollande, fait pendant la révolution de 1787''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Potocki |first=Jan |title=Voyage en Hollande, fait pendant la révolution de 1787 |url=https://viaf.org/viaf/1495165326573016290008/}}</ref>

Modern editions have appeared as follows:
* ''Voyages en Turquie et en Egypte, en Hollande, au Maroc'' (Paris: Fayard, 1980; new edition, [[Éditions Phébus]], 1991)
* ''Voyage au Caucase et en Chine'' (Paris: [[Fayard]], 1980)

==Honours and awards==
* [[Order of the White Eagle (Poland)|Order of the White Eagle]]
* [[Order of Saint Stanislaus]], 1st Class
* [[Order of St. Vladimir]], 1st Class

== See also ==
* [[Translation#Back-translation|Back-translation of ''The Saragossa Manuscript'']]
* [[List of Egyptologists]]
* [[List of Poles#Literature|List of Poles]]
* [[Polish literature]]

==Notes and references==
{{Reflist|2}}
*Ian MacLean, introduction to ''The Manuscript Found in Saragossa'', London, Penguin Books, 1995

== External links ==
{{commons category|Jan Potocki}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Jan Potocki}}
* {{Librivox author |id=6010}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120529031705/http://www.polona.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=oai%3Awww.polona.pl%3A12127 Jan Potocki  Histoire anciènne du gouvernement de Volhynie : pour servir de suite à l'histoire primitive des peuples de la Russie, Sankt Petersbourg 1805]
* [http://saragossam.blogspot.com/p/sources.html#Potocki_Sources "English-language Sources of Biographical Information about Jan Potocki,"] ''Looking for the Manuscript Found in Saragossa'', accessed April 17, 2015
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090731041838/http://geocities.com/Colosseum/Hoop/4390/history1.htm |date=July 31, 2009 |title=History of Ballooning 1 }} – includes image of Polish stamp commemorating Potocki's flight

{{Authority control}}

{{Romanticism}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Potocki, Jan}}
[[Category:1761 births]]
[[Category:1815 deaths]]
[[Category:Members of the Great Sejm]]
[[Category:People from Vinnytsia Oblast]]
[[Category:Polish ethnologists]]
[[Category:Polish Egyptologists]]
[[Category:French-language Polish writers]]
[[Category:19th-century Polish novelists]]
[[Category:Dark fantasy writers]]
[[Category:Polish male novelists]]
[[Category:Counts of Poland]]
[[Category:Suicides by firearm in Ukraine]]
[[Category:Knights of Malta]]
[[Category:Potocki family|Jan Potocki]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of St. Vladimir, 1st class]]
[[Category:Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:1810s suicides]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)]]