Jan Potocki: Werewolf of the Enlightenment

[Music] belief in the supernatural is a constant in human history it's present in myth and folklore and legend all around the world and it isn't just an ancient phenomenon according to a 2019 yougov poll 45 of americans believe in ghosts 45 believe in demons and 46 believe in other supernatural beings 13 percent even responded that they believe in vampires so it should come as no surprise that the supernatural figures prominently in human literature including arabian nights a collection of stories and folk tales dating back as far as the 8th century from india the middle east and egypt and when arabian nights first appeared in translations in europe it inspired others including one truly remarkable polish nobleman who wrote one of the strangest but most acclaimed novels in human history although it's little known here in the united states and the author was almost as strange as the novel jan patoski was a polyglot she was a soldier an adventurer and the very embodiment of the contradictions of the european enlightenment who towards the end of his life might have believed that he was being transformed into a werewolf it is history that deserves to be remembered jan patoski was born on march 8 1761 in padulia then a region of the polish-lithuanian commonwealth and today a part of ukraine he was the son of joseph patoski and princess anna theresa both from wealthy polish families the patoski family held vast estates across the commonwealth in modern poland lithuania ukraine croatia and belarus his great uncle was known as the king of ruthenia because he owned over 2 million hectares of land at a young age yon was sent west to be educated in switzerland but eventually learned to speak eight languages a contemporary quip that potoski could have worked as an interpreter to the bricklayers of the tower of babel ironically one of the languages he was least fluent in was polish but even his own mother was either unwilling or unable to speak polish he served two stints in the army training at the vienna academy of military engineering and becoming a captain of engineers in the polish army he traveled broadly in his youth visiting italy sicily tunis malta paris vienna hungary and serbia before he was 23. he also went to malta becoming a novice in the order of the knights of malta in 1779 and becoming involved with fighting against barbary pirates in 1784 he journeyed east spending six weeks in constantinople before traveling to egypt he wrote letters to his mother about the trip and eventually published him along with several parables as a journey in turkey and egypt made in the year 1784 making him among the first travel writers of the modern era he published it in 1788 with his own printing house which he dubbed the free press he called it free for two reasons it was established without royal privilege and patosky wanted to be able to use the press to express views that might displease his acquaintances in government the press provided some anonymity as he began publishing newspapers and pamphlets that extolled political opinions and reform in turkey he also met osman who became his valet and accompanied the camp for the rest of his life his visit east also inspired him to adopt eastern dress he was often seen wearing a fez in 1785 he married princess julia lubomirska whose mother was a cousin of the polish king she accompanied him on many of his journeys she also had two children with him but the marriage was the focus of much gossip and scandalous rumors between 1785 and 1787 he lived in paris which although a center for the enlightenment was also a revolutionary hotbed filled with scheming secret societies in pre-revolution france what isn't entirely clear what all the young count got into during these years it is likely that here was where he began a lifelong interest both in the power and breadth of secret societies as well as his enduring interest in magic and the supernatural he became popular in the revolutionary jacobian circles and earned the nickname citizen count it might seem odd that the enlightenment with its focus on rationality science and observed reality was also a time of the supernatural and the occult but occultists associated themselves closely with enlightenment thinkers and science many of the skeptical enlightenment thinkers in france scoffed at such superstition to some extent occultism bloomed as a resistance to hyper-rationalism wholesome practitioners viewed it as a kind of super enlightenment where human understanding grew beyond rational understanding while luminaries like voltaire emphasized skepticism and scientific inquiry they shared the same period with alchemists spiritualists and animal magnetists like the hermetic philosopher louis claude saint martin patoski himself is likely to have been a freemason and was interested in the bavarian illuminati potoski was known to have an association with the magician alessandro cagliostro charlatan who claimed to be capable of raising ghosts from the dead who founded an egyptian right freemasonry lodge in warsaw in 1790 he caused a sensation in his native poland when he joined forces with john pierre blanchard blanchard was a french inventor and balloonist who had his first successful flight in a hot air balloon in paris on march 2nd 1784 only a few months after the first manned balloon flight occurred in paris the previous november in 1785 blanchard had completed the first balloon flight across the english channel patoski his valley osmond and the count's dog became the first poles to fly in a balloon on may 14 1790 from warsaw part of the infectious balloon mania sweeping europe at the time the flight brought the count considerable acclaim and popularity in poland the account had financed the creation of the balloon which was stitched over a period of several months by 18 journeyman tailors from rainbow colored chinese silk patoski continued to travel to the netherlands in 1787 and to spain and morocco in 1791 his travels in spain would become central to his writing providing the setting for much of his magnum opus the complex stories within stories manuscript found in zaragoza which he began writing in 1797. in his travels he focuses writing an interest on ethnology and history examining the many cultures he visited he studied linguistics and history as well in some of his writings including a detailed history and ethnology of ancient and pre-slavs in his essay on universal history and research on sarmatia the chronicles memoirs and research to serve the history of all slavic peoples and historical and geographical fragments on cynthia cermesha and the slavs his work was pioneering and he made him an early founder of the study of ethnicity in spain and morocco patoski headed a treasure hunt seeking an original or at least an early copy of the famed arabian knights which ended in failure but underlined his intense interest in the multifaceted work between 1788 and 1792 potoski also participated in the great sem parliament that formed to reform and restore sovereignty to the winning police lithuanian commonwealth he was given the order of the white eagle poland's highest order awarded to civilians and soldiers in 1788 in his usual eccentric way patoski took to wearing old polish fashions to display his patriotism his appearance at court in hybrid cossack and circassian garb complete with saber and a shaven head caused a sensation and at one point during the sim declared that he would be willing to give ten thousand zlotys annually to the polish-lithuanian government patoski left before the end of the siem which culminated in the adoption of the constitution of may 3rd 1791. unfortunately the constitution was short-lived as russian backed a confederation of nobles which opposed the constitution the conflict led to the polish russian war of 1792 and the partition of poland among russia prussia and austria patoski himself served with the army attempting to organize a core of fusiliers instability in poland for much of the next decade is part of what kaspatowski to travel and live a life abroad his wife julia died likely from tuberculosis in 1794. in the late 1790s potoski traveled to the caucasus where he learned the secret language of the circassian nobles poland had been partitioned for the first time in 1772 and was again in 1793. an uprising in 1794 was put down by russia and prussia and the final partition ended the polish lithuanian kingdom although potoski had been supportive of polish independence after the partitioning he would begin working with the russian occupiers in 1803 he was a member of the warsaw society of friends of learning scientific society and he was designated the chair of a research team sent to china as part of a diplomatic mission under alexander the first in 1805. the mission itself was a decided failure reached mongolia but troubles with chinese protocol and a refusal to properly understand chinese culture led the mission to return to europe in 1806. patoski wrote to the failure that he regretted that the russian emissary had been so self-righteous and incompetent upon his return potuski became a personal advisor to the tsar in 1805 he published the first part of his novel the manuscript found in sargosa like the arabian nights his novel was divided into various days the 1805 version included the first 13 days a second edition was published in 1813 under the title avadoro with further days the two together were published in 1814 with a total of 66 days around 1812 potoski left the service of the tsar for his estates in padolia where he closeted himself away at the castle the turn of the century was bad for many of the counts causes the secret societies he'd met in france before the revolution had failed to advance any of their greater aims and the french revolution evolved into the french empire and the napoleonic wars the possibility of a free poland also seemed to slip away his second marriage to a polish countess was falling apart as well more scandalous rumors swirled including at least one that involved incest in the final years of his life he also seemed to succumb to melancholia possibly depression if he were diagnosed today his book was not exactly finished although it was left in a final form in the winter of 1815. sometime that winter the exact date is unclear and maybe the 20th of november the 2nd of december or the 11th of december or maybe as late as the 23rd of december count ian potoski shot himself at the time he was meeting often with a friend an admirer a future catholic priest who had invited over the party that entered the counts chambers that day found a great silence it was a terrible threshold to step over the priest said jan patoski was lying in the bed in a bath row turned as if facing the wall the position of his body was calm as if he were deeply asleep his hands were casually open in front of him and next to them an ominous gun someone slipped on the gore this story from shortly after his death does not mention what would later become possibly the most famous part of potoski's death the legend is that he had spent months polishing the silver end of a sugar bowl into a bullet or solely filing the end off and that he had then had it blessed by a priest all because he became convinced that he was becoming a werewolf patoski left no no to explain why he killed himself although he left a piece of paper that may have had an epithet of some kind or a sketch on it whether he shot himself out of sorrow for himself the state of the world because of some kind of neurological condition or because he truly feared he was a werewolf is not clear his death macabre as it was left his complex nesting doll of a novel originally written in french a polish version did not appear until 1847 after many stories would have been plagiarized and published by other authors the original french version has since disappeared the modern french version was back translated from other versions modern scholarship has found that the story had at least two distinct versions an 1804 version and an 1813 version which had been published separately the book begins at the siege of zargoza in 1809 when the french brutally captured the spanish city the main character alphonse von borden discovers a manuscript in a house in the city 100 or so stories ensue connected by storytellers characters who appear in real life after their tales in a long series of framed stories that are told within other stories eventually outlining an underground muslim society and conspiracy characters include a colorful cast of romani including a gypsy chief around whom many of the stories revolve as well as thieves inquisitors a cabalist and a geometer and two moorish princesses has been described as gothic as well as historical with both moral and philosophical themes and often reflecting potoski's interest in the occult eastern culture and secret societies often considered a masterpiece it is compared favorably to boccacio's de cameron and the arabian nights potoski is well known in poland but still relatively obscure elsewhere and an english translation of the manuscript didn't appear until 1995. in 1965 a movie was made in poland called sargosa manuscript and has long been admired by filmmakers like martin scorsese and francis ford coppola author neil guyman has referenced both the movie and the book patoski himself represents a series of contradictions a figure of the enlightenment and a research into social scientists but an admirer of the occult a revolutionary who relied upon the wealth of generations of aristocracy an eccentric whose almost gothic life intertwined with his meticulously crafted novel but his life actually illustrates a very interesting time in europe when the rationality of the enlightenment was facing a resurgence of mysticism and the influence of outside cultures like with arabian nights the cat was among the most well-traveled of the european aristocracy and he brought the ideals of the enlightenment to his studies he was a member of the old elitism of the police aristocracy and the new elitism of aristocratic science he was the citizen count who was almost certainly also a member of elite secret societies he was a remarkable symbol of the contradictions of the period but he was also just a man haunted by his own eccentricities i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guide short snippets of forgotten history and if you did enjoy feed the algorithm by making a comment or clicking that like button if you have suggestions for future episodes please send those to our suggestions email box check out our webpage at thehistoryguy.net and of course we're on facebook instagram and twitter you can book a special message from the history guy on cameo and check out our merchandise teespring.com and if you'd like more episodes of forgotten history all you need to do is subscribe [Music] you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 56,318

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, poland, enlightenment, occult, Jan Potocki

Id: HLyqJF_WhMg

Length: 14min 19sec (859 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 27 2021