Names of culinary specialities from the Saxon times in the letters-newspapers of Jakub Kazimierz Rubinkowski (1716–1726) and Jadwiga Rafałowiczówna (1710– 1720)

Abstract

This article focuses on a fragment of eighteenth-century thematic discourse involving culinary subjects. Letters-newspapers of the Saxon times recorded elements of the culture of the magnate’s table in the lexical layer and complemented cognitively the information about the culinary revolution at the turn of the 18th century drawn so far from narrative sources, literary works of the epoch, and archival materials. The research material includes manuscript collections of newspapers written by Jakub Kazimierz Rubinkowski from 1716–1726 and Jadwiga Rafałowiczówna from 1710–1720, commissioned by Elżbieta Sieniawska and delivered to the addressee’s country residence in the form of cyclical correspondence. The analyses are aimed at identifying a group of culinary names remembered and recorded in the newspaper accounts of the mentioned authors, corresponding to the scope of the lexeme specjał. The noted thematic lexis will make it possible to specify the semantics of the hyperonym specjał, thus bringing the tastes of magnate cuisine of Saxon times closer together with the accompanying practices of table culture. The highlighted lexis also provides an opportunity to signal the naming strategies of luxury products of the time.