Rocznik Komparatystyczny

The subject of this article is the work of Paul Frideborn Descriptio urbis Stetinensis [The description of the city of Szczecin], a new edition and Polish translation of which has been published in 2016. This prose description of the city was first published in Szczecin in 1624. During this period Szczecin was the capital of the Duchy of Pomerania, a Hanseatic city, organized as a civic republic and ruled by a community of wealthy patricians. Friedeborn, a councilor and secretary of the city who dedicated his work to Szczecin’s city council, was himself a part of this environment. The work was written in Latin and is a laudation constructed according to patterns popular in Friedeborn’s times, which were derived from Quintillian’s advice: to praise the city as if a man, that is, by the description of his origin (in this case – information about the founding of the city), attributes of “body and spirit” (i.e. the issues concerning the organization and municipal institutions) and deeds (regarded as residents’ achievements). An interesting persuasive part of the work is a catalogue of fish inhabiting the rivers and reservoirs surrounding the city. The catalogue, present also in other works describing Pomerania in the time, indicates the main source of the region’s natural wealth and serves as a showcase for the region. This element proved to be especially challenging to translate, due to differences in historical and contemporary fish names. Other translation problems have been pinpointed in the article, such as abbreviations, the translation of the chronogram, proper nouns, etc.