Published: 2022-12-30

A child’s diet in a gentry family in the second half of the eighteenth century on the example of Staś Treter

Małgorzata Kowalczyk , Dorota Żoądź-Strzelczyk
Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej
Section: Studies and Materials
DOI https://doi.org/10.23858/KHKM70.2022.4.002

Abstract

The article discusses issues connected with feeding a child in an impoverished Polish gentry family in the second half of the eighteenth century, on the example of Stanisław
Mikołaj Treter, the son of Stanisław Kajetan, the royal chamberlain, and Agnieszka née Izbicka. The source base consists of the letters exchanged by the boy’s parents, in
which they conferred on issues related to feeding an infant, notes of the boy’s father pertaining to the upbringing and education of little Staś, and above all a diary written
personally by the nine-year-old. The boy’s notes are an exceptional source with regard to both the author’s age and their contents, because their topic are the dishes Staś ate each day from 14 until 31 January 1786. No other source of this kind is known to exist. Staś Treter’s notes shed light on the diet of a child born in an impoverished gentry family at the end of the eighteenth century.

Keywords:

child, nobility, food, diary, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, second half of 18th c., letters

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Kowalczyk, M., & Żołądź-Strzelczyk, D. (2022). A child’s diet in a gentry family in the second half of the eighteenth century on the example of Staś Treter. Kwartalnik Historii Kultury Materialnej, 70(4), 419–433. https://doi.org/10.23858/KHKM70.2022.4.002

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