History of Russia in the Polish Literature during the Times of King Stanisław August. Part II: „Recherches sur les titres... ” by Feliks Łoyko

The article contains analysis of Feliks Łoyko’s thesis (1717-1779) „Recherches sur les titres portés en différents tems par les souverains de Russie et de Moscovie” (manuscript preserved at the Czartoryski Library in Kraków, No. 1118). Łoyko’s text was mainly an attempt to complete and elaborate Martin Schmeizel’s concept (1679-1747), and also of Karol Wyrwicz (1717-1793), although preliminary research did not enable him to significantly deepen nor formulate anew all the discussed topics. The unfinished writings of Łoyko are probably a working version of the text conceived as a polemic brochure, prepared in stages (from app. 1768 to app. 1772), a brochure which was tightly connected with the situation of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic at that time. Łoyko’s source-based deliberations are an element of a whole sequence of publishing initiatives that began already in the 40s of the 18th century and which referred to a scientific programme announced by Józef Andrzej Załuski in the brochure Programma Literarium... (Warsaw 1732)